1. Business type leader - This is the description given by my former colleagues to this kind of leader. The statement was exactly “he is more of a businessman than a _________ (position). Though I did not totally agree to the label or type of leadership assigned to him. I simply include it here as described. His theme is “walang personalan trabaho lang”. There is no personal touch. You will just give him an output and you are done with him. There is no confrontation and makes painful decision without prior notice.
2. Eloquent Speaker. This leader is highly articulate. Has high command and knack with words and a great writer ( I did admire him for that). But he had difficulty facilitating meetings. Among 5 - 10 agenda (for example), he would be able to respond to 2 or 3 of them. And the worst is that, participants would leave the meeting room confused with a lot of issues and concerns that were unresolved.
3. The “organized” leader . From the time when this leader was installed to the position, I knew that he was really preparing himself. This leader was able to choose and assign particular individuals qualified for the positions at the management level. He started meeting on time yet, he lacked facilitating skill such that interruptions were cut off immediately to meet with the time to end. This offended a lot of his participants.
4. Very "trusting" leader. This leader overly delegated tasks. He was very smart as to spotting right individuals for particular assignment and position. He made them responsible for the tasks yet did not know how to monitor performance of individuals. He made himself visible at the start of a project and became invisible in between nor made himself felt in the process of implementation.
5. “Silent” Leader . This leader maintained a calm disposition. He smiled a lot and knew how to smartly present himself but did not really and readily opened his plans. His subordinates will just have to contain the feelings of surprise and shock for particular decisions of automatically dismissing a person from his /her work or call it constructive dismissal. This leader had his scheme (deceiving).
6. “Mr. Know it all” Leader . This leader claimed he knew everything. He tried to allow proposals and presentations but did not really take them seriously. He will always give you an idea that …”I know better than you”… and argued with everything and found fault with every proposal and ideas. The message was “I know better than you”.
7. “Accidental” / “No Choice” Leader - There is “nobody’s available” and so you take over type. This type is when you are the next in rank or when you are the son of the General Manager who happens to be the owner of the business.
This leader did not have any formal experience in leadership, did whatever was to be done, checked the usual things to do in the department or organization and continued to do the same and was afraid to venture into new activities and projects. His own redemption were the new members coming in the team that had new and upgraded skills. This leader’s success relied heavily on chance or accident (hehehehhe).
8. The Ego Tripper. This leader’s ego is so big. He highly demanded respect but the skills did not match the position he / she assumed. He displayed tantrums from time to time and muttered like a spoiled brat. His position was very important to him but ego dominated the running of the team.
9. “Competitive” Leader. This leader sent the message : “I am the best”…did anything to put other leaders down or others in his / her team. Threatened when other members excel. His / her theme “it is I and I alone who is the best”
10. “Action Oriented" Leader. This leader that I met moved so fast doing one thing after another. This leader was good at implementing but not at documenting his activities that’s why evaluation was hard for this leader.
From the above, I belong to the accidental leader but then I strove so hard to learn from the best ways of the leaders I described above with the illustration below :
I find the descriptions on the above photo my ideal leader after I met the leaders I stated above with specific and highlighted characteristics. Yet after reading Heroic Leadership by a former Jesuit, Chris Lowney, I find Christ’s leadership the best.
From a synopsis reflecting the gist of the book, it says “.. .the Jesuits abandoned an ostentatious style of leadership and focused instead on the four values that are the real substance of leadership: Self-awareness, ingenuity, love and heroism” (more to this in my future blogs).
From the above types / characteristics, where are you at this time in leadership? Would you take Christ’s challenge to learn His style? I suggest you get a copy of the book.
Well, all in all, we are all imperfect people sent on a mission to an imperfect workplaces with imperfect individuals, too. However, our openness will lead us to a perfection so desired by God for us to make a difference wherever we are…
Sail on leaders…we all continue to learn better and best ways of doing things. Our legacy as leaders depends on how much we have put in from ourselves in terms of knowledge, skills both technical and non technical and our passion with what we are doing…
God bless everyone:-)
...sometimes...i realize after i post that ...lines are crooked that's why saka pa lang edit hehehe sori pips...God bless
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