[Archived] Course 4. Foundational Leadership Principles: (Discussion #1) Understanding your Leadership Style
Please note: In order to successfully complete Course 4, you must respond to this post. Your comment/response should answer the questions/shows that you completed the given activity (if any). Read the post carefully and follow the instructions given. Save your responses to a document that you can later refer to. You will need to copy/paste your response in the course evaluation form at the end of each course to show that you have done the work and to refresh your memory.
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Hello everyone,
If you are reading this, it means you have come a long way in your leadership training. Kudos to you for all the effort and resilience you have shown! It is amazing how you all are open to learning and adapting to new environments: the environment of leadership!
Before we zoom in and talk more about learning and adapting, lets zoom back out first and talk about how you feel about leadership. Regardless of how you see yourself, there is a leader within you. The one who visualizes how things could have run in a better way if you were in the leading spot. Leading spot here means:
A desire for change;
Believing you got the abilities to make it happen;
Visualizing success while keeping in mind the bigger picture.
To lead others effectively, you need a good blend of 4 broad competencies area
If you have a surplus amount of knowledge on how to lead but not a good emotional quotient (EQ), you will find it hard to tackle leadership challenges. Having a good EQ is as important as having the right skills, and if you have skills but not the right attitude and values, you won't be able to achieve your full potential as a leader. Your attitude and values impact how others view you as a leader. We need an alignment in all 4 areas.
You have your very own leadership style based on your competency level. So, the next step is to label your original leadership style. Because you can switch to any leadership style with deliberate effort, thought, and adaptation.
Daniel Goleman categorizes leadership approaches in 6 broad styles. Authoritative, Coaching, Affiliative, and Democratic help one to promote harmony and positive outcomes while Coercive and Pacesetting styles of leadership need to be used in specific situations as they could cause tension.
Your original style could be one of them. So for the purpose of this course, we are going to use a leadership style test to help you identify your core competencies. In brief, we are using the test here to help you identify your leadership approach. So, when you know how you approach an event, you could think and put efforts to bring a change in it. It will allow you to polish your strengths and focus to improve in other different areas as well.
Lets get started!
- Please take the leadership style test here: https://www.energir.com/blogue/en/at-work/quiz-what-kind-of-leader-are-you/
Next step, below in the comments of this discussion, share
1. What is your leadership style?
2. What is one thing you learned about yourself?
3. What is one thing you would like to improve upon?
4. Please reply to 3 of your peers in this thread!
After fulfilling the requirements of this post, please check out the next post here! You must take part in the brainstorming/activities given in all of these posts to successfully complete the program.
This post is brought to you by the Leadership Development Program Team, find out more information about the program here.
@Heather225
1. What is your leadership style?
Communicating Vision 76
2. What is one thing you learned about yourself?
i think i'm too motherly type and it may not always be helpful
3. What is one thing you would like to improve upon?
I want to be more determined and ambitious
4. Please reply to 3 of your peers in this thread!
@Mankka Basically same results! We need to work harder on the leadership style!
1. What is your leadership style?
I scored 67 for communicating vision.
2. What is one thing you learned about yourself?
One thing I learned about myself is that I am likely able to envision a clear direction for my company and communicate my plans in a way that excites others.
3. What is one thing you would like to improve upon?
The thing that I would like to improve on is to have a clearer idea of what should be done and make sure that everything is working efficiently and smoothly. I think I have way too much patience for my members sometimes, and that just drags the whole process sometimes, which has a negative impact on my leadership style.
@Irena0225
Awesome stuff, thanks for sharing your reflections!
@Irena0225 That sounds very nice that you are compassionate and care about your team members' well-being ("too much patience"). 
I'll bet because of that, once you do have efficiency/smoothness working the way you want, you'll be able to apply it in a humane way.
@QuietMagic Thank you!
@Heather225
Questions
What is your leadership style?
Communicating Vision 64
What is one thing you learned about yourself?
