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High-Impact Leadership: Train Managers to Effectively Use Leadership Styles

Build a leadership toolkit to encompass many styles and create high-impact results.

  • Concern about current and future leaders of the company having the awareness and capabilities required to deliver both business and people imperatives.
  • The lack of leadership skills in non-executive levels are leading to lower employee engagement, employee dissatisfaction, and lack of promotable management.
  • Leadership training has not delivered desirable results. Training has not been linked to talent and business strategy with robust measurement post-training to validate that leader behavior has changed as a result of the training.
  • When managers use ineffective leadership styles or use the same style in every situation, results are ineffective both from a strategic imperative perspective and cultural climate perspective. This ineffectiveness can interfere with positive team relationships and business deliverables.

Need Extra Help?
Speak With An Analyst.


  • Get on-demand project support
  • Get advice, coaching, and insight at key project milestones
  • Go through a Guided Implementation to help you get through your project

Our Advice

Critical Insight

  • Self-awareness is leadership development. Managers must be able to manage themselves to become a high-impact leader. Unless managers take charge of their own development, they cannot take charge of situations. Unless managers create order in themselves, they cannot contribute to creating order in others on their teams, in their departments, amongst their peers.
  • There is no right or wrong way to lead. There is a right way to lead given the situation. The work world is changing – teams, organizations, and strategic imperatives change. Using only one style of leadership will not net the desired results for the demands of all situations all the time. Effective leaders have many leadership styles in their toolkit to draw from for high-impact results both from a business and people perspective.

Impact and Result

  • Managers that train on effectively using leadership styles will gain the skills they need to assess situations to determine the right high-impact leadership style that benefits the team and the organization.
  • Managers that learn how to use multiple leadership styles for high-impact results will positively affect the organizational culture.
  • Effective high-impact leaders engage employees so they feel passionately about their work and deliver on organizational objectives.

High-Impact Leadership: Train Managers to Effectively Use Leadership Styles Research & Tools

1. Gain information on running a manager training session on effective use of leadership styles

Get buy-in for the training from key stakeholders and ensure that the training runs smoothly.

2. Calculate a cost-benefit analysis for the training session

Understand the hard costs and benefits of running a leadership development program.

3. Gain awareness of participants’ preferred leadership styles and areas of strength and opportunity

Identify areas to work on and if improvement occurs.

4. Train managers on effective use of leadership styles

Provide managers with skills and best practices for effective use of leadership styles.

5. Create individual development plans for training participants

Ensure that the training improves on-the-job behaviors and actions.

6. Provide participants with takeaway materials from the training session

Give managers resources for future reference.

7. Evaluate the outcome of the leadership styles training program

Determine if the training was successful and had a positive effect on managers’ behavior.


Workshop: High-Impact Leadership: Train Managers to Effectively Use Leadership Styles

Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

Module 1: The importance of mastering leadership styles

The Purpose

  • Learn the basics of leadership styles.
  • Understand the value of mastering many leadership styles.  

Key Benefits Achieved

  • Understand how the use of effective leadership styles impacts the bottom line.
  • Appreciate how self-awareness aids in leadership development. 

Activities

Outputs

1.1

Group exercise: brainstorm leadership styles you have preferred in the past

  • Understanding that there is no right or wrong leadership style but there is a right leadership style for a given situation
1.2

Self-reflection: review of 360 degree feedback and conduct leadership self-assessment

  • Reflection on your own leadership feedback
  • Determined alignment with your self-assessment and identified strengths and weaknesses

Module 2: How to use effective leadership styles

The Purpose

  • Learn the six leadership styles.
  • Review the McLean & Company process model for diagnosing the situation in order to select an appropriate style.
  • Find out which two styles should be used only when needed due to their negative effective on the climate. 

Key Benefits Achieved

  • Understanding of the leadership styles.
  • Grasp of what the styles look like in action, including when to use each style and when not to.
  • A decision tree to use when unsure what leadership style to proceed with. 

Activities

Outputs

2.1

Review leadership self-assessment

  • Preferred and least preferred leadership styles
2.2

Exercise: examples of leadership styles in a work environment

  • Application of the leadership style assessment to your organization

Module 3: Practical application of leadership styles in the work world

The Purpose

  • Gain practice assessing effectiveness or ineffectiveness of leadership styles in various situations.

Key Benefits Achieved

  • Skills for successfully diagnosing and selecting styles depending on the situation.

Activities

Outputs

3.1

Exercise: group activity – two case studies

  • Identify effective or ineffective styles in the work world

Module 4: Next steps and training wrap-up

The Purpose

  • Review of training material and how self-awareness is key for leadership development.

Key Benefits Achieved

  • Managers are able to ask further questions about content training.

Activities

Outputs

4.1

Document behavioral changes and future goals for handling conflict constructively

  • Individual development plans for the competency of conflict resolution

Build a leadership toolkit to encompass many styles and create high-impact results.

About McLean & Company

McLean & Company is an HR research and advisory firm providing practical solutions to human resources challenges via executable research, tools, diagnostics, and advisory services that have a clear and measurable impact on your business.

What Is a Blueprint?

A blueprint is designed to be a roadmap, containing a methodology and the tools and templates you need to solve your HR problems.

Each blueprint can be accompanied by a Guided Implementation that provides you access to our world-class analysts to help you get through the project.

Need Extra Help?
Speak With An Analyst

Get the help you need in this 1-phase advisory process. You'll receive 3 touchpoints with our researchers, all included in your membership.

  • Call 1: Make the case

    Discuss how to gain stakeholder buy-in for leadership training, the costs and benefits of internal vs. external training, and metrics to judge training success. Review the High-Impact Leadership Styles Training Program ROI Analysis Tool.

  • Call 2: Prepare for high-impact leadership styles training

    Discuss module selection, logistics, and content customization. Review the 360 Review Feedback Form and the Effective Leadership Styles Training Deck.

  • Call 3: Evaluate training effectiveness

    Review training session results, as well as any suggested training modifications.

Contributors

  • Mike Grabarek, Director of Organizational Development, The Lane Construction Corporation
  • Jim Dybevik, Director of Human Resources, Pokagon Band of Potawatomi
  • Naila Qazi, Director of Training, Hamilton Health Sciences Centre
  • Lisa Harlow, VP, Human Resources, CoastHills Federal Credit Union
  • Brenda Huizinga, Senior Manager, Leadership Development, Transit
  • Angel Prescott – Brown, Associate Director, Corporate HR, Leadership Development, Bell
  • Karen Wright, Managing Director Parachute Executive Coaching
  • Ashley Archer, Owner, Social Graces PR
  • Rebecca Parks, Sr. Consultant - Talent Management & Leadership Development Strategy, London Health Sciences Center