If you haven’t already seen it, the #FlexChallenge—people doing all sorts of superhuman bendy things with their legs—seems to be the latest viral internet craze making its way around social media this month. 

If you’re over the age of 21, not particularly coordinated or in a leadership position, may I suggest a slightly more useful, and let’s be honest, more realistic Flex Challenge... a leadership style flex challenge.

Leadership styles and organisational performance

Interesting factoid to start us off – according to Daniel Goleman, he of Emotional Intelligence fame, there’s no single leadership style, not even visionary leadership style, that correlates with strong organisational performance. In a business world which deifies the visionary leader, I find that fact fascinating and arresting.

Goleman’s research, based on a survey of over 3800 executives, did, however, find a correlation between organisational performance and leaders who can flex between different leadership styles.

He identified 6 styles which can be helpful at different times:

• Commanding - "Do What I Tell You" (helpful in a crisis)
• Visionary - "Come with Me" (helpful when inspiration and clear direction are needed)
• Affiliative - "People Come First" (helpful to heal rifts or motivate people during stressful times)
• Democratic - "What Do You Think?" (helpful to build consensus and buy-in)
• Pacesetting - "Do as I Do Now" (helpful to get quick results from a competent team)
• Coaching - "Try This" (helpful to help employees improve performance)

You can read his full research (it’s 20 years old but stands the test of time very nicely).

Your Leadership Experiment

Step 1: Rate yourself against Goleman’s 6 leadership styles – from the style you use and are most comfortable with, to the style you like and use least.

Step 2: Thinking about your lowest score, ask yourself:

1. ‘What’s the impact of that on my team/business?’
2. ‘How might my team/business benefit from me getting more comfortable with that leadership style?’
3. ‘What’s 1 situation this week which would benefit from me flexing this leadership style’
4. ‘What might that look like?’

Step 3: Do it!

Let me know what you discover…