The fact that, according to my answers to this really interesting test, I am likely able to envision a clear direction for my company and communicate your plans in a way that excites others, was really great to hear, and perhaps even sightly surprising.
What is one thing you would like to improve upon?
Communicating my intents on a more frequent basis, so as to not hold them to myself thinking they're bad or unwanted. Improving on consistent positive communication and feedback.
@WatchingOverYou
Communicating is very importent and we know this and often forget to put into practise. Its a nice thought to comminucate more and understand the interns
Communicating is definitely very important and a great thing to try and improve upon
Leadership type: communicating vision 54
I am the type of person to have a lot of patience and offer to guide someone through a new obstacle, because I realize that is how I would like to be helped if I was in their position
One thing I want to improve on is that being more confident in being able to get my point straight across
@lovelyNight9853 I love what you've said about wanting to have patience because you'd wish for if the roles were switched.
If I had to guess, @lovelyNight9853 that sounds like Participative style
@lovelyNight9853
Yes! Confidence is key, and I know I need to work on that too!
@lovelyNight9853
Yea putting yourself in others shoes is one good way to understand the other persone !!!
That’s great, I love what you wrote
@Heather225
1. What is your leadership style?
I'm not 100% sure what my leadership style is because it looks like this test won't tell me unless if I pay money. 
From the free results, I know my scores on two of the (unknown number of) dimensions that this test evaluates: 84 on "Communicating Vision", 27 on "Micromanaging".
It would be interesting to know whether the paid results just provide scores on additional independent dimensions or if there's some kind of synthesis of the different scales to provide an overall/composite "style" type/description.
Just for fun, I tried filling out the test with "wrong" answers to everything and confirmed that it always/only displays information for the same two dimensions:
2. What is one thing you learned about yourself?
Something I was noticing while I was answering the questions is that I found myself alternating between my real-life work and 7 Cups roles as my experiential reference point of what I'm like. And it was interesting how I felt like some of my answers differed significantly depending on which environment I was thinking of.
I think in my IRL job, I am a bit more directive and micromanage a bit more, and I'd attribute that to differences between the nature of what I do in my IRL job vs. 7 Cups.
My work has the following attributes:
- Hierarchical culture: My IRL work culture is pretty conventional/corporate and every project I've ever participated in has had a very top-down leadership hierarchy. So, applying that style is what feels like the gold standard/expectation in that environment.
- High barriers to entry: My IRL work is also such that someone new can't really make a lot of independent decisions. There is a lot of institutional knowledge that it takes about a year of experience to familiarize with. However, the project has also had pretty significant turnover, so most of the time our staff are pretty new/inexperienced and in need of a greater amount of hand-holding.
- Objectivity: My IRL work also tends to be pretty objective and black-and-white in nature. For most questions that arise, there is typically one correct answer that can be deduced logically from an initial set of axioms.
In contrast, 7 Cups feels like it has the following attributes:
- More egalitarian culture: Everyone is sort of on an equal footing and it's generally frowned upon for people to pretend to be experts, impose advice, etc.
- Low barriers to entry: It's relatively easy (possibly too easy) for new 7 Cups users to get up and running and start making contributions. One premise of the site is that active listening is something that almost anyone can learn how to do.
- Subjectivity: Although there are some general guidelines for listening, it's something pretty nebulous where is a lot of variation in individual styles and most problems have multiple answers that can each be seen as valid depending on one's perspective.
3. What is one thing you would like to improve upon?
I think in my real-life job, something I could do more is ask for feedback/ideas from my subordinates.
4. Please reply to 3 of your peers in this thread!
Will do
@QuietMagic
I agree. I need to implement a few things in my day job as well. Thanks for your insight!!
@QuietMagic
thank you for such a thorough response!!
