Are You Leading on Autopilot? It Might Be Time to Recalibrate
Have you ever taken a moment to reflect on your leadership style? Or do you find yourself operating on autopilot, letting conversations, interactions, and challenges flow through you based on your usual
habits?
While autopilot can be a helpful tool—especially when you’re juggling a million responsibilities—it’s important to recognize when your habits no longer align with who you truly are. Mental shortcuts help us conserve time and energy, but sometimes we adopt behaviors that stray from our core values. Worse, we may forget to pause and ask: Are my actions aligned with my true character and values?
This is particularly true in family businesses, where the company ethos and culture are so deeply intertwined with the founder’s leadership ethos. It’s personal! As it should be. But just like every family has different characters, every leadership team should as well.
In the September Leadership Development session, we explore what it means to lead with intention and authenticity. Using the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) and common Leadership Archetypes, we help leaders reconnect with the leader they want to be. The goal? To stay aligned with the traits and characteristics that foster both personal integrity and effective leadership.
The Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI)
The LPI breaks down leadership into five key pillars:
- Modeling
- Inspiring
- Challenging
- Enabling
- Encouraging
You probably already use all of these in different situations, but likely gravitate toward one or two. By becoming more aware of which pillars you lean on, you can be more intentional about how you lead.
Leadership Archetypes
In this session, we also explored eight leadership archetypes, each with unique strengths and challenges. Let’s look at two examples that may be common within a family business:
- The Innovator: This leader thrives on challenging the norm and exploring new possibilities. Innovators encourage risk-taking and out-of-the-box thinking, but can sometimes focus too much on ideas rather than execution, which may disrupt organizational stability.
- The Coach: The Coach nurtures individuals and teams, helping them grow to their full potential.
While they excel at mentorship, they can sometimes prioritize personal development over performance, leading to a lack of tangible results.
Finding Balance
Different employees respond to different leadership styles, and as a modern leader, it’s crucial to adjust your approach based on your team's needs. However, authenticity matters. Adapting to your team shouldn’t mean losing touch with your own values. In fact, that’s a lose-lose scenario: Your team won’t know how to trust you, and you won’t be leading in a way that feels true to you.
The best teams are those that embrace authenticity with eyes wide open, strategically building a diverse set of leaders while expanding the corporate toolbox.
To learn more about LPI or the Leadership Archetype exercise, visit Jackie Schetter at Lead for Culture.
Jackie Schetter
Founder
Lead for Culture
If you are interested in topics that address leadership roles in a family-owned business, please join us at these monthly Leadership Development sessions. Contact Amy at adotts@familybusinesscenter if you have any questions about this group.