Companies for the most part love to tell their leaders to coach. It feels like the right answer, “Do something to make the team more effective.” The best leader does more than coach; they connect individuals to peers, others in the organization, and additional resources to help them be successful in the role. We call these types of leaders Connector Leaders and they bring quite a bit of value that makes everyone better.
Different types of leaders
When we think about connector leaders, first we need to understand that there are three other categories to consider when thinking about leadership in this way:
The Teacher: This is a leader that develops others based on their own expertise and experience. “I did it this way and so you should too in order to be successful.” These people are often home-grown talent. They moved up in the organization based on their performance first, and may not have come from a strong people leadership background.
The Cheerleader: This leader tends to take a more hands-off approach to development and when they do provide feedback, it leans more positive and empowering. They want employees to really learn by doing themselves and encourage a lot of self-development. “You can do it!” is their mantra regardless of whether you have the resources and support system to get it done.
Always On: This leader always wants to be there for their employees and usually has good intentions. They want to be the ones who provide ongoing coaching and feedback across a wide breadth of skills. Many companies are promoting this always-on kind of continuous coaching and feedback approach within their teams. This leader also feels like they need to be everything to everyone and it’s hard to lay blame on them, With organizations cutting out layers of leadership, and constantly going through seismic changes on top of technological impacts, it can feel like you have to cover everything.
The Connector: This leader provides targeted, just in time, feedback when they have the expertise but then connect their employees with others who are better suited to provide that coaching and development. They have the right skills and knowledge to coach and typically have a very strong internal, and sometimes external, network to rely on. These leaders also will commonly create a transparent environment that builds strong peer-to-peer coaching and feedback.
How a Connector connects
A great connector manager is really hitting their stride at three different levels; the employee connection, the team connection, and the organizational connection.
The employee connection is all about that one-to-one connection between employees and managers. A connection here means getting to know their people at a deeper level. The leader has the emotional intelligence to really understand their people’s unique motivations, interests, goals, and development opportunities in ways that other leaders can miss. They focus on asking the right kinds of questions to get to the root of the issue.
Connector Leaders also build a strong team connection. They actively work to create an open and transparent environment so that team members can develop one another, and the coaching doesn’t have to come from the leader alone. Often the person will work more with their peers than they will with the leader. As a result, that person’s peers are closest to them and are the best to provide feedback. Their peers are there when a lot of the work gets done and many times the leader is not.
The leader also knows and appreciates that people come with different skill sets and talents. They’re good at embracing those differences and highlighting those for the betterment of the team. They create a more inclusive team environment so that people feel respected and comfortable sharing their skills.
The third connection is the organization connection. This is really where the leader’s self-awareness shines. They recognize that they don’t have all of the skills that their people need. They are honest with their people about that and aren’t scared to show their people that they don’t know everything. They help their people find the right skills or expertise outside of the leader themselves. They are also really good at helping their people learn from those connections. It’s not just about delegating development to someone else; it’s really about helping them apply the learning.
How important is a Connector Leader’s network?
Although many Connector Leaders have a strong internal network, what is more important is the leader’s resourcefulness. An example of why resourcefulness may be more important at times is the size of the team or organization. If you work in a small business with 20 employees, the person who is assigned a job is likely the only person with that expertise. There’s no one else internal to lean on. The Connector Leader helps their people find how they can make connections inside and outside their organization when their network isn’t enough. In the case of the small business, maybe the leader helps the person find a local chapter of a professional association to connect to and get help.
How a Connector elevates the behavior of other styles
The other three styles all have some good points about them and are often rooted in positive intent. The Connector leader often elevates and evolves those great qualities even further. A Cheerleader style also delegates connections, but the how of the connection is very different. The Cheerleader will delegate and forget it, while the Connector will warm up the connection by reaching out to the third party to give them a heads-up that the person will be reaching out. After the conversation, the Conenctor will follow up with their person to see what they learned from the interaction and how it helped them get to a good solution.
The Always On Leader is constantly going to give feedback, whether it’s needed or not. “Coach, Coach, Coach!” The Connector, lets others coach as well and really only gets in there when it’s needed to give feedback. If the Always On, is on all the time, the Connector leader is Sometimes On. This frees up the leader and the employee to get other things done – and have a good work-life rhythm.
Take time this week to reflect on what type of leader you are. How could you adapt your leadership to begin the journey to become a Connector Leader? If you are already a Connector Leader, look at the three different ways that you connect to help determine where you can further dial in a great experience for others.
Make a better tomorrow.
-ZH
