Great Leaders are Flexible in Their Leadership Approach
Great leaders know that sustainable, repeatable, replicable success results from collaborative, collective, and engaged efforts. This is why great leaders concentrate on the people side of success, including motivation, team building, the interpersonal skills of team members, group recognition, and group rewards.
When it comes to leading people, leaders have four distinct audiences: 
- The teams that report to them.
- Cross-functional teams that they lead.
- Individuals who directly report to them.
- Individuals, peers, and colleagues with whom they work.
For each of these audiences, a different set of leadership skills and approaches is required. However, there is one common factor — since they are dealing with individuals, or a collection of individuals, each people leadership situation requires an individualized approach suited for the various demeanors, motivational needs, and communication preferences of those being led.
This means that great leaders must be flexible in their leadership approach and with the motivational and communication tactics they use.
Leading Teams
Leading teams is fraught with peril and numerous opportunities for mistakes, especially by new or inexperienced leaders. This is mostly due to the dynamic nature of teams, including how the individuals on a team interact with one another.
The two team leadership concepts I have found most useful are The Nature of Teams by Dr. Bruce Tuckman and The Five Dysfunctions of Teams by Patrick Lencioni
You can easily find good information on both of these team leadership models on the Internet. 
Successful businesswoman looking at camera on background of working colleagues
Not all groups of individuals comprise a true team. Even when managers talk about “my team” often this is really only a group of individuals performing similar, but not necessarily inter-related work, who all happen to report to the same individual.
As I have often said in my leadership development programs: “A team is not a group of people who work together. A team is a group of people working together towards a shared outcome who trust and respect each other.”
Why kind of a team are you leading?
Your thoughts and comments will be appreciated.
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