@QuietMagic
I also found it a bit frustrating that the results weren’t more detailed unless we paid money. I don’t know that it taught me much about my leadership style, personally. I think it’s definitely interesting how you realized your 7cups and personal life job differ in the style that you do leadership! I think asking for feedback in your leadership role at work will help you improve as a leader in whatever position to hold. I wonder if you incorporated more of the communication and feedback to employees how productivity at work might be? Maybe inspire and help the new people learn and grow. I personally am not a fan of corporate environments because many of them can overwork and rundown employees (though I agree any company can do this). I think sometimes, in my experience, corporations can get caught up in productivity and forget that their employees are human too and do have needs as well. Not saying that you do this because I have no idea what your leadership style is. But there is a misconception about what people need in a workspace.
A couple of years ago I was in a therapy group and someone was talking about feeling unappreciated at work and they felt like quitting. The therapist continued to say that people shouldn’t have to feel appreciated to go in and do their job. They should be motivated to do their job just because it’s the right thing to do and they get paid. His answer offended me and I disagreed so much that I never went back to his group. New research on productivity show that employees who feel appreciated are more likely to perform better and stay at a job longer because they don’t dread going to work and they know that what they’re doing is appreciated. It’s basic human psychology/human behavioral principles that describe this. So I wonder if corporations in general incorporated more appreciation, more rewards, and more positive communication what things would look like.
Sorry I went on a tangent. It’s just something I think about often when trying to find a work environment.
@InvaderStitch
Hey--thanks for sharing. 
I'm sorry about the therapy group experience... I'm chuckling imagining a (caricatured) version of it.
Person: I guess I'm feeling dissatisfied at my job. I'm getting paid and doing what I need to do out of a sense of responsibility, but I just sometimes feel like I'm not really a human being. I'm trying really hard and I'd just feel a lot better if someone were to appreciate the effort I'm putting in and acknowledge that I'm a person with feelings. It feels kind of soulless sometimes, like I'm a replaceable cog in a giant machine.
Therapist: Hmm... yeah, I can definitely understand where you're coming from. I guess what I'd say in response is that your feelings don't matter and everything you've just shared is irrelevant, irrational, and counterproductive.
I know one of the things I really like about my job is that I feel like people value what I'm doing.
@QuietMagic
I hear what you mean with "paying money" for more information, I can be frustrating sometimes but hey, we still got a pretty good overview! 
@QuietMagic
Good to read and it can be interesting especially when you are trying to alternate between your responses between your role at 7cups and your job.
@QuietMagic
Well done!
@QuietMagic
Amazing answer given the poor info given by the online test.
@QuietMagic
Completely agree with you. 7 cups and real-life work environment are different. In my real-life jobs, my boss would expect more of me and project his idea over mine. Asking feedback sounds great, thanks for the detailed answer.
@QuietMagic
Wow this is a lot of effort, very detailed!
@QuietMagic Ooh, I'm wondering now if I misunderstood the results. I thought the first result was at least the one we scored highest on, now I'm not so sure - I got 81 and 16 for those two traits.
Thanks for laying it out a bit better.
@QuietMagic
Loved how your response is so structured and clear! All the best :)
@QuietMagi
That is comprehensive! Impressive <3
@QuietMagic
Very detailed and very well structured!
@Heather225
I wasn't aware that there were leadership styles. Thanks. This was informative :)
1. My leadership style is Visionary. It tries to align tasks and teams.
2. I realized that I don't lose focus on the big picture while dealing with smaller issues.
3.I can improve on team building may be and delegation. As currently, micromanagement is a thing I can improve on.
@DonaldDraper
I like how you can still focus on the bigger picture while dealing with smaller issues. There are some people who can't. So good for you!
@DonaldDraper
Being able to explore the details and not missing the bigger picutre is a great skill to have!
@DonaldDraper
Nice replies! Good work!
@DonaldDraper
I got the same graph, I think this is not our Leadership Style, you have to pay to get that.
@DonaldDraper
great score, I'm sure you'd be an amazing leader
@DonaldDraper
I'm currently learning delegation and it feels both rewarding for oneself as well as useful for the one it is delegated to. All the best :)
@DonaldDraper
Wow! We got the same results! Best of luck! 😄
@DonaldDraper
Great reply !
