[Workshop] Use the Leadership Wheel to Align Your Style to Your Strategy.

As fast-moving teams change and strategy evolves, even the most committed leaders can find themselves not quite hitting the mark. Maybe the business is scaling and you’re not sure you can keep up, or you’re stepping into a new leadership role and your old ways of working aren’t quite enough. You want to be the best leader that you can be for your team but right now, you're not really sure what that looks like.

Shape your leadership style to drive your strategy.

At OverTime Leader, we see this a lot. For leaders in high-pressure environments, especially in growing organisations, the challenge usually isn’t effort, it’s more about alignment and  knowing how to adjust as a leader as your team evolves, the goals shift and the pace increases.

We use the Leadership Wheel, a tool to help leaders pause and reflect on how you are currently showing up as a leader and where you might need to adapt your behaviors. It gives leaders a clear, visual way to compare how you are leading now with what the team might actually need from you based specifically on your teams’ goals.

Using the Leadership Wheel is especially useful when you’re navigating change: When roles are expanding, new teams are forming, or you’ve stepped into leadership for the first time and want to have impact. By showing you the gap between how you’re currently doing and what’s needed from you, you can make intentional shifts in how you lead your team based on real need, not just from your comfort zone.

The Leadership Wheel helps you get clearer on what’s working, what’s not, and where a simple shift in your approach could unlock more from your team and from yourself.

We’ve made the tool available to download so you can start using it right away.

Use this tool as a practical check-in to see if your leadership skills match what your team really needs.

What You’ll Need

• A printout of the Leadership Wheel template

• A blank piece of paper for capturing ideas

• 2 different coloured pens

• A quiet space for focused reflection

• At least 1 hour of uninterrupted time (turn off the notifications and distractions).

How to Use the Leadership Wheel - solo activity

1. First, think about the next 3–6 months for your team. What are the big shifts, goals or challenges ahead? Are you growing headcount, navigating change or launching a new product?
   Now ask yourself: What kind of leader does my team need right now?
   On your blank piece of paper, jot down as many attributes or behaviors as you can that would help your team succeed. Aim for at least 6-8. It might be that your team needs clear communication or that decisions need to be made fast. Perhaps it’s empathy that they need to see in such a fast-moving environment.

2. Choose the top 6 leadership attributes that you believe will have the biggest positive impact. Write one in each segment of the Leadership Wheel.

3. Along the lines on each section of the leadership wheel, use one coloured pen to rate yourself for each attribute on a scale from 1 to 10 (1 being “I rarely show up this way” and 10 being “I do this naturally and consistently”). Be honest! Remember, this is for your own growth, not for performance review.

4. Now, thinking where you need to be in order for your team to achieve their goals, mark yourself again on the attributes scale using a different coloured pen.  Again, use the  scale from 1 to 10 where you think you need to be. For example, it might be important to use documentation consistently during this time of change, so you might score this as an 8. 

5. Identify the 2 or 3 attributes with the biggest difference between your ability score and the team’s needs score and reflect: Why might there be such a big gap right now? What’s getting in the way? What small shifts could I make to strengthen these areas?

6. Think of some tangible actions that will shift your behavior towards you becoming the leader that your team needs now. Make these really practical and not too overwhelming. For example, updating the team once a week to share focus or even moving where you sit in the office so that you can be more connected with your team. Think of small steps that will start shifting your behavior. 

7. Get going! Start implementing these actions so that you start shifting that leadership style into the leader that your team needs you to be.  Use the wheel regularly to check in as your leadership context evolves.

Enjoy this process.

Let me know how you get on.

Gillian

Download our Leadership Wheel

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