You may have learned to be a Protector simply by watching your parents or caregivers as a child way before you could talk. Many children have been programmed to do what the grown ups say and to follow the house rules.

When Protectors become a Manager they may unconsciously start treating their team like family. Just like a protective parent, you may give your employees all the answers so they do not have to figure things out on their own.

You may think for them and organize projects to save time and effort, but they never learn from their own results. What this behavior teaches the team: do not bother figuring it out, you will just fix it anyway.

Never learned to ask questions instead of giving answers.

The skill to build: coaching through inquiry, letting people learn from their own results.

As a Performer, somewhere along the way you decided to take over and just get it done by yourself. Sometimes this is due to being promoted from being the top producer into a management position, one of the toughest career transitions many leaders ever make. They are two entirely different skill sets. You are trained in ways to compete for the winning score and not given the communication skills to hold people accountable.

You want the win for yourself, so you control by never communicating. You never let them in, and you never ask for their ideas or their talent. What it teaches the team: this is not actually a team, it is an audience. Why bother, she is going to do it herself anyway.

Never learned to delegate or invite other people's ideas in.

The skill to build: sharing the ball, developing talent instead of outperforming it.

The Peace-Loving leader will sometimes retreat into their comfort zone and hope problems will go away. They find reasons to avoid questions, do not get pinned down on their expectations, and even find ways to avoid hosting meetings. Often they procrastinate making decisions until they are forced to act because they do not want to be responsible if something should go wrong.

You avoid human contact, so you control through the rules instead, and you never give feedback or praise, which reads as pure disinterest. What it teaches the team: do not expect to be seen here. No one is actually watching, so nothing you do really registers.

Never learned to give direct feedback or praise.

The skill to build: productive conflict, the conversation that actually shows people you see them.

Often Promoters have moved from a customer service environment where it was their job to make customers happy. Then they got promoted to management, where it is critical for them to hold their team accountable for results. Going from being paid to be a people pleaser to a Manager is one of the toughest career transitions many leaders ever make. They are two entirely different skill sets. When serving customers you are trained to make people like you but not given the skills to hold people accountable.

You love being in on the gossip, one of the gang, and you unconsciously resent or rebel against actually being the authority. So you encourage anarchy for the sake of your own social needs, and you are terrible at holding anyone accountable, including yourself. What it teaches the team: nothing here is really enforced, so nothing here really matters.

Never learned to hold people accountable, including themselves.

The skill to build: the hard conversation that trust actually requires.

A Pragmatist wants to be in control. However, when control of an outcome is not forthcoming, or several disappointments happen, trust gets broken and you begin losing faith in all of your employees. You may start to believe that your problem employee does not really care, and in order to stabilize the team you may decide to supervise closely.

You lack trust, so you control through subtle threats, over supervision, and finding fault as your own private win. See, they are all incompetent! What it teaches the team: stay small, stay hidden, and never let her catch a mistake before you can cover it.

Never learned to trust.

The skill to build: letting go of control long enough to let someone else succeed, or fail safely and learn.