Leadership is a critical element in an organisation that can either make or break your business. You need to have good leaders who can help your employees reach their full potential to be a winning business.
The best leaders are continuously learning and honing their management skills and also constantly work hard to develop the team members by setting high expectations and driving them towards it.
Similar to mechanical gears, leadership involves two important parts namely ‘the push’ and ‘the pull’. As the name suggests, they represent two different approaches that leaders can use in effectively guiding their teams towards success. Leadership is a delicate dance between challenge and support. Finding the right balance that draws out your people’s best performance can be difficult and complex.
Take charge
When leaders push their team members, it means they are taking charge of the situation. They are pushing goals and tasks forward by controlling the pace and direction. This is demonstrated when leaders actively tell what every individual should focus on.
They also set clear deadlines they expect to be followed. In taking charge, leaders are assuming responsibility for the entirety of the project which includes individual work and output. This doesn’t equate to micromanaging.
It only means they are responsible for proper dissemination of tasks as well as the time management needed for every project. Leaders who use this style are proactive in pushing their team towards their goals. Moreover, they usually are decisive, experts at critical thinkers and good at problem solving since the pressure of quick decision-making falls under their job description.
Step back
Instead of being assertive and leading the team in one direction, pull means you are willingly taking one or two steps backward. It involves clearing the way for your employees to manage their own productivity.
This type of leadership empowers every individual to meet their expected quotas without needing any reminders. Some leaders prefer this method since it fosters collaboration and teamwork between their employees.
Moreover, it builds trust between the entire team while advocating for everyone to take charge of their own work. Although they have taken a step back, it doesn’t mean that a manager with this leadership style has little tasks compared to someone who takes charge.
In this method, leaders focus more on providing guidance and support to their employees so high emotional intelligence is a must. This guidance can be in the form of giving advice or having one-on-one meetings with employees if they deem it necessary.
Striking the balance
Now that you are aware of the different leadership styles, you may be wondering which one is the better one to use. Which among the two methods do great leaders apply?
With so many leadership qualities to enhance, it can be time consuming to put in the effort of finding the right balance for your people. But, doing so can generate better outcomes for the team and the company in general.
You need to understand that every situation is different since there are many factors at play. Consider the goal, time constraint, and possible challenges of a situation to decide which style to use. For example, there is a collaborative project for a client. They gave their approval for your proposal a week late. But your company needs to produce products fast. In this scenario, time is of the essence so pushing forward and taking charge is a good idea to ensure things are running smoothly.
The biggest factor that can affect the leadership method is the people you work with. To fully gauge the best tactic, you need to know your employees. This includes understanding their knowledge, skills, talent, strengths, and weaknesses.
After you know their individual quirks and capabilities, you can decide if they are actually capable of finishing the tasks alone or not. Imagine there is an error in the latest program your team has developed.
Although it seems quite complicated at first glance, your employees show self-confidence that they can fix the issue within an acceptable period. Since you know that they have the skills and expertise to solve it, you can step back and let them work.
There are times where workloads can change difficulty without any warning. You need to continuously assess a situation throughout different parts of the process & your business journey. Use your observational and critical thinking skills to decide if a leadership tactic is still the most effective one to use or if you need to shift gear.
For example, your team encountered a roadblock, and you chose to step back and let them handle the problem, but you have noticed they are still having difficulty. After assessing the situation, you observe they are unknowingly creating more issues with the software. In this scenario, it’s best to shift from pulling to pushing as you take charge of the repairs.
Powerful synergy
By unravelling the dynamics between these push and pull drives, you can discover how to create a powerful synergy that brings out the best in your teams. If we overdo the push-drive, we end up being the overpowering, authoritative micromanaging parent.
If we end up overdoing the pull-drive, we end up being the helicopter and over-nurturing parent. If we have neither of the drives, we are the absent leader who just kind of throws things over the fence and avoids tension.
Which style works better? Pull or Push? Well, there isn’t a definitive one. It’s based on your team and your company. Some teams work really well with one leader and a bunch of heads-down target-hitters who never ask questions about the bigger picture (“push”).
Some teams work really well having a bunch of seemingly-fluffy conversations about purpose, mission, and vision. Most teams are somewhere in the middle of that. After you analyse the data, take time to reflect. Think about all the previously mentioned factors that could have affected their performance.
Afterwards, create a plan based on your conclusions from the assessment. Style can never be static but dynamic with business conditions and people capabilities keep evolving.
