How to differentiate accomplishment, leadership and teamwork stories

A project can be framed as an achievement, a leadership example, or a teamwork example.

This realization initially confuses some of my clients, but ultimately, it should help them become more flexible storytellers.
The trick is to ask yourself why the interviewer is asking about your achievement, teamwork, or leadership experience.
On the one hand, an inexperienced interviewer may read from a list of prepared questions, checking off categories individually.
However, your interviewer likely asks a specific question for a specific reason.
Perhaps she is having trouble imagining you in a team setting at MBA.
Or perhaps she views you as something other than a leader who will be active at MBA and successful in your future management career.
Or maybe she is asking about your accomplishments because she needs more confidence about your career progression.

Table of Contents

Clients often ask me about the difference between accomplishment, leadership, and teamwork.

How can you organize your ideas?

What kind of leader will you be?

SITUATIONAL LEADERSHIP MODEL

Leadership Styles

Additional Perspectives

Leadership vs. Management

Key Perspectives:

How Do Leaders Lead?

Suggested Competencies for Leaders

Perspectives on Leadership

The Five Faces Of The 21st Century Chief

Clients often ask me about the difference between accomplishment, leadership, and teamwork.

accomplishment is about results (quantitative) and impact (qualitative)
leadership is about your future management potential
teamwork is about MBA life

If your interviewer asks for more than one example of your accomplishment, she might be skeptical that you are adding value to your organization.

By extension, she might also be unclear about how you can contribute to her MBA program.

I usually advise clients to mention a recent accomplishment first since you want to show your interviewer that your career continues to improve as you mature and grow into your role.

Similarly, if she is asking you for multiple leadership examples, she probably does not believe that you can achieve your stated goals.

Try to tell leadership stories that demonstrate the core skills that you will build upon at MBA in order to achieve your future career vision.

Finally, if she asks for multiple examples of team projects, she might be having a hard time imagining you as an effective member who can contribute to project teams and study groups.

Believing that past behavior is the best indicator of future actions, a skilled interviewer asks about teamwork to determine your future behavior in study and project teams.

If asked about teamwork, emphasize situations where you were not the leader, but you still added value to the group.

Most MBA study groups and project teams are flat, meaning that no one is officially in charge.

Still, someone often takes charge because he or she has insight, skills, or charisma that helps the team focus and achieve results.

Try to share examples of teams you worked in that were similar to those at MBA, meaning non-hierarchical, cross-functional, and, if possible, cross-cultural.

How can you organize your ideas?

In addition to taking my small group seminars and one-to-one mock interview training, many of my clients meet each other for peer-to-peer training.
They help each other organize their answers and provide critical feedback on how to make their stories more concise and impressive. Other clients create mind maps. By organizing your ideas visually, you can differentiate between your stories and clarify your keywords and examples.
One client told me that he could imagine his mind map as he answered the interviewers questions. His mind's eye moved to the "goals" section of the physical map he created before his interview. Then, he could move to areas that covered accomplishments, leadership, and teamwork.
Overall, I encourage you to use your best idea first.
For accomplishment, focus on professional activities. Leadership and teamwork can include non-work activities if they add value and show a different side of your interpersonal skills. Bottom line - with interviews, you will only know if something make sense if you talk about it. Meet with mentors, peers, and counselors to get feedback.
Practice early, and practice often.

What kind of leader will you be?

Thoughtful leaders lead behind an operation and guide groups to make correct decisions.
Visionary leaders use vision, mission, and direction to define an organization's focus.
Risk-taking/decisive leaders face critical issues and challenges and make tough decisions that often lead to dramatic change.
Team-building leaders bring together a core team of people, position them according to their abilities, and capitalize on their strengths to achieve a common cause.
Legacy leaders have a talent for building legacy.

SITUATIONAL LEADERSHIP MODEL

Some interviewers will ask you for your definition of leadership. If someone asked me that question, I would mention my favorite leadership model, Blanchard and Hersey's Situational Leadership.

In the 1950s, management theorists from Ohio State University and the University of Michigan published a series of studies to determine whether leaders should be more task or relationship (people) oriented. The importance of the research cannot be overestimated since leaders tend to have a dominant style; a leadership style they use in a wide variety of situations.

Surprisingly, the researchers discovered that there is no one best style: leaders must adjust their leadership style to the situation as well as to the people being led.

Situational Leadership is a term that can be applied generically to a style of leadership, but that also refers to a recognized and useful leadership model. In simple terms, a situational leader is one who can adopt different leadership styles depending on the situation. Most of us do this anyway in our dealings with other people: we try not to get angry with a nervous colleague on their first day, and we chase up tasks with some people more than others because we know they'll forget otherwise.

But Ken Blanchard, the management guru best known for the "One Minute Manager" series, and Paul Hersey created a model for Situational Leadership in the late 1960s that allows you to analyze the needs of the situation you're dealing with, and then adopt the most appropriate leadership style. It's proved popular with managers over the years because it passes the two basic tests of such models: it's simple to understand, and it works in most environments for most people. The model doesn't just apply to people in leadership or management positions: we all lead others at work and at home.

LEADERSHIP BEHAVIOUR

Blanchard and Hersey characterized leadership style in terms of the amount of direction and support that the leader gives to his or her followers, and so created a simple grid:

Directing Leaders define the roles and tasks of the 'follower', and supervise them closely. Decisions are made by the leader and announced, so communication is largely one-way.
Coaching Leaders still define roles and tasks but seeks ideas and suggestions from the follower. Decisions remain the leader's prerogative, but communication is much more two-way.
Supporting Leaders pass day-to-day decisions, such as task allocation and processes, to the follower. The leader facilitates and takes part in decisions, but control is with the follower.
Delegating Leaders are still involved in decisions and problem-solving, but control is with the follower. The follower decides when and how the leader will be involved.

