What is the one word people use to describe your leadership style?
Intentional. That’s the word I want to be known for.
In Intentional Father, Jon Tyson describes five types of fathers. They are irresponsible fathers, ignorant fathers, inconsistent fathers, involved fathers, and intentional fathers. While the book focuses on the role of fathers, these categories fit with other areas in life, such as leadership. Here’s how I break it down.
Irresponsible leader: This leader has zero involvement with the team, and they take no responsibility and contribute nothing to the team.
Ignorant Leader: This is a leader that has little to no clue what they are doing. They are there physically but has no desire to learn or improve as a leader. Instead, they end up bringing their mess and brokenness to the team.
Inconsistent leader: These leaders have the potential and capability to be better leaders, but they are torn by other ambitions like career, possessions, and people. There are moments they show up, but it is unpredictable and unstable.
Involved leader: This is the leader that cares and leads well for the most part. He gets most things correct as a leader, but because of the busyness of life and not knowing what questions to ask, he does not seek to truly understand their team’s quality, depth, and uniqueness.
Intentional leader: This is the leader that is invested in helping his team reach their full potential. This leader seeks to understand their strengths, weakness, and capacity. He builds a healthy and thriving team, and he desires to help his team fulfill their God-given purpose.
Which type of leader are you? I’ve operated in the involved leader category. There are moments that I have been intentional, but by in large, my leadership has been more involved.
The most significant difference between intentional and involved leaders is the involved leader is more reactionary, and the intentional leader is more proactive. The intentional leader has a plan to grow, develop and build. The involved leader is present but reacts more to the internal and external situations that come in life. For instance, there is a conflict between the team members. The involved leader will handle and deal with the issue after it happens. He’ll help process conflict and come to a good resolution. The intentional leader will do the same, but the intentional leader has focused on training, workshops, and talks about conflict. They have been preparing the team for conflict to happen and training how to resolve those tensions.
Here are some ways that you can be a more intentional leader:
Discover: Ask questions about your team’s passions and dreams. Find out their strengths, weaknesses, and personality. You can do team assessments like Enneagram, Myers Briggs personality test, and strength finders.
Develop: Write down some core values that you want your team to reflect and live out. Once you have those values, then develop a plan to implement that. It may be the value of teamwork. Before or during the staff meeting, discuss collaboration and do an exercise together. They are several types of team-building activities to help your team better trust each other.
Deploy: Give your team opportunities for greater responsibility and roles. This may mean allowing them to make mistakes, and these are great moments to encourage and build up and give productive feedback.
The bottom line is to think proactively about building your team, which makes you more intentional and will produce more satisfied and productive team members.
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