Have you ever experienced a leader who is a master at what he or she does and people still hate working for them? If so, you’ve got a lot of company. How can someone so skilled technically be so toxic when it comes to leading others?

I often have my coaching clients complete a best and worst “bosses” exercise. After several years of this, what surfaces almost every time is that the distinguishing characteristic of the best bosses is a high-level of social and emotional intelligence (SEI), not technical skills, expertise or accomplishment. It’s the exact opposite for the worst bosses.

Although the study of leadership is typically considered qualitative and somewhat art, we have some quantitative evidence to inform us well.

What we know about Leadership

Here is what we know from a study of almost four-thousand successful executives selected out of a random sample of over twenty-thousand executives world-wide:

• Social and emotional intelligence (SEI) is the foundation of great leadership; leaders lacking in it are rarely rated as outstanding
• There are at least 6 predominate styles of leadership correlated with SEI competencies that are behaviorally defined.
• All 6 styles are have a place when applied in the right measure and at the right time
• Four of these styles have a positive effect when consistently applied
• Two of these have a negative effect when consistently applied.
• One of the styles with a negative effect “fakes-out” most people because it looks noble but in fact is destructive.

Pacesetting Style of Leadership

The obvious question is “What is the one leadership style that fakes people out easily and that no one want too much of?” It’s called Pacesetting.A leader characterized by a Pacesetting style is

• Typically highly skilled
• Has an unrelenting drive to achieve
• Set’s high standards for performance that he or she exemplifies themselves.

The style in a phrase is “do as I do, now”. What could be wrong with that? Nothing, unless you force those same standards and expectations on those you lead, .everyone, .all the time.

Make no mistake, the Pacesetting style works well when used selectively with smaller teams of similar, highly skilled and motivated individuals to achieve a specific result on time or ahead of schedule. However, when used exclusively or extensively people will feel overwhelmed and resentful.In fact, they often take on characteristics of learned helplessness.

This type of leader assumes people know what are the expectations of excellence, doesn’t trust people to get the job done as well as it needs to be, and doesn’t extend the trust required for others to take initiative. After all, if you want to get the job done right, you have to do it yourself, right? Wrong.Leadership, at it’s very core, is getting work done through others.

Why It’s Common

So why is the Pacesetting style of leadership so common in physical therapy, especially among those leading teams of clinicians and in small to medium sized practices and organizational units?The same reason it’s pervasive among most professions that require a high-level of technical competency and/or specialization: pride in hard gained personal knowledge, skill, and performance. The other key reason is that people assume that the same ingredients that make for a great clinician also make for a great leader.Unfortunately that isn’t the case, as many who have been bludgeoned and burned out by this style can attest to. One unfortunate outcome is that often a great clinician becomes disillusioned and believes that they can’t lead. Another one is that the people who have been led by them become embittered or have left the organization.

Evidence indicates the most effective leaders use a mix of the six leadership styles, ..at the right time, with the right people and in the right context. That sounds a lot like how a great clinician treats patients. The approach is the same and the competencies are different. The good news is that leadership competencies and styles, like clinical skills, can be learned through deliberate practice.

Question: Where am I experiencing or demonstrating a Pacesetting style of leadership?