LEADERSHIP STYLEAhmed Taha

Jul 2014

Leadership StyleLeadership stages. S1…. S4

Leadership StyleMoving through the 4 stages. S1 S4

Leadership Style• Directing (S1)

• You give orders and directions• Example: During training, “I want you to do these stuff so do it the

way I tell you and please don’t improvise”.

• Coaching (S2)• You give directions and encouragement.• Example: check out this 3rd Party library and when he do, tell him

something like “good work but I want to hear your opinions about it”, “Nice work but what do you think about this library ?”

Leadership Style• Supporting (S3)

• Provide help if needed, encouragement and mentoring but not directing

• Example: Can you search for a 3rd party library that does the following and use it ?

• Delegating (S4)• No supporting or directing, just handing over the responsibility• Example: Please contact the client, try to resolve certain issue with

him

Leadership Style• Every employee should be treated as special case. A lot

of direction can get the employee frustrated or lower his self stem

• Bad manager examples• They move from directing (S1) to delegating (S4).

• Lazy managers

• From coaching (S3) back to directing (S1).• Probably the employee wasn’t ready and manager should have noticed

that.• Employee thinking: you were a nice guy what happened!!!

• From supporting (S2) to delegating (S4)• Employee is not yet confident to drive himself.

Leadership Style• Factors affecting such relationship

• Employee self-stem• Manager trust in the employee• Employee trust in the manager• Manager self-stem

• For simplicity, assume employee and manager are self confident of themself. So you need to start building trust.

Leadership Style

Sector Manage trust in Employee

Employee trust in Manager

Directing Low Low

Coaching Increasing Increasing

Supporting Increasing Increasing

Delegating High High

Sector Manage trust in Employee

Employee trust in Manager

Directing Low Low

Coaching Reducing ?

Supporting Reducing ?

Delegating High ?

Leadership Style• When Moving from one stage to another,

from S1 to S2, you need to lag a bit. Imagine yourself towing a cart, you can’t just change / reverse direction instantaneously.

• Slowdown at the end of each stage before moving to the next one.

• References• ITunes U, building business oxford university • Managing People, Managing Teams – Tim Cook.