The HOST: Leadership Style Deep Dive

Thanks for joining me again, and I hope you’re enjoying high summer.

Last time, we dove into the four Leadership Impact Styles: Host, Energizer, Disruptor, and Catalyst. The next four newsletters will explore each of these in depth, beginning with:

The Host.

If you read the last issue, you know that our unique style of leadership includes our strengths and tendencies, and it highlights how we respond to challenges and inspire others. It also reveals our opportunities for growth, and the other positive dynamics we aren’t naturally predisposed to exhibit.

This is where the magic lies! Welcome back to the Leader’s Playground. Let’s dive in.

(PS - If you haven’t done so yet, pop over and take the Leadership Impact Assessment from PotentialSquared to identify and measure your unique Leadership Impact Style. It takes just a few minutes to complete, and you’ll receive your results—with specific insights and guidance based on your style straight into your inbox—at the end.)

Welcome back to the Leader’s Playground!

What to Read This Week

My friend Michael Bungay Stainer (“MBS” to many) has just released his latest book, How to Work With (Almost) Anyone: Five Questions for Building the Best Possible Relationships.

It is fantastic. Brené Brown even wrote a review praising it! The premise is that the quality of your working relationships determines your happiness and success—pretty straightforward. For that reason, MBS tells us to “Stop leaving it all to chance.”

We can build relationships that are safe, vital, and repairable. This happens via one essential conversation, and five powerful questions. MBS teaches us how to have that essential conversation, and what questions to ask.

As a leader focused on connection and engagement—and a friend of MBS’s—I couldn’t be more enthralled with this invaluable new tool. Thank you, MBS, for sharing your wisdom with all of us!

Leadership Impact Styles: The Host

If you follow me on LinkedIn or Instagram, you know I love Ted Lasso. And if you read the last issue of The Leader’s Playground, you know that Ted Lasso himself is the quintessential Host type.

The Host has the ability to bring people together, break down barriers, and engage them to build psychological safety. Ted is charismatic, kind, thoughtful, and always going out of his way to ensure those he cares about are taken care of.

Just as one would evolve conversation and connection among a rag-tag dinner party crew, Ted brings together the diverse and often at-odds men of UFC Richmond with a beautiful ease.

If you’re a host, you already establish and sustain a network of relationships, and you are gifted at developing that network into an engaged team. You can further leverage that strength by:

• Ensuring your team or network is actively engaged in advocating for your agenda

• Keeping your team or network fresh and diverse in terms of the latest thinking, global reach, culture, and backgrounds

• Paying it forward, aka using the 80/20 principal. This means that you offer to help 80% of the time, and ask for help 20% of the time.

• Using your team or network to actively prototype and test your ideas. You have relationships of trust with smart, engaged people — lean on them!

• Aligning your team or network’s agenda with yours – then identifying the areas of strongest active collaboration to further prioritize and nurture. This is where major opportunities can arise.

At its core, the Host is all about relationship and connection. Makes sense, right?

Just as a great host welcomes in each and every guest at their door, keeps a keen eye on everyone throughout the evening, makes meaningful introductions between aligned individuals, and strives for comfort and ease with those around them, a Host-style leader finds success through building an engaged, connected team built on strong relationships.

But to really thrive, we must not only reinforce the style we naturally lean to, but also lean into and grow our other styles of leadership. If you’re a Host, where can you start to lean into some of the characteristics of a Catalyst, an Energizer, or a Disruptor?

Ted had to stretch his comfort zone in order to push his team to victory. He expanded his “Host” style to include qualities of the Catalyst (tough love) and the Disruptor (implementing Total Football), and that’s when the breakthroughs began.

Don’t worry if you’re not sure how to lean into these other styles. We’ll cover them in upcoming issues.

We’ll take a look at the Energizer next…. Free box of biscuits to the first person who remembers what Ted Lasso character embodies this wild and driven leadership style! (Just kidding - you don’t want my biscuits.)

The Leadership Tales Podcast

That’s a wrap! Series 5 has come to a close, and I’m reflecting on highlights from all the wonderful conversations with this special “Best Of Series 5” episode.

It brings some of the most powerful moments from conversations with Chris Wilson, Rich Diviney, Adam Billing, Joshua Seiden, Ken Mossman, and Tom Kaden and Michael Gingerich of Someone To Tell It To.

These lovely people have shared their unique perspectives on leadership, personal stories from their careers, and actionable insights and tips that can help you in your own life and career. I hope you enjoy this trip down memory lane, and mark your calendars for Series 6 to launch!

You can check it out and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts—and if you can, please leave a review. Each review helps put our show in front of more listeners, which means more opportunities for those who need them.

Until next time...

If you still haven’t taken the Leadership Impact Assessment, block out 10min this week to go through it and find your results. It’s a great way to gain insights into not only your unique strengths as a leader, but also the opportunities for growth at the edges.

Plus, don’t you want to know whether you’re a Ted, Rebecca, Roy, or Beard? 😉

Thanks again for joining me, and please do forward this on to a friend who may enjoy it—the best way to gain wisdom is in community. The more, the merrier!

See you in two weeks!

Cheers,

Colin

To learn more about my book, Be More Wrong: How Failure Makes You an Outstanding Leader, click here.