Which Business Leadership Style are You? Coach or Surgeon

jordanfowler@moonandowl.comFor Business Leaders

More leadership from Bobb Biehl. By the way, you should be grabbing all his content you can.

Transcript of Video

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what is your natural leadership style
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you might want to underline natural
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because there’s a certain style you have
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of leading today that may not be your
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natural style at all I’d like to help
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you discover what is your natural style
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as compared to maybe what you’re using
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and if you’re using your natural style
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how do you maximize that but there are
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basically only two styles of leading
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that I’ve seen that I would distinguish
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for you and all the leaders I’ve worked
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with you get two basic styles and the
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styles are these you’ve basically got a
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surgeon style over here and a coaching
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style over here and you may think well I
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think I’m somewhere in between those as
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I begin describing what they are or how
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they work
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you may think I’m sort of in-between I
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say no you’re not you can operate in
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between you may be forced or it may be
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appropriate for you to operate in
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between or you may be operating in
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between because of someone you’ve
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watched or modeled after but you are one
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of the other I’ll help you see what you
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are and how to maximize it
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neither of these styles are good or bad
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right or wrong they’re both we’ve had
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you can have presidents of your nation
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and either either side but they’re very
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very different I’m not trying to teach
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you to be one or the other
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what I’m trying to do is help you
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understand what you are and how to
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maximize that and what some of the if
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you will some of it may be the downsides
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of your what you have to be aware of in
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your style and sort of how to understand
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the style of those that you report to if
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any and those on your staff if you
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report to it or your colleagues it just
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helps you have eyes to see the important
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role leadership style plays and how
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effectively you can do
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with a group of people by the way you
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have experienced probably by this age
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where you’ve got a pastor with a
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leadership style when he leaves in comes
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a second pastor with a totally different
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leadership style and the whole staff is
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gone or it’s like the whole the whole
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it’s it’s a shock to the congregation
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how this new person leads because it’s
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totally different in an organization at
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church at corporation let me let me
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explain what a what each of these how
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they each operate a surgeon style leads
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by doing this person leads by doing now
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there was a surgeon leads in your life
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by operating on you there are team
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builders they’re both team builders both
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a surgeon and the coach or team builders
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but they build teams very very
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differently the surgeon builds a team
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around his or her strengths there is the
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surgeon is there they’re the star player
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that of the situation and they build a
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surgical nurse an anesthesiologist etc
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they build a team around their strength
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whereas the coach never puts on the
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helmet or the cleats or the are they
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uniform simply stands on the sidelines
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and make sure every net one else is
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doing what they’re supposed to do they
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lead by directing
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totally different now the surgeon is
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like a plane coach sometimes in football
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you have if you’re familiar football
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sometimes you have a or a basketball
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even sometimes you if you’re short a
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coach and you get a good player the
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coach will actually play in the game
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they’ll actually play a part in the game
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that play a position and they’re the
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coach at the same time it’s like a plane
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coach they’ll build a team around their
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unique strengths now let me show you
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this if you give a surgeon style leader
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a team of corporate vice presidents they
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tend to see them as personal assistants
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it’s like how do you operate around my
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strength and so they will see all of
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these people as sort of personal
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assistants rather than the coaching
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style who see if you if you give them
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five personal assistants they will see
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them as vice president so to speak
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but talking about the surgeon right now
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for a minute there is a keyword if you
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are a surgeon style leader there is a
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certain word you really need to
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understand about yourself if you’re
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reporting to a surgeon style leader you
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really need to understand this one word
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and that word is trust a surgeon style
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leader divides their entire staff and
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the people I trust I don’t trust and I
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don’t know yet and they draw a line and
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that line is anyone below the trust line
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meaning I trust them they abdicate what
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I mean by abdicate is that I had one
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client who saw people reporting directly
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to them but they only had reporting
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about once a year they didn’t have
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regular meetings that unit mean another
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name bill bright the founder of Campus
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Crusade for Christ and now name is Kru
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and he had a person reporting to him you
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may know the name know the name Josh
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McDowell
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well Josh reported directly to Bill
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bright but here’s the way it would go at
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the annual conference he said Josh you
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remember you report directly to me right
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yeah I do bill great see you next year
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Dennis Rainey head of the family
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ministry you report directly to me you
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know that dentist yep see you next year
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you know it’s like that was all the
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reporting they did they he had basically
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abdicated them because he trusted them
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totally he simply gave it to them and
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said see you next year you may say how