@Heather225
1. What is your leadership style?
Communicating Vision 63
2. What is one thing you learned about yourself?
I learned that I am big on giving others’ praise. I feel like it is important to let people know they're doing a good job because it may keep them motivated to continue to excel.
3. What is one thing you would like to improve upon?
One thing I would like to improve on is being more of a leader at my day job. Being more assertive will help as well. I'm a very quiet person, so learning to speak up more would help me become a better leader.
@shiningDay80
I think it's good that you like to give others praise, it helps keep people motivated.
I also think that working on speaking up is a good goal to have. Working on my confidence in work is something that I am also working because my lack of confidence leads me to staying quiet as well.
@shiningDay80
It's important to have people like you around, being able to reassure others with praise! We are human and humans need acknowledgement.
@shiningDay80
Very well done!
@shiningDay80
It's hard to insert your idea/opinion in a dynamic group especially if you're introvert. Glad that you are improving on your weakness.
@shiningDay80
There seems to be a trend of communicating a vision. I wonder if this is a trend for most people from 7cups;
@shiningDay80
Yeah being assertive can be very helpful as a leadership skill, although, being too assertive tends to make you forget to listen to others.
@shiningDay80
I can relate somewhat with speaking less. I tend to lose words when things are weird and unexpected! Diplomacy runs out of me and I'm left blank, lol. We both gotta learn this. All the best :)
@shiningDay80
Great response! I totally agree with you that appreciation is extremely important and like you, I need to learn to be more assertive and firm too.
@shiningDay80 This is great! You seem to know what to do and I'm sure you'll succeed!
@shiningDay80
That is an awesome skill to have - to be able to motivate and encourage people is a gift! Thanks for sharing this 
@shiningDay80 vision is an important quality of a leader. You seem to sense where your strengths are and how you can grow into new proficiency.
@shiningDay80
Great points on things you want to improve! All the best ❤️
@shiningDay80
Great replies! Very well done!
@shiningDay80
A great quality you have. Cheers!
@Heather225
What is your leadership style?
: Communicating vision 91
What is one thing you learned about yourself?
That I enjoy working together with my team to achieve our goal and appreciate that it sometimes takes a village to get things done!
What is one thing you would like to improve upon?
Giving people more space to figure things out for themselves, Specifically, not to feel that efficienty is more important that my team learning autonomy by figuring out solutions independently.
@KindnessMatters2020
I think you have great insight into your strengths and areas to grow as a leader. Great work!
1. Communicating Vision: 63.
2. I learned that I'm "likely able to envision a clear direction" - this makes a lot of sense now that I think about it. I love thinking of long term goals and preparing my mentees.
3. Definitely how to react in certain situations. I find that I blame myself a lot when things go wrong or not the way I expected; sometimes I'm right to feel bad, other times I can acknowledge that it may be incorrect to feel that way.
@RebekahRebel
Yeah, I find I blame myself too much sometimes, even when it is no one's fault. Don't be so hard on yourself, we are all human and we all make mistakes, but sometimes the mistake was circumstantial and out of your control. It's hard to realize that sometimes when you feel you could've done something about it and I totally relate to you!
@RebekahRoyal
Great response! It is awesome that you have the ability to keep the direction of the organisation in mind. And yes, sometimes we do need to see that we are not reasons for failure and we can always learn.
@RebekahRoyal This sounds great! You seem ready to become a leader and know where to improve, I'm sure you'll do great!
@RebekahRoyal The way you described blaming yourself when things go awry reminds me of myself. Great post!
1. What is your leadership style?
My communication vision was at a whopping 51! I wish I could look into it some more, but I need to pay for it :(
2. What is one thing you learned about yourself?
How low my communication is and how it can impact the people around me.
3. What is one thing you would like to improve upon?
I think my communication because it is really low!
@softMusic9759 I don't think even the full report of the questionair can capture how one actually leads - so you can use this to help reflect but you might be doing a better job than this suggests.
Is there a style you think you tend to have?
