Leading Growth

4Leadership Styles

PART OF LEADING growth is understanding when your team needs something different from you to secure their best performance. In fact, one reason sales leaders fail to grow revenue is that they only lead with their default style.

To be the leader your team needs, you must use several leadership styles, including some that don't come naturally to you. Because most sales leaders use a democratic, consensus-building style, we'll start there, but then consider six other approaches that are often necessary in certain scenarios. Later in this chapter, we'll look at a prospecting problem and how to use different strategic styles to match the nature of the problem.

The Democratic Consensus-Builder

You want to be a good leader and help your team bring your vision to life, exceeding all expectations and growing your revenue. But you also want your team to like and respect you, so you are approachable, positive, encouraging, and always willing to engage your team in new initiatives, working to get their buy-in. If this describes you, it's likely that you have a democratic, consensus-building leadership style. That style certainly has its advantages, but not every scenario rewards that type of leadership.

Focusing on likability and consensus will not necessarily help your team succeed beyond what they thought was possible. No one longs for the good old days when their boss neglected them, recognized how limited they were, and allowed them to be mediocre. Instead, the ...