A Leader of Change
I’ve been working a little bit for a man named Dr. Andy Neillie, who is a Fortune 500 keynote speaker and leadership coach. He has spoken to and coached thousands of people so that their leadership styles and dynamics are sound and effective. He is known as a leader who teaches other leaders how to lead. During the short time I’ve had to get to know him, I have realized that it’s been a total pleasure to promote him to the corporate sphere. If I was a business leader, I would do whatever I could to attend one of his seminars or to have him come in to my company as a consultant – he is such a motivator and he doesn’t act like he is some kind of guru. He’s humble and just straight up good at his job.
Anyway, I wanted to make some comments about one of his blogs because it really made me think about the two sides of leadership development – going on the offensive (like in baseball) and staying on the defensive (like in cricket) – (yes, he compares leadership to baseball and cricket – cool, right). He says that both of these leadership styles need to be activated at different times to make sure that businesses thrive. He says that some leaders only employ one strategy or the other and this leads to trouble. He suggests that everyone needs to go for it and be bold in their decision making at certain times, but he also says that there are times for more cautious movements to keep a company from falling apart.
Good stuff I think. I know that I have usually employed the super defensive approach in business – just trying to stay as far away from the tops of the highest peaks and keeping my companies running in safe mode. I have not been willing to challenge my employees to become daring leaders when they needed a strong push. I have let rotten behaviors exist for far too long in my organizations instead of boldly handling them and getting rid of them. This defensive approach has cost me on several occasions but I plan on starting to utilize some of Neillie’s offensive suggestions so I don’t fall into that imbalanced spot again.
So readers, what do you think about offensive and defensive maneuvers for leaders in business? Have you ever taken an imbalanced approach like me? If so, what happened? I’m interested in hearing about your leadership styles, so hit me with your best comments. Thanks in advance.