How embracing a soft leadership style changes your ability to attract talent
Laura Prael, director of LEP Digital, describes her experience recruiting during and post COVID. She explains what small and medium-sized business owners can do to compete in the difficult labour market.
A few years ago, I engaged a leadership coach to carry out a workshop for my digital agency. The aim was to find ways to be more productive and efficient together. At the time, I didn’t realise how pivotal this would be to shaping my ability to attract talent today.
My team and I were asked to undertake a personality profiling exercise using the ‘DISC’ self-assessment behavioural tool — used by around 75 per cent of Fortune 500 companies. DISC is an acronym for describing four central personality traits organised in a quadrant: dominance, influence, steadiness, and conscientiousness. People can have a mixture of two styles, but only if they sit next to each other on the quadrant.
A Google search will tell you that most people believe that dominant and conscientious styles, or ideally a combination of both, make for the best leaders. The adjectives commanding, delegator, risk-taker, calculated, results-driven, competitive and decisive are synonymous with the D and C styles, and mirror what our society expects of a leader.
