Do you have a pacesetting leadership style? Pacesetting leaders lead by example and expect team members to be self directed. They demand the same outstanding performance from others as they do for themselves. Sounds great, right? Well, there’s more to the Pacesetting style than meets the eye.

According to Daniel Goleman’s research and insights, pacesetting can “poison the climate in an organization.” He suggests that this type of leadership approach should be used sparingly, given its potential to affect team members’ morale and sense of achievement negatively.

You may be thinking to yourself, “if my most comfortable style of leading is pacesetting, how can I leverage my strengths to create engagement and results for my organization?”

The Upside of the Pacesetting Leadership Style

• Pacesetters work tenaciously, creating a sense of urgency in a company
• They focus on doing things faster and more effectively
• Pacesetting leaders like to be presented with difficult challenges and exciting goals, which they use to drive their team to deliver
• They expect things to get done, and will simply not accept poor performance

This approach works well with highly competent, self-motivated employees who require little direction or coordination – for example, it can work for leaders of highly skilled and self-motivated professionals like teams of accountants, lawyers, researchers and technicians. With the right team in place, pacesetting leadership will deliver results on time or even ahead of schedule.

Pacesetting leaders set high standards for themselves and for those they lead. One of the key attributes of this style is the “lead by example” approach. They don’t ask their team to do anything they wouldn’t do themselves. Additionally, they will not hesitate to jump right in to take over a project to achieve results when they think progress is occurring too slowly. In the short term, they are capable of outstanding performance in terms of accomplishing tasks, as well as ensuring the quality of the work itself.

The most effective scenario in which to use the pacesetting style is when results are required quickly from an already highly motivated and competent group. For it to work well, the motivation that’s driving the pacesetting leader must also exist among the team’s members.

This style also works extraordinarily well when individual group members display high levels of competency in the specific tasks they are going to complete. Whether this comes from aptitude or experience, the group members are going to be asked to work quickly. There is no time to learn on the job, or to teach someone a skill that may be lacking in their toolbox.

Leveraging Your Pacesetting Style

We suggest raising your level of self awareness as the critical first step in making positive changes to any style of leadership, keeping in mind that one style should not be used excessively. The key is being flexible and adaptive to the situation and the people around you; by doing so, you will have the ability to practise various styles of leadership based on situation and need, which, as research has proven, is far more effective.

There are, however, ten key strategies pacesetters can implement to create a more cohesive team and achieve sustainable results without pressuring themselves to deliver all the work on their own (or burn people out):

1. Be open to others’ ideas and opinions
2. Encourage feedback from your team and ask them to share when your dominant pacesetting style begins to take over
3. Delegate or assign tasks and projects to others; stop taking the work on all by yourself!
4. Take the time to coach, develop and offer feedback to your people; ensure everyone has a development plan and that you are actively engaged in your team’s overall development
5. Recognize and praise your team; treat them like colleagues — not subordinates
6. Align people with common and individual goals
7. Learn to trust others, especially the people who work directly for you
8. Check your ego at the door – the pacesetter’s self esteem rests on being smarter, faster and more thorough than everyone else, so soften that competitive edge by being a supportive coach and colleague
9. Hire an Executive Coach or find a mentor in the organization who will coach and support you in shifting your style, but will also hold you accountable to your commitments
10. Invest in your own professional development and work with your respective leader to create your own development plan to ensure you are staying the course in making positive, powerfully effective changes

A number of other insights and strategies exist that can help you shift your pacesetting style in more meaningful, impactful ways. What are your thoughts on the pacesetting leadership style and how can you best leverage your strengths? Please share your ideas and experiences — we would love to hear from you! And stay tuned for our next article on the Authoritarian style of leadership!

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