There are six leadership roles in the Impeccable Leadership model. Each role is part of your leadership potential and armory. Broadly developed leadership can be recognized by the measure in which you’re capable of flexibly switching between the different roles. In order to be able to do that you need to have the competencies that are necessary to give substance to a certain role. Each phase of development of the team and each leadership rol require specific skills. Each role has a core quality and a pitfall. Insight in these aspects offers the space to take developmental steps and it’s the basis of acting effectively in order to prevent stagnation, or sometimes even break through that. And it enables you to guide the team towards excellence.
Guide
A guide ensures that a coworker feels at home and gets to know his way around in the organization. This role should not be underestimated: the goal is that his coworkers feel welcome and get knowledgeable about their new environment. The guide takes care of the necessary tools for the employee, he orchestrates the introduction. He does this out of a feeling of responsibility, involvement and contact. A guide can be seen as a host with the mission to create a “home”
Typical statement: “Welcome! I’ll help you to find your way around here.”
Activities: showing the organizational framework, transferring knowledge/expertise, giving advice.
In other professions: teacher, craftsman
Coach
A coach is someone that’s helping others to discover their own learning process and challenges. He finds an environment in which an employee can reflect on himself and his work quietly important. You recognize a coach when you see someone asking for how someone experienced something, being inclined to ask follow through questions about situations that someone got into. A coach is good listener and is very capable of asking open questions. A coach will be in empathy with an employee and support him, in order to enable the employee to take next steps on his own and develop himself. He does this from the belief that people are capable of finding their own solutions. It’s a conviction: making people function in a better way.
Typical statement: “What are the things you’re running into and how can I support you with these?”
Activities: listening to needs, wishes and desires of his people
In other professions: therapist
Mentor
A mentor stimulates employees to get to know themselves and to confront their challenges. Beside that he sees opportunities in situations and he’s geared towards (future) possibilities. He’s creating an environment in which people can freely exchange ideas and viewpoints and offers space for everyone to share what they find important. A mentor is someone who’s capable of connecting viewpoints and interests (no zero sum thinking) and of mediating and negotiating to create commitment. He helps to break through patters and to make choices. A mentor can be seen as a creative “master” that bridges differences and helps people to develop themselves with transformation as the underlying goal.
Typical statement” “Let us find options that work for you as well as for me”
Activities: out of the box thinking, seeing through limits and opportunities
In other professions: art-director, entrepreneur
Sponsor
A sponsor creates opportunities for his environment, on the level of the individual as well as on the level of the organization. He really wants people to be able to realize their dreams and because of that he creates an environment in which they can swarm, try things out and share knowledge. You recognize a sponsor by thinking and acting strategically. He has focus on finding connections and creating opportunities. He is geared towards creating more options in existing situations by showing the higher meaning of that what’s being done. beside that, a sponsor highly values people growing, developing themselves and look across borders. A sponsor can be seen as a servant that shows the relative context with creating unity as a deeper goal.
Typical statement: “In the interest of this team and of creating added value, we take this decision.”
Activities: look outside of the borders of the own interest to the interest of the organization as a whole and dare to act accordingly.
Awakener
An awakener is geared towards meaning and purpose. He values an environment of silence, rest and slowing down in order to enable to come home to themselves. He connects people with themselves, their potential and the impact of what they’re doing. He shows the link between self-realization and adding value. An awakener questions meaning and purpose of an assignment and sees beyond the “I”, sees the interests of the individual, the group and the environment as a whole. He is an authentic and moral negotiator. You could see an awakener as an involved visionary with a mission to add value to his environment. In a company this manifests as committed activity combined with strategic ambition.
Typical statement: “Everything we do, contributes to the value we add. Meaning and purpose are paramount.”
Activities: challenge people to slow down and reflect, support them in reflecting on the level of the individual as well as the organization.
How do I discover the effects of my leadership on performance and development of my team?
The roles of Impeccable Leadership are inspired by “From Coach to Awakener” by Robert Dilts