New leaders tend to mimic their bosses’ style and actions. This happens in a very unconscious manner and may or may not work depending on the context.
In my first leadership role, I started following (unconsciously) my manager’s style of working. My manager was hands-off, looked only at high-level details, and provided all the autonomy to his team to make decisions and execute.
His style was in sync with the org culture of trusting people and there was no pressure on managers to know every detail of their direct reports’ work. Managers in this firm believed that their primary job was to set high-level directions, set the team up for success and motivate the team.
When I followed this style while leading my team, it just worked very seamlessly without me having to undergo any formal training or mentoring.
In another leadership role a couple of years later, my boss was a hands-on product person. He loved solving complex problems himself and was able to shuffle between higher and lower-level details. This shuffling and hustling stuff came to him very naturally.
When I (again unconsciously) tried to mimic him, it did not work and only created a sense of incompleteness within me.
Luckily after some time, I understood that I shouldn’t attempt to do everything he does.
A few years later (after we both moved to different companies) we both met for a coffee. The boss told me that his obsession for problem-solving and going in-depth are in fact preventing him from growing to CXO positions. What I assumed earlier as someone’s strength has indeed become a weakness when the context changed.
Why do we mimic bosses during the early stage of our careers? It is because we tend to consider our bosses as role models.
When one just gets into a leadership role, there is a tendency to blindly learn from others without critically analyzing the environment and the behaviors required to become successful there. This is similar to kids trying to mimic their parents.
Have you ever faced/seen this and what can be done to have a balanced approach? Let me know in the comments.
