FOUR TYPES OF LEADERSHIP

In the realm of talent development and organisational performance, the Contribution Compass is a powerful ally in this pursuit of actionable growth. Yet, just like every other tool we could possibly consider, it can only really accelerate value if it is actively applied across the organisation’s activities and especially so at leadership level. In this concluding issue, let us recap the four natural energies and explore how they are demonstrated as four types of leadership. 

Natural energy refers to the behaviours and inclinations we demonstrate without thinking or our default response in a moment of pressure or when under stress. In a critical moment we always respond from our natural energy. Given that, in our workplace environments, we are frequently in that zone of pressure, it makes sense to consider natural energy as a critical part of how we build teams and maximise growth. There are four types of natural energy which the Contribution Compass profiler assimilates into a distribution across the four types and provides an overriding profile, of which there are eight. 

This highlights your specific talent or pathway to maximise your contribution as an entrepreneur, team member or leader.

Activating natural energy is driven, ambitious and energised. It wants to create, innovate and shake things up. Activating energy is always on-the-go and can appear single-minded and streets ahead of everyone else in their thinking. With that comes their impatience and frustration, as the whole world always seems to lag far behind them. Innovators of the world like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates are great examples of Activating energy, along with those leaders who are driven to create change and plough their way through problems and challenges. 

If your leadership team as a collective has strong Activating natural energy, you will see a leadership approach that seldom finishes what it starts and has a restless impatience to move forward and keep on trying new things. This can also show up as innovative strategies that are never fully executed and measured for their performance, or an imbalanced obsession with product and service design even when there are glaring issues in the rest of the business that are just as important. This type of energy is well-suited to problem-solving teams and groups focused on product development. A leadership team with such an imbalance would likely tire out the organisation in its relentless pursuit of new territory and unexplored potential.

A leadership team with high Inspiring natural energy would create a fun and engaging work experience where people feel heard, yet understand the importance of their role in driving performance. Such leaders would first look to the people around them, their networks and customers as a source of solutions, rather than draw on reports and operational process. In an imbalanced Inspiring team, decisions can be made from an emotional perspective without enough attention to facts or the financial implications of team activity and inefficiencies. 

Sustaining natural energy is the rich, dark earth that sustains all life. This energy is focused on grounding the team and bringing to life the ideas of others and the people who gather to support those ideas. This includes operational excellence and organisational routine and rhythm, which is the glue that holds everyone together. Sheryl Sandberg, the current chief operating officer of Facebook and formerly of Google, is a great example of a Sustaining leader who has demonstrated that she may not originate the idea, yet she certainly can monetise it through operational excellence and day-to-day activities that deliver results.

A leadership team with high Sustaining energy would look to practical reality — the here and now — to guide the organisation. They cannot easily look far into the future as the Activating types can, yet have a grounded reality of seeing things as they are and an understanding of the implications of timing and delivery. Such a team would likely be obsessed with ensuring they deliver on the promise and that customers are retained. They relish organisational habit and would likely avoid organisational change even if that change is necessary for growth. A high Sustaining team would err on the side of keeping everything the same and prioritising routine over growth.

Tempering natural energy is all about precision, data and analysis. Those leaders high in this natural energy will, by default, revert to numbers and data to make sense of their world. Meaningful insight and problem-solving comes primarily through analysing the information before them, usually poring over reports, research papers or modelled data in spreadsheets. This type of energy at a leadership level sharpens the ‘organisational sword’ by refining the finer details of how the organisation functions and streamlining the efficiency of the entire operation. Larry Page and Sergey Brin, co-founders of Google, are great examples of leaders who have mastered their Tempering nature to create massive value through data, and, in this case, the Google search algorithm.

A leadership team with high Tempering natural energy can worship the data at the expense of the human element. Unchecked, it can create an environment that feels cold or sterile and places human efficiency above the development of talent and a meaningful purpose.  

Each of these four natural energies provides a pivotal and meaningful contribution to the organisation. At leadership level, when there is imbalance in natural energy, the opportunity to maximise the growth and return of the organisation becomes hindered. This results from decisions being looked at through a warped lens or from the dominant energy. A leadership team should therefore strive to create this natural energy diversity, equality and mutual respect. 

Emotionally intelligent leaders recognise that, if left unchecked, we will surround ourselves with more of the same. Diversity challenges our world view and prolongs yet deepens the decision-making process. Leadership should embrace diversity and the opportunity of differing views. Contemplate the team that you are part of or that leads the organisation. Reflect on what you could do to bring greater balance and diversity of thinking and behaviour, while inspiring every member of that team to mature their profile and master the natural energy.