Shifting between the three different roles of a leader

In today's episode, Mattias talks about the three roles of a leader and why he sometimes struggles to shift in between those.

THE VICTORIES

Mattias is starting this week's summary by talking about the recent victories. This week, he had the monthly meeting with his managers and he explains that it was the best one they ever had. He can really tell that all the hard work everyone put into improving themselves pays off. Everyone contributed to the discussions, and he didn't feel that anyone was hiding.

WHAT COULD I HAVE DONE DIFFERENTLY?

Mattias discovered that he shifts between three different roles as a leader.

1. Coach
Being a coach means challenging people. This means that you are not giving people the answers. Instead, you help them to find the answers themselves.

2. Instructor
As an instructor, you're very practically helping people and showing them how things need to be done. Especially when people are new to the team, Mattias finds himself being an instructor. Before someone has their competence, they need some instructions. After that, they should be good to go and do these things by themselves, though.

3. Mentor
Mentorship is all about owning a role and staying in your mandate. This role is the hardest for Mattias to play because he naturally is someone who wants to help other people and often finds himself being the coach or the instructor. However, if, e.g., an account manager comes to you and asks if you could look over that email they want to send to a customer, you need to be careful not to create codependency.

As soon as you agree to read that email, you're also feeding into the security of your counterpart. Soon you will find yourself rewriting all of that person's emails, and they will never have the confidence to send anything without your approval. In this situation, you need to remind people about their mandate and that this is exactly what they were hired to do. You can't do everyone else's job.

💡 EPISODE TAKE AWAY
Make sure to balance the different roles you have as a leader. You can't do everyone else's job.

Which of the roles is the strongest for you as a leader?