Leadership Styles - The Affiliative Leader
Caring leadership is good for business. ― Cory Galbraith
On Learning to Lead live we continued our series on the 6 most common leadership styles. This week we covered a style that by name was less common, but after discussing it was clear that it is a style many leaders in our community have used. You can listen to the full replay of the live discussion below, but here are a few takeaways:
What is Affiliative Leadership?
A leader who leans toward the formation of social and emotional bonds and desires to create such bonds with team members. This is a leader who puts people first and values harmony on their team.
Characteristics of the Affiliative Leader:
Strong people focus: Strong emotional ties and loyalty between the team members can create opportunities for great performance. A more personal approach is also visible in how rewards and recognition are handed out. Affiliative leaders are much more likely to spend time with their employees to celebrate a job well done together.
Strong Moral Compass: All leaders are expected to have strong moral values so unethical behavior is discouraged. However, morals and values form the central focus for affiliative leaders and help them exhibit empathy towards their teams.
Good Communication: Harmony and emotional bonds lead to frequent communication, which increases the spread of ideas and constructive discussion.
Flexibility: Due to the high level of trust and communication, this style brings a large amount of flexibility to organizations as well. This flexibility also means that affiliative teams are more open to change and can handle circumstances better than many other teams.
The benefits of this style:
Helpful when a team is in deep crisis or turmoil as it creates trust and a sense of belonging that can weld the team together in a good way
Positive feedback and recognition (no matter how small) boosts staff morale
Conflicts are dealt with swiftly and peacefully
The team feels valued and appreciated which can lead to increased productivity
This style fosters caring and less stressful work environments
Teams can operate autonomously and better handle crises, bouncing back to normal operations so that productivity isn’t severely hampered
Fosters a sense of camaraderie and collaboration within the team
A first step in affiliative leadership is the simply know your team
Risks with this style:
Over indexing on camaraderie can lead to overlooking underperformance
If the focus is only on harmonious relationships longer-term goals can be missing or not achieved, harming the business but the growth of each team member as well
Focusing on camaraderie may lead to conflict avoidance, and leaders delegating responsibility to resolve the conflict or waiting for a difficult situation or conflict to disappear
Affiliative leaders who always step in to peacefully resolve conflicts may not be teaching their teams to resolve interpersonal matters and develop their own sense of emotional intelligence and fortitude
The leader can become so critical to the team dynamic that if they leave everything falls apart
How to use this style:
Give constructive criticism: It is possible to give positive feedback without ignoring an employee’s shortcomings. It is important to acknowledge when an employee is underperforming and provide constructive feedback necessary to get them back on track.
Encourage all staff to deal with conflicts in a good way: Reinforce and involve all team members as part of conflict resolution
Confront all challenges despite how difficult they may seem: Stay on top of issues that affect the team even if it makes you uncomfortable
Track performance and use the appropriate intervention: provide timely feedback, utilize 1:1s or monthly evaluations, and provide tools to underperformers paired with constructive feedback
Tips to connect with your team: remember birthdays, ask people how they are doing, start meetings asking people what is new in their life, ask about their families
Understanding leadership styles helps us better flex based on what a team or situation may need. Additionally, the more we research and learn about the styles, the more effectively we can teach the future leaders on our teams.
Next week we will wrap up the leadership styles from Daniel Goleman covering Visionary leadership. Join us live on on Saturday from 9:30-10:30 am PT on Clubhouse.
In the future I want to be an affiliative style leader, having a good relationship with my members, as well as inspiring others and moving together to reach a noble goal. - Jesse Ma
Listen to the Full Replay
Resources
Leadership Styles discussion and takeaways from a past live Learning to Lead event
The 6 most common leadership styles covered in Daniel Goleman’s book, Leadership That Gets Results
Leadership lessons from Ted Lasso - a part of our discussion was about Ted Lasso as an example of an affiliative leadership style
What is your leadership style quiz - a short quiz to assess what leadership style is
The latest Makoism newsletter is a great reminder that changing and growing often requires some self-destruction and letting go of pieces of ourselves that may not serve us anymore
Newsletters I read daily to stay informed and get inspired: The Hustle, Morning Brew Emerging Tech, Atlas Obscura, Oprah Daily
Events
Courage to Lead - April 27: Simon Sinek is teaching a virtual class based on his latest book, Infinite Mindset. In this 25 minutes course, you will learn how to have the courage to lead.
Barnes & Noble is hosting many live and virtual events this month
FORTUNE Brainstorm Health 2022 - May 2022: Join the Brainstorm Health community-- a powerful gathering of leaders at the crossroads of business, health care, technology, and innovation.
Learning to Lead LIVE
The next Learning to Lead Live event will be on Saturday, April 16 @ 9:30 am PDT. The topic will be shared on Wednesday (April 13) so be sure to subscribe for updates and reminders!
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