Topic : Developing Versatile Leadership

Summary
Modern leadership models generally acknowledge that effective leaders must possess a number of seemingly contradictory qualities and skill sets. Leaders must have more than one approach to leadership and must understand when a particular style or set of behaviors is most appropriate. However, inadequate performance or the tendency to be lop-sided into one of the leadership approach can result to leadership failure. (Kaplan & Robert Kaiser, 2003)
Kaiser and Kaplan have defined versatile leadership is about maintaining a balance between the functional and strategic needs of your role while has the take charge attitude and the ability to delegate and empower the team.
A versatile leader has mastered the balancing act of his strengths – strategic or operational without overdoing it. A leader, who can be a visionary and has the ability to control strategies and tactics, who is an autocratic but, also understands the team’s needs.
Versatile leadership is about behavior and concerns being able to freely use opposing styles and equal ease, unencumbered by a bias in favor of one side and prejudice against each other. Versatility requires judgment - knowing which approach, the willingness to use a given approach and the skill sets of being good at using that approach. (Kaiser, 2007)
Versatile leaders recognize that each situation may require them to modify their style or even stretch their typical or preferred way of working with others to meet the needs of people and requirements of the situation.
The key to understand the root causes of the imbalance or lopsidedness. To assess the manager’s leadership skills, a 360 review was develop by Robert Kaplan to capture overdoing your strengths hence causing the imbalance.
Causes of imbalance and my personal experience
I do have first-hand experiences of being one