Leadership is not something everyone signs up for. In the medical aesthetics space, most leaders started out on their own path, looking to do something for themselves. This often results in scaling beyond one person and, just like that, a leader is created.
To be a leader of a business is to be a leader of people, and, for most, this isn’t just something that you are born with. Leadership is contingent on a number of aspects, most of which can be identified as emotional intelligence.
There are four components of emotional intelligence: self-awareness, social awareness, self-management and relationship management. Most leaders are strong in some of these, and weaker in others. The beginning of the journey to being a better leader is to identify which ones these are, capitalize on your strengths, and work to improve your weaknesses.
The 4 Types of Leaders That Erode Trust
However, some leaders choose not to do this for various reasons (most of which have to do with lack of self-awareness and social awareness), and end up becoming leaders anyway. Following are the four types of leaders that not only erode a team’s trust, but put their success at risk due to their harmful leadership behaviors.
- The Jekyll and Hyde: Named after the famous novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson that focuses on the duality of good vs. evil in a personality, this leader is positive and enthusiastic one minute, and the next minute, negative and hostile. The problem with this type of leader is that team members can never truly feel like they are in a safe environment where they can do their best. With this type of unknown leader, the ability to settle into your work and feel safe and supported each day is impossible.
- The Clairvoyant: This type of leader expects team members to read their minds about new tasks, new initiatives, and new priorities. When working with this type of leader, success feels like a moving target to team members, because the goals that were agreed upon in the morning will have changed by the afternoon, resulting in disappointment and irritation from The Clairvoyant leader, and frustration and demotivation for the employee.
- The Overreactor: This leader wears their heart on their sleeve … in a bad way. This leader demonstrates strongly negative emotions to any challenge or obstacle. She is always upset when things don’t go to plan (which things rarely do), and ejects this constant negativity into the workspace, resulting in an unpleasant, unsafe place to work. Even if the anger never results in anything beyond verbalization, it makes team members feels scared, unsafe, and they internalize unnecessary stress.
- The Big Boss: This leader is the smartest guy in the room and let’s team members know it by not acting on anyone’s feedback but his own. This leader is the kind that says (probably not in so many words), “I don’t care what you think, just make it happen.” The result of this kind of leadership is a demotivated, devalued team. This doesn’t result in a successful business; it results in a sad, angry business with immense turnover while The Big Boss sits on his ivory tower saying, “I don’t care what you think,” all the way to bankruptcy.
11 Leadership Behaviors That Build Trust
Being a great leader takes a lot of work and a lot of honest reflection about what your strengths are and what your weaknesses are. The good news is that you can improve your leadership ability and your emotional intelligence; it is a skill that can be built up. Following are some of the most powerful leadership behaviors that build trust.
- Be reliable.
- Be transparent (even if it’s uncomfortable).
- Be consistent and fair.
- Be emotionally steady.
- Admit mistakes and take responsibility.
- Listen to understand, not to respond.
- Be respectful, no matter what.
- Empower, don’t micromanage.
- Give honest, timely feedback.
- Advocate for your team.
- Align words, actions, and values.
Do a quick self-assessment on the above, and ask someone you trust and who will be honest with you to do the same. Do this on a 1 – 10 scale, where 1 is terrible, 5 is neutral, and 10 is the best. This is quick exercise that can help you improve your leadership skills, which will, in turn, help you improve your business and put you on the fast track toward success.
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