This week I’d like to introduce you to something called the Pairin leading and development styles. This is a workstyle assessment that helps leaders understand how they lead, and creates awareness of how others lead or need to be led.
Let me tell you 2 stories of different leaders within the same organization.
First, let me tell you about Billy. Billy was the CEO of a good size organization. His style of leading and developing others was highly collaborative, and he gave his team a lot of autonomy to make decisions. Billy had been the CEO for a long time and he managed a team of very high performing executives. Because of Billy’s role and the team dynamics, his leadership style helped the team perform. Billy’s leadership style, according to the Pairin workstyle assessment, is democratic.
After taking the Pairin assessment and seeing his style, he was asked why he didn’t spend more time supporting and guiding his team. His response? “This is already a high performing team of individuals who don’t need me to hold their hand or push them further. They give me 110% every day and when they run into issues, they come to me and we figure it out. It’s not that they don’t need my approval or want me to support them, but we’re all aligned and I’m here to help them succeed. They just need to reach out.”
Billy’s style had developed and changed because of the team of high performers he had around him.
Our second story is about Brenda. Brenda led a team of people who were some of the happiest in the company. Every year when management reviews came out, she earned top ratings from her team. Brenda had an affirming style, which spends quite a bit of time encouraging and nurturing her team. Where the deeper problem came in was that Brenda had people on her team who were not performing well, and she struggled with telling them where they were missing the mark. So eventually, when someone else besides Brenda had to deliver difficult feedback to members of Brenda’s team, these people were extremely surprised and wished they had known sooner.
Our discussions are always about how to apply what we’re learning, and in this lesson, maybe more than others, it’s about self awareness and understanding yourself so you can adapt to what your team needs to be successful.
Personally, I was what the Pairin assessment refers to as a “pacesetter” for a long time. I drove hard for results but wasn’t great at the support side. I’ve had to develop myself to offer more support to those who need it, but it doesn’t work with everyone I lead. Just like you, I’ve had to learn and adapt.
We must be able to adapt to our teams and environments to be successful leaders. With one person we might need to be a pacesetter, and with another, more supportive and affirming. Today we might need to be more like Billy and use a more collaborative style, but tomorrow, we need to be more of a clarifying style leader who is casting the vision and building up the whole team to get there.
We all have stories of working with leaders who inspire us to do better as well as stories of leaders who weren’t the best for our work style. Take a moment to think about some of the greatest leaders you’ve had the opportunity to work with, and pinpoint a couple of things they were really good at.
Maybe some were super supportive and weren’t great at giving hard feedback. Maybe others were 100% focused on getting the job done and pleasantries were for outside of work. If you’ve been in the working world for a few years, you’ve probably run into these types of people and as well as everything in-between.
The Pairin leading and developing style chart is a quadrant based visual that we use here at Mission Squared, and it’s purpose is to help you, as a leader, understand your innate leading and developing style. We’re all different, and each organization needs a little bit of everything to make a company run successfully.
Within these 4 styles, there is not a right or wrong way of doing things. It all comes down to self awareness and understanding how YOUR style affects those around you and how you use it to accomplish your goals.
The 4 Styles:
Pacesetting: This one is very self explanatory in the name. Pacesetters are great at moving fast, but can have a tendency to alienate or be disconnected from members of their team who need additional support and feedback.They may say things like “This is the speed at which we’re going to move,” or “We’re doing it my way because it’ll be the fastest.” They’re often highly structured individuals who are very efficient, a benefit of being highly structured.
Democratic: Someone with a democratic style often seeks input from others when looking for the best way to get things done. Democratic leaders fall right in the middle of the quadrant. They are less structured than Pacesetters, and may struggle to be supportive to those who need it. Statements you might hear from Democratic leaders might include “Let’s figure out what to do together,” or “Do what you think is best.” Their style is definitely a more hands off approach to leading, but make no mistake, they still expect delivery. They just believe in giving you the freedom and autonomy to get it done. (Remember Billy?)
Affirming Style: The affirming style focuses first and foremost on encouragement when leading and developing others. Affirming leaders start with helping those they lead to feel confident and building a deep sense of self in others. Affirming leaders tend to be less structured and more supportive. Affirming leaders may say things like “You’re doing great,” without offering any feedback on a missed deadline. Affirming leaders will generally have happy teams because they’ve spent much of their interactions building up their team.
Clarifying style: The clarifying style is in the top right corner of the quadrant. Clarifying leaders are a good mix of high structure and high support. As a general rule, they can have the difficult conversations when necessary and offer support to those who need it. You might hear Clarifying style leaders say things like “That’s Great! What else could we do,” or “I really appreciate the work you’ve put into that and I think there’s still room for you to make it even better.”
While understanding yourself is important, it’s also about understanding what your team needs so you can deliver results while keeping happy teams. Everyone on your team is different and will need different things at different times. It’s up to you, as the leader, to figure out what they need when they need it to get the job done. As managers and leaders, that’s our job.
I’ve worked with many leaders who have found immense value in understanding their own approach, and the approaches of those they work with, and I invite you to do the same. The more aware we are of what’s happening within our teams, the more successful we can be.