The Harmonic Leadership Styles allow you to tune in to understanding self & others.
In a band, the musicians play different instruments, each using their unique musical strengths to share their special gifts to create great music. In a team, each person brings their unique strengths and special gifts to create a great team.
The 6 Harmonic Leadership Styles represent a view of the primarily recognized styles within leaders around the world. The main differences are seen in the areas of leadership focus, communication, culture building, and the way that caring is shared. A unique set of traits is attributed to each style that are noticeable as they interrelate with others. Each style of leader can be equally effective by relying on their unique strengths.
The six styles are represented within a view of a wheel, with each style having a triangle that meets at a point in the center of the wheel. The word within each triangle at the top is the name of the style (Engager, Encourager, Speaker, Doer, Observer, and Helper), and the five words underneath are leadership traits that are often exhibited by that style.
There are two sides to the wheel, with the front representing the “Strengths” and the back representing the “Challenges” in how a leader tends to display their leadership to others.
This view creates a deep understanding of how each style can meet in the middle, through the Center Point of Caring, to better interrelate and work with the other styles to accomplish great things.
Further below is a brief overview of the six styles to get you started in your understanding. You’ll see that each style is represented by an emoji that illustrates the traits, with the color and the expression being indicative of the style.
Take the Harmonic Leadership Styles Assessment in the Book.
In the book you’ll find the assessment for determining your unique blend of styles. You will also find detailed information on each style, along with short stories that illustrate how people of a given style tend to interact with others in a team. Most people are a blend of multiple styles, but there is generally one primary style that can be discerned. Since the printed book is in grayscale, we’re providing a downloadable, colorized version of the wheel that you can use as an ongoing reference tool.
Harmonic Leadership Styles Overview
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Engager
Leads through engaging with others. The Engager is interactive and focuses on exploring imaginative ideas with the team. Engagers tend to be more lighthearted and convey emotions when communicating. Creates a free and flexible culture. Displays caring by inviting others to join in the group.
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Encourager
Leads through encouraging others. The Encourager is enthusiastic and focuses on showing excitement for the team’s activity. Encouragers tend to be more extroverted and externalize their thoughts when communicating. Creates a very upbeat culture. Displays caring by encouraging hope.
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Speaker
Leads through speaking to others. The Speaker is assertive and focuses on directing the path and actions of the team. Speakers tend to be more proactive and speak forthrightly when communicating. Creates a diligent culture. Displays caring by offering direction.
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Doer
Leads through doing for others. The Doer is pragmatic and focuses on getting the most important work done through the team. Doers tend to be more serious and convey ideas when communicating. Creates a focused culture. Displays caring by accomplishing things.
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Observer
Leads through observing others. The Observer is reasonable and focuses on using sound judgment in planning the team’s work. Observers tend to be more introverted and process thoughts internally when communicating. Creates a consistent culture. Displays caring by recognizing needs.
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Helper
Leads through helping others. The Helper is supportive and focuses on serving the unique needs of each team-member. Helpers tend to be more reflective and speak politely when communicating. Creates a fair culture. Displays caring by providing assistance.
Sharing Strengths
The Harmonic Leadership Strengths denote the positive strengths that a leader displays that leads to team-strengthening.
When a leader is in a good and positive mood, they naturally tend to share their primary strengths. This is displayed in their daily interactions with team-members, colleagues and their leaders.
This positive manner of leading creates a positive culture. Each of the 6 styles can be an equally effective leader by sharing their unique strengths.
This leads to building a strong and resilient team that can be highly successfully in completing work and overcoming obstacles.
The key to being an effective leader is to intently focus on sharing leadership strengths to increase positivity.
Be True to Yourself…
Be authentic and embrace who you are, for you are uniquely special.
As stated in the book, even though the six styles are uniquely different in the way that they approach the work and the workplace (and life in general), every style can get along well with any of the other types as they interrelate with each other, especially if they flex their leadership styles enough at the beginning to immediately strengthen the relationship. Any two people, regardless of differences in their geography, heredity, cultural upbringing, religion, or any other diversity element, can form a positive working relationship if both of them are inclusively sharing their positive Strengths.
Like a smile can spread from person to person, even if they speak different languages,
positivity spreads from person to person as well.
Each Harmonic Leadership Style brings their own special strengths and talents to the team in order to build a positive working environment. And through this diversity of style, the team becomes stronger.
Limiting Challenges
The Leadership Challenges denote the negative traits that a leader shows that causes team-weakening.
When a leader is in a bad and negative mood, they naturally tend to show their primary challenges. This is also displayed in their daily interactions with team-member, colleagues and their leaders.
This negative manner of leading causes a negative culture. Each of the 6 styles can be equally ineffective by showing their unique challenges.
This leads to causing a weak and dysfunctional team that will ultimately fall short of goals and become stuck by obstacles.
Another key to being an effective leader is to dedicate yourself to limiting the showing of the challenges to lessen negativity.
No One is Perfect…
We each show some of these challenges, to some degree, some of the time.
As stated in the book, there are many factors that can cause a person to shift into displaying the challenges, and most of the factors are outside of a person’s direct control. This is why it’s imperative for each of us to understand what triggers cause negativity so we all can be on guard against our triggers, and help those around us manage theirs. Within the workplace, there are common themes in what causes leaders to fall into the pattern of showing challenges.
Why Leaders Show Challenges
Highly stressful work situations.
Far too much work and tiredness.
Unreasonable expectation and pressure.
Personal outside negative situations affecting us.
Other people displaying negative-challenges towards us.
These causes are very common and are experienced by a large percentage of leaders, a large percentage of the time within their work. Emotionally mature leaders have developed coping mechanisms to keep a balance, but even the most mature leader will occasionally have bad days when the strain causes the challenges to arise. Since every person on earth is susceptible to feeling and displaying the challenges, we should all be patient with each other. No one is immune from these negative challenges, and many things that happen on a daily basis can push a person into the negative space, so we should be patient with each other. .
Observable Styles - Not Personality
The Harmonic Leadership Styles (HLS) model provides a view of 6 different styles. This model has been formed through years of observational research to discern these six primary ways that people tend to approach situations where they are expected to lead other people. It is aligned with the DISC Behavioral Trait system, but delineates six styles instead of four to create a clearer view.
This is not a Personality Profiling System, but rather a
simple delineation of various styles in how people lead others.
It’s important to understand that this is not intended to be a personality profiling system. People are far too complex to assume that they could be described within this limited view. The HLS view is intended to provide a recognizable snapshot of how different styles of leaders tend to display leadership traits in the way that they communicate and lead other people.
Even though the HLS is not a personality guide, we have created mappings to some of the most well-known personality and behavioral style models. If you’re familiar with one of those systems, it can help in your understanding of how the six HLS styles show up within a team.
Each style is detailed within the book, providing a deep understanding of how the style interrelates, leads and teams with others. Throughout the book, the styles are used to understand various leadership concepts through the lens of how your individual style tends to approach various situations, and how to use your innate strengths to successfully navigate the situation.