What are your strengths as a leader? Possibly communication, collaboration or guidance. Few leaders have just one strength. Their skills are a mixture of strengths that allow them to be the coaches, guides, managers they are. This article suggests that some managers might be “one-pitch” leaders, meaning they rely solely on one asset. While baseball pitchers might depend on only one specific pitch, managers simply can’t use one single leadership skill or style to guide their team. Let’s look at the theory behind these “one-pitch” managers… 

        Article’s opinion                  Vitru’s opinion

The article then goes on to describe how you can fix these personality traits. You can’t. They are parts of your personality that, while you do need to understand, you shouldn’t have to change. These recommendations include everything from a deepened evaluation of a 360-degree performance review to change based on the opinions of other people to balancing potentially poor leadership or even abrasive behavior.

Change the Delivery

You can change, however, the way you present these leadership skills and traits. Unfortunately, only half of employees believe their managers are open and up-front with them. You don’t need to have a specific management style to be somewhat transparent with your team. Your strengths don’t make you “lopsided” as the article suggests – everyone has strengths and weaknesses and these weaknesses are refined with the variance in skills of your team.

The human side of your organization is what leads to the success of your team, so what’s important to be aware of is the delivery of your leadership style depending on their communication preferences. With an employee personality assessment, you’ll be able to determine how your team connects and works together so you can pinpoint the best way to interface with your employees. Why is strategic communication with your team so important? Because it increases engagement:

“… Engagement is highest among employees who have some form (face-to-face, phone or digital) of daily communication with their managers. Managers who use a combination of face-to-face, phone and electronic communication are the most successful in engaging employees.”

Targeted communication, not leadership style, is essential in connecting with and engaging your employees so you can form better teams. How you interact with your team should be based on how they best receive information, not necessarily how you give it.

Your skills as a leader, even if they are single-surfaced, are who you are as a leader. You can grow and develop in other traits, but ultimately they are the foundation of your leadership style. You can’t change your personality traits to fit those around you, but you can however, change the delivery of your communication. Target your communication to fit the needs of the team so to engage them in their work and with the team. With an

With an employee assessment tool that combines work traits with personality markers, you can discover employee values in the workplace so you’re able to communicate on a deeper level. A “one-pitch” manager isn’t always a poor leader. 

Bio: Ryan Mead 

Ryan Mead is the CEO and Founder of Vitru, an employee assessment tool that provides recruiters, hiring professionals, coaches and managers with the insights they need to manage their teams and make better hiring decisions. Powered by science, yet practical and easy to use for a variety of teams, Vitru work for organizations of all size. Want to learn more? Visit our blog or sign up for a freeteam building personality test account to assess your team today! Tweet me at@GoVitru