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irresponsible I say part of the genius
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of the movement is he chose people he
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trusted and let him do it and if the
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whole thing grew now that’s not the only
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reason but it’s like there’s a certain
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sense in which he let them develop their
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own organizations all of it’s still
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reported to crew and pay the fee to crew
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I see it was that wrong I don’t think so
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it was a stylistic judgment call with
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people he trusted now some of you feel
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very micro managed am i incorrect how
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many in here feel like at some point in
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their life they’ve been micromanaged
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you know micromanagement is you’ve never
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been micromanaged wow that’s amazing
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micromanagement is when someone tells
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you exactly what to do everything
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everything to do and then they give you
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something doing then they tell you how
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to do it here’s what I want you do well
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here’s how to do micromanage now now
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that you understand sort of what it is
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how many have been micromanaged is it
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only three or four okay a little bit
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more anyone that you’re reporting to
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where you’re not trusted there there’s
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no trust up here you’re too new or they
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don’t trust you they will this person
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will micromanage you period this person
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won’t tend to micromanage you at all
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this person will always micromanage you
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until they trust you but there’s a
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there’s a certain phase in which it’ll
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drive you crazy and that is the if the
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surgeon style leader doesn’t know
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whether they trust you or not right
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there they’ll abdicate it to you and
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three days later will micromanage you
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and it drives you crazy you don’t know
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whether they’re it’s yours or not
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because they said it was yours but then
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they’re telling you how to do it that is
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what really drives people crazy right
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there now the the surgeon style has
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meetings as needed see you next year
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once I think it’s time to have a meeting
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they have meetings as needed and the
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assumption that the surgeon style leader
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makes is I’m strong enough that I can
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cover any mistakes the team makes
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therefore frankly I can hire weaker
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people then this person would hire this
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person actually hires stronger people
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this person thinks I’m strong enough
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that if if they don’t know quite what to
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do I’ll take over and get it done now
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let’s talk about the coaching style the
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coaching style is the sidelines coach
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not the playing coach they stand on the
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sidelines and make sure that the team
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has got what they need the uniforms the
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plays etc they build the on-field team
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not around their strengths but they
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build the on team field
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on-field team they basically their focus
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is delegation not abdication or
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micromanagement their focus is
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delegating properly balancing expertise
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and freedom in other words they
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basically take people get them their
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expertise right in here they get the
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expert in each of these areas and give
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them freedom to do what they’re going to
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do however they have regular meetings to
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make sure it’s happening but it isn’t
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micromanaging it’s simply reporting in
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how’s it going what do you need from me
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it’s a regular reporting process more
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and then but this person needs an all
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green team this person you have some
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greens the surgeon has some greens some
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were yellow some Reds that they if they
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have to this person needs an all green
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team because they’re not going to put on
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the helmet and come play theirs if they
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don’t have the best strongest team on
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the field they know they’re not going to
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win the game so they need an all green
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team because I’m not coming on the field
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of play now you may think well who would
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these people rather report to would they
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rather report to
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a coaching style leader or a surgeon
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style leader the coaching style says all
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right
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basically I’ll give it to you but if you
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don’t do it right I’ll fire you or I’ll
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yell at you and then fire you it’s
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basically the thing here it’s like it’s
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your job you get it done or I’ll yell at
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you and then I’ll fire you or I’ll fire
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you you’re not yellow I’ll fire you
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this person is their approach is more
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you take it and if you can’t handle it
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I’ll take over until we’re at a place
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where you can handle it again then I
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give it back to you now you can function
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in either style everyone room can
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function either style but you don’t have
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a preference for either style because
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what you do is you to see which style
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you really prefer you look actually at
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your backup style you look at what do
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you do under extreme pressure let me
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show you what each of these do under
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extreme pressure now I’d quickly point
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out if there is not extreme pressure if
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there’s just pressure both sides will
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try to coach the team there’s this
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person will coach the team before they
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really before it gets really extreme
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pressure and this person will coach the
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team meaning they’ll try to teach the
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team how to play it better etc like if
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you’re in the second quarter of the game
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at four quarters and you’re a little bit
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behind this head coach will call you up
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and say hey defensive coach you know you
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really need to do it this way or
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something like that but in the in the
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end of the game when it’s the Super Bowl
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or it’s the World Cup or it’s that
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whatever it is and it’s the last minute
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or two and that’s going to decide the
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World Cup or the Super Bowl under
