MC61 Emotional Leadership Theory

Going deeper into their exploration of different leadership styles, and inspired by this article on the MindTools blog, Pilar and Tim look at the Emotional Leadership Theory pioneered by Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee. It ends up being another therapy session in the café as Pilar and Tim talk about their own preferences, strengths and weaknesses.

02:30 mins We step through the six styles of Emotional Leadership: Visionary (come with me), Coaching (try this), Affiliative (people come first), Democratic (what do you think?), Pacesetting (do as I do, now!), and Commanding (do what I tell you).

4:10 Tim likes that Emotional Leadership theory gives us permission to change styles to match the circumstances.

5:10 This theory is really about our connection to our team and the emotional impact of our behaviour on our team members.

6:40 Pilar thinks when people point to a "leadership crisis" it is code for wanting more visionary leadership. But as she points out, visionary is just one style among six. It doesn't work in all situations.

8:10 Applying the wrong leadership style can create an emotional or cultural debt which is hard to undo. So it's important that leaders think about the style they are using and it's impact on the team.

9:15 Tim feels drawn to the Coaching and Affiliative styles. He'd like to be better at the Democratic. Pilar feels the Democratic style of leadership is essential to integrating the team goals and output with the need to support individuals within the team.

13:25 The Coaching style has long timelines which can be great for helping people who are trying to change.

16:40 Tim diverts to a long rant about the visionary leadership style with particular focus on Adam Neumann at WeWork. Visionary leaders and their followers can get swept away with big plans and future goals and lose touch with the messy reality of right now. Pilar reminds us of a similar situation at Basecamp where visionary leadership lead to a big cultural mismatch within the company. The founders chose a hard reset via the Commanding style to regain control and lost a third of their staff in the process.

20:40 Pilar is comfortable in the Pacesetting leadership style. In particular she relates to the danger of jumping in to fix things instead of having the conversation with the person. She remembers switching from Democratic to Command when the more collaborative style hasn't worked. And she is strong at Affiliative leadership - although counterintuitively, she's also found that sometimes friction might improve the quality of the work.

23:50 Tim goes to Commanding leader when he's insecure or scared. And Pacesetting when he's stressed. Pacesetting can lead to burnout but for Tim it can also be symptomatic of it.

26:20 Pilar and Tim reflect on how therapeutic they are finding these discussions of styles and their own patterns.

What about you, dear listener? What emotional leadership styles work best for you? We'd love to hear from you!
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