The Lone Man at the Top Doesn't Come Out on Top

Over the last few years, more and more managers realize they don't have the necessary skills to deal with problematic situations and abrupt changes, and are unable to face stressful situations with a cool and balanced mind. A recent research study conducted by the Bocconi Institute of Organization and Information Systems highlighted the fact that 56% of interviewed managers think they have too many activities to perform, while 57% feels they don't have sufficient time to deal with all their tasks.

It's not surprising that the creation of a good team capable of overcoming exasperated individualism and integrating different skills and attitudes is one of the problems that are absorbing leaders' energies. Leadership based on the image of the strong man who imposes his ideas and obtains uncritical obedience from his team is no longer a factor for success.

Today, aside from knowledge of the market and of one's business, it has become a fundamental quality for a leader to be able to stimulate the energy, participation and proactivity of his/her collaborators, in a careful balance between himself/herself and the others. This aspect is often given scant attention: leaders don't know how to transmit their collaborators their vision for the future, are unable to express the objectives to be reached in an attractive way, often limiting themselves to defining the individual actions to be performed without providing a larger understanding of the context. From the results of our research, it emerges that 36% of the difference in the ability to innovate and 44% of the ability to face the unexpected by teams is attributable to the team leader.

But what are the secrets of a leader who is able to manage a team effectively? The findings point toward certain essential elements which help the leader act with the right style at the right moment. First of all, self-knowledge. Good team leaders exhibit a high level of self-awareness regarding their own strengths and weaknesses. This aspect is important, because it leads the leader to realize when something is beyond his/her abilities, and understand what are the complementary skills that need to be brought on board to deal with highly complex situations.

Secondly, scouting is essential. The team leader must be able to activate his/her network of relations to understand where the necessary expertise lies to build a good team on short notice, having the right mix of diversity and abilities to deal with complex problems.

Thirdly, modulation. Self-knowledge and scouting are necessary but not sufficient conditions. In fact, the most effective team leaders are those that are able to modulate their style of leadership rapidly and coherently depending on the context, alternating between centralization and empowerment. The ability to modulate one's own behavior is not innate and requires experience, exercise and constancy, above all because the tendency is to replicate the behavior of the "preferred style".

To test your own leadership style, the reader can compile the following online questionnaire:https://www.sdabocconi.it/leadingteams (available in Italian only). You will get real time feedback: a concise report offering an individual evaluation of his/her style of team leadership, and highlighting the contexts where such behavioral qualities are most effective.