Leaders, as all people, make their decisions in an instant based on their gut instincts.
Our intuition is nothing less than pattern recognition in our highly efficient emotional brain -- making quick and effortless judgments and taking action.
We form positive or negative impressions in a mere "blink" or "thin slice" of time as described in Malcolm Gladwell's bestseller, blink (Little Brown, 2005), which promotes decision concepts around what Gladwell refers to as the adaptive unconscious: "Decisions made very quickly can be every bit as good as decisions made cautiously and deliberately."
We form positive or negative impressions in a mere "blink" or "thin slice" of time as described in Malcolm Gladwell's bestseller, blink (Little Brown, 2005), which promotes decision concepts around what Gladwell refers to as the adaptive unconscious: "Decisions made very quickly can be every bit as good as decisions made cautiously and deliberately."
Many managers mistakenly assume that leadership style is always a function of personality rather than strategic choice. Their leadership style is based upon their innate signature talents and this represents their default leadership behaviour. However, leaders can choose a different leadership style that best addresses the demands of a particular situation.
Being unaware that we can change our leadership style to match the situation at hand, we unconsciously engage our default behavior. Only when we become aware of something are we able to make choices as to the action we wish to take. The ultimate leadership responsibility is modeling the behaviours you expect from others.
To a large degree, leaders operate in a fishbowl. Employees are constantly watching the leader--and learning from him or her.
With thanks, to Coach2Coach Newsletter, October 8, 2008
