There are broad kinds of leaders. I had the the chance to work with some. It just recently stroke me that those kinds essentially boil down into 2 types: the “Chef” and the “Salesman” leaders.
Salesmanship requires broad skills of emotional intelligence, body language reading and good product understanding to motivate a person to perform an action, without feeling being forced. Leadership in essence is exactly that; influencing individuals to perform actions without forcing them to it (otherwise it becomes ‘slavery’). As a “Salesman” type of leader, you’ll find yourself attempting to read the person you manage, understand what exactly he wants or motivates him and try to “sell” the action to him. For example, as R&D leader of such type, you might tell a developer what he might benefit by completing this task. Your motivation is about bonding your or organizational interests with the individual’s interests. In spite of the resemblance of salesmanship and leadership, considering myself as a “salesman” leader comes in bad notation, at least for me. Am I really “selling” this to my team? Is being salesman leader is a bad thing?
In the small choky, smoky and noisy room you’ll find the chef. Running around, shouting orders to his cooks, gatekeeping the dishes to make sure they’re being served to his standard. The chef is the leader in the kitchen. But his style is much different that the “Salesman” type. He motivates individuals to perform actions by strongly binding the team’s goal to the contribution of the individual. Not by “selling” what he personally get from it, rather what the team gets out of it. The chef sets a vision and the cooks respects him for his experience/knowledge. This respect create a big motive and binding all to a shared goal. As R&D leader of type “Chef” you’ll be gaining respect from the individuals by your own experience and you’ll be focused on a definitive vision. The chef doesn’t care about one’s personal benefit or growth, this being overshadowed by the big collective vision.
So what kind of leader should I be? “Salesman” who reads people so well that he “sells” actions to reach the goal? Or “Chef” who defines clear vision but overshadows individuals?
The fact is, R&D leader should be both. A leader should have a clear and definitive shared goal and a vision, whilst he must read each individual, know where he comes from and where he wants him to go, so he could ‘sell’ to him and bund him to the task. It takes time and effort to gain people’s trust. One doesn’t just put his faith in a leader, rather the leader “invests” in this “trust fund”. Small by small, action by action.
An effective leader will identify when he needs to be a salesman and when he needs to be a chef.
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