Management Polarities: A Leadership Game Changer
“Management Polarities” is a critical concept for leaders to understand. Those that do often experience a quantum leap in their team’s performance.
It can mean the difference between leading a dysfunctional team or one where the members lift together and pull in the same direction… which directly affects your credibility as well as your ability to achieve the results you want.
Let me sum up the whole concept, along with the most important things you need to know about it.
In short, the story goes something like this:
(a) Leaders and managers often express traits reflecting their style of leadership. For example, some have a directing trait, which means they see themselves more like commanders issuing orders.
(b) Many of these traits can be paired with an opposite trait to form what I call a “Management Polarity.” For example, the opposite of a directing trait is a collaborating one, where leaders seek out consensus and group decisions.
(c) Most leaders don’t realize there is a need for both sides of the polarity, which means they risk becoming out of balance in their preferred traits.
(d) This can cause a whole range of hidden issues the leader never gets notified about: loss of credibility, lack of buy-in for the leader’s vision, team members pulling in different directions, time lost trying to deal with the fallout… and so on.
(e) Leaders often blame their team and double down on the trait, making the issues worse and sometimes escalating a bad situation into a full-blown crisis.
(f) They call me to come in and “fix it, Shane”… and I end up writing blog posts and even a book highlighting these “Leadership Offenses” and how to put things right.
(g) My services to humanity are recognized with a Nobel Peace Prize. Or something.
So here’s what I’d like you to take away from our discussion of Management Polarities and Leadership Offenses:
(1) Being out of balance in a trait creates the need for an expression of the opposite trait.
When a leader only ever expresses one side of a Management Polarity, they unknowingly create the need for an expression of the other side.
A couple of examples. Overly directing leaders shut their people out of the decision-making process and weaken their problem-solving abilities... creating the need for a collaborating trait so the team can flex their creative muscles and become part of the leader’s vision.
Leaders out of balance in what I call the doing trait, who are focused on executing tasks and going into every little detail with their team, create the need for a more delegating trait... which gives greater responsibility over the details to others and frees up time for the leader to focus on the big picture.
In my management polarity quiz I identify 7 pairs of the most common management traits… so there are plenty of ways for leaders to commit Leadership Offenses without realizing it. Click here to take it for free and see which polarities you might be out of balance in.
(2) To resolve issues and tensions, express more of the opposite trait.
Once you recognize you might be out of balance in a particular trait, simply express the opposite trait.
In almost every situation, doing this will usually clear up the issues and tensions stemming from the imbalance.
(3) You don’t have to express both traits equally.
Even though there’s a need for expression of both sides of a Management Polarity, this doesn’t mean you have to express them both in equal measure all of the time.
Sometimes you’ll want to engage one to the exclusion of the other on purpose… such as when you need to get back on track.
(4) A skillful team led by a leader in balance can achieve almost anything.
Nature likes balance. When you express both sides of a Management Polarity, you become more balanced, your team can begin to function as intended.
You begin to regain any credibility you lost from being out of balance in a trait… and you start floating towards the top of the organization, because you naturally become a better leader and everyone will recognize this.
You create an environment in which team members can buy into your vision more easily, and in which they can all pull in the same direction. This gives you the momentum and leverage to achieve big things.
Finally, it frees up time for you to focus on the really important stuff like being productive or reading my book.
(5) Keep a regular eye on which traits you value the most.
Teams change. Circumstances change. Our values, opinions and habits change.
As we evolve we develop new traits or alter the way we express existing ones.
This is why it’s a good idea to check how you feel about each of the 7 management polarities once a year.
I also recommend you do this whenever you notice a persistent issue with your team.
It can sometimes be hard to admit this… but you could well be the source of the issue.
It also goes without saying, it would be incredibly useful if you could have, say… some kind of a handbook sitting on your desk within easy reach, for resolving leadership and management issues as they arise.
