Cultivating a balanced approach to leadership across your firm

Increasingly, employees at all levels of a firm are being encouraged to demonstrate personal leadership, which relates to personal accountability and being prepared to offer solutions, not just to present problems.

In some firms, however, the leaders are perceived to be practice group heads or the managing partners only. This is an outdated view of leadership in modern business practice and every effort needs to be made for partners across the spectrum of influence and seniority within a firm to exercise their leadership muscles and work at achieving that delicate balance of great leadership behaviours.

Anyone can help to create, communicate and share a goal or a set of objectives. All team members have a responsibility for building and maintaining high levels of team performance. Helping to translate ideas using mental models, anecdotes and storytelling, as well as simple factual explanations or diagrams, can be undertaken by anyone who has something to offer that helps to further understanding and the adoption of proposals. Everyone can improve their listening skills and their ability to reflect
and learn from their own experiences
and those of others.

All of these behaviours and skill sets are found in great leaders. Leading organisations have managed to foster a culture where all employees and partners guide, interact, question, engage and listen. They understand before ‘seeking
to be understood’ as Stephen R Covey would say.

Balancing act

For partners and practice heads, leading people and organisations requires the ability to master the art and science of holding things firmly but lightly at the same time. This paradox of successful leadership is a significant challenge for the vast majority.

How as a leader do you maintain a position of trust and patience while being clear about how you want things done? How do you build closer relationships while maintaining an appropriate distance? How do you balance client and practice development and management?

The process of holding things firmly but lightly is a skill set which takes practice and perseverance. Those who play racquet sports, golf or cricket will immediately recognise the challenge which achieving this delicate tension presents.

When that balancing act is achieved, you gain respect and a rich resource of engaged and motivated employees, colleagues and peers. It is akin to an elastic band – without tension, the band is of little use; with the correctly-applied tension,
it holds things together securely. But, apply too much tension and it will snap.

The impact of applying too little or too much tension to leadership behaviours can ultimately be telling in terms of stunted business growth, which will ring the death knell for any firm. A firm whose people perceive there to be inadequate or inappropriate leadership will struggle to deliver the necessary performance levels
to keep the business growing and thriving.

How can you as a leader achieve a more balanced approach? How do you know whether you are leaning more towards one set of leadership behaviours than another? Neither set of behaviours
is incorrect in itself. But, they can become an issue if they are not countered by complementary behaviours or if they become a strength that is overused.

Seeking greatness

Great leaders have a natural ‘swing-o-meter’ that allows them to intuitively recognise where the emphasis of their behaviour needs to come from in any given situation. This is widely attributed to them having enhanced levels of self awareness and emotional intelligence.

Also, great leaders know when a situation requires a particular communication style to be adopted. They know when they need to delegate for expediency rather than for the development of an individual. They can present facts and evidence when this is the primary requirement or they can emphasise the more motivational aspects of a case at an organisation’s or an individual’s level.

Finally, great leaders need to have followers. Ask yourself whether your behaviours are encouraging others to follow you and your firm. If the answer
is no, then ask yourself what you need
to do to regain the right tension and balance of leadership approaches, behaviours and skills.

Sue Beavil is UK learning and organisational development manager
at international law firm Slater & Gordon (www.slatergordon.co.uk)