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extreme pressure you’ve got a hundred
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thousand fans cheering or during or
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booing and you got the ring and you got
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the cup and you got bonuses and you got
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everything on the line it’s a tie game
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and you’re down to the last two minutes
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these styles operate very differently
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basically if the defensive unit is
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caving in the defensive unit isn’t
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working and this person is leading the
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defensive coordinator this is the head
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coach it doesn’t get coaching it doesn’t
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get teaching it doesn’t get pretty the
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head coach comes to the defensive coach
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and says Wow coach I’m taking over
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hey Smith get in there it’s like he just
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takes over in the last two minutes how’s
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that wrong no it’s just that’s the style
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and you know if it’s you whether you
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take over or not but if you’re the
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coaching style you don’t take over
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you don’t take over the defense what you
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do is download the D fund that download
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the pressure you say look Smith if you
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can’t get your job to get this defense
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stopped if you can’t stop you haven’t
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got a job next year is that clear now
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get that defense stuff you’re hired you
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stop them not me now get them stop are
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you’re fired
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let’s get them stopped it’s like okay
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you know but I’m saying the the one
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takes over and the other one downloads
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the pressure now neither one of those is
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pretty but which do you do if it gets
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under extreme pressure which do you do
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that decides which of these is your
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preferred style I say as I said earlier
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you may be a coaching style forced to
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operate this way based on something or
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you may be a surgeon style forced to
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operate this way in your environment or
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based on the modeling you’ve seen or
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whatever but which is your natural style
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which do you do under extreme pressure
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that’s your natural style now how do you
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get comfortable saying all right you
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know what I’ve been trying to be you
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know play it like my dad played it or my
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uncle played it or the first pastor I
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had played it
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enough of that I’m gonna leave the team
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the way lead teams if you’re over here
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you say you know what I’m gonna meet
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with these people once a week because
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they need it and I’m not gonna ask these
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people to come to meetings anymore for a
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while I’m gonna micromanage these people
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without being accused if people accuse
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me of being a micromanager so be it I do
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micromanage sorry these people I’m going
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to tell them I don’t know yet whether
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you’re the right person for the job or
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not
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by the way let me stop right here and
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give you a word that’s a magic word and
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that it doesn’t sound like a magic word
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but it is it’s the word fit right here
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is the almost the word of the decade for
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me what I mean by that is this whenever
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you’re interviewing someone for a
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position you don’t want to say am i
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trying to hire this person you’re trying
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to say what I’m trying to figure out is
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this a good fit is this a good fit for
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you he’s a good fit for us is it it is
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is it fit because if you don’t fit here
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we want to have you move your family
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across the county clear across the
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continent to work here only to find out
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it isn’t a good fit when you go to fire
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someone you say you know you’re an
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amazing person you got tremendous
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strengths but you know what it isn’t a
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good fit for you here and I don’t want
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to keep you in a position where it isn’t
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a good fit that word fit helps in so
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many areas you don’t want to lose track
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of that because what you’re trying to do
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is make sure that it’s a good fit for
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every person on your team but you
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basically say I’m trying to figure out
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whether you’re the right fit right now
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and I don’t know whether you know to
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basically abdicate it to you or
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micromanage you but right now you’re
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gonna have to put up a little
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micromanaging because I don’t know yet
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over here you say you know what I’ve
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been trying to do it this way trying to
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take over if they fumble the ball or
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whatever right now I’m going to start
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moving to my natural style which is
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finding the best person every position
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leave a position empty
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if I have to because better no one than
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the wrong line this tends to say better
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anyone then no one because better anyone
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as long as they’re sort of qualified I
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can fill in what they need this one
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tends to say better no one than the
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wrong one I say if this is you but you
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get to where you’re comfortable saying
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look I’m not gonna play the game now let
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me say let me point this out in a small
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church a small organization we’re just
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getting started in a startup phase you
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almost have to do it this way because
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you don’t have people to put on the team
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you have to sort of fill in and make do
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and sort of run it there was if you’re
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here by nature you can come over here
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and just run it half yourself and all
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that kind of stuff Phil you know for a
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while to get it up and going but if this
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is you starting today move toward you’ve
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got these positions defined you get the
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best person you can possibly get in here
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you have your regular meetings you relax
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with the fact that you’re not going to
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suit up but you’re there to make sure
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everyone else has the right suit the
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great equipment the right plays they
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understand it’s like the team is doing
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what they’re supposed to do even though
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you don’t do anything
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you