Effective leaders are versatile and can move around the grid according to the situation, so there is no one right style. However, we tend to have a preferred style, and in applying Situational Leadership, you need to know which one is for you.

DEVELOPMENT LEVEL

Clearly, the right leadership style will depend very much on the person being led - the follower - and Blanchard and Hersey extended their model to include the Development Level of the follower. They said that the leader's style should be driven by the Competence and Commitment of the follower, and came up with four levels:

High Competence

High Commitment

Experienced at the job, and comfortable with their own ability to do it well. May even be more skilled than the leader.

High Competence

Variable Commitment

Experienced and capable, but may lack the confidence to go it alone, or the motivation to do it well / quickly

Some Competence

Low Commitment

May have some relevant skills, but won't be able to do the job without help. The task or the situation may be new to them.

Low Competence

Low Commitment

Generally lacking the specific skills required for the job in hand, and lacks any confidence and / or motivation to tackle it.

Development Levels are also situational. I might be generally skilled, confident and motivated in my job, but would still drop into Level D1 when faced, say, with a task requiring skills I don't possess. For example, lots of managers are D4 when dealing with the day-to-day running of their department but move to D1 or D2 when dealing with a sensitive employee issue.

SITUATIONAL LEADERSHIP

Blanchard and Hersey said that the leader's leadership style (S1 - S4) must correspond to the follower's development level (D1 - D4), and the leader adapts.

For example, a new person joins your team, and you're asked to help them through the first few days. You sit them in front of a PC, show them a pile of invoices that must be processed today, and push them off to a meeting. They're at level D1, and you've adopted S4. Everyone loses because the new person feels helpless and demotivated, and you don't get the invoices processed.
On the other hand, you're handing it over to an experienced colleague before you leave for a holiday. You've listed all the tasks that need to be done and instructions on how to carry out each. They're at level D4, and you've adopted S1. The work will probably get done, but not the way you expected, and your colleague despises you for treating him like an idiot.
But swap the situations, and things get better. Leave detailed instructions and a checklist for the new person, and they'll thank you. Give your colleague a quick chat and a few notes before you go on holiday, and everything will be fine.

By adopting the right style to suit the follower's development level, work gets done, relationships are built up, and most importantly, the follower's development level will rise to D4, to everyone's benefit.

Leadership is not merely about being the most powerful or first; it involves setting a direction and influencing others to follow. Effective leadership depends on various theories, styles, and traits. Key theories of leadership include:

Servant Leader
Democratic Leader
Situational Leader
Visionary Leader
Transactional Leader
Transformational Leader

Leadership Styles

Understanding and adapting multiple styles is crucial for leadership development:

Laissez-Faire: Hands-off approach, effective with skilled and motivated teams.
Autocratic: High control; declining in popularity, especially among modern CEOs.
Participative: Balances involvement and autonomy; ideal for fostering creativity and teamwork.
Emergent: Focuses on behaviors to effectively assume leadership in new groups.
Transactional: Emphasizes tasks and working within the status quo; common in bureaucratic settings.
Transformational: Drives change within individuals, groups, and organizations, often using charisma.
Visionary: Defines and inspires followers toward a shared future vision.
Strategic: Competitive leadership, often seen in military and corporate settings.
Team Leadership: Guides groups into cohesive, high-functioning teams.
Facilitative: Helps groups reach consensus through indirect influence.
Cross-Cultural Leadership: Adapts to cultural expectations in different contexts.
Coaching: Combines leadership with teaching and training.
Level 5 Leadership: Introduced by Jim Collins, it emphasizes humility and determination for achieving greatness.

Additional Perspectives

Leadership Influence: How leaders motivate—through reward, punishment, or other behaviors.
Cross-Cultural Adaptation: Leaders must adjust to varying cultural or organizational norms.

Leadership in Organizations

Leadership is a widely discussed topic due to rapid organizational changes and the need for effective management. True leadership involves more than reading articles or idealizing great leaders—it requires deep understanding and practice.

Leadership vs. Management

Traditional management includes planning, organizing, leading, and coordinating. Some argue that leading is distinct from managing because it focuses on influencing people, while other functions involve managing resources.

However:

Separating leadership from management can be misleading. Effective leaders must balance all functions—planning, organizing, coordinating, and leading—based on context.
Overemphasizing leadership may need to pay more attention to other essential management activities, leading to organizational dysfunction.

Key Perspectives:

Leadership is part of effective management.
Leading people is as critical as managing processes and resources.
Focusing solely on leadership while neglecting planning and organizing can harm organizations (e.g., Founder's Syndrome).

In summary, successful leaders integrate leadership and management skills, adapting their focus for organizational success.

How Do Leaders Lead?

The Challenge of Defining Leadership Methods

The leadership skills required in an organization depend on various factors:

Scope of Leadership: Leading an individual, a team, or an entire organization.
Current Skill Level: The leader's existing abilities.
Personal Values: Aligning competencies with the leader’s nature and principles.
Organizational Context: For-profit vs. nonprofit, new vs. established, large vs. small.
Follower Culture: The values and behaviors of those being led.

Suggested Competencies for Leaders

Leadership training programs often suggest standard skills, such as:

Decision-making
Problem-solving
Managing power and influence
Building trust

Perspectives on Leadership

Leadership is subjective, with numerous, often contradictory, views. Each perspective reflects personal experiences, making it hard to find consistent advice. Leadership is frequently described in idealistic or passionate terms, but terminology can vary, and roles like "executive manager" are sometimes confused with leadership competencies.

In summary, leadership methods and skills are influenced by context and perspective, making it important to adapt to specific situations while drawing from core principles.

The Five Faces Of The 21st Century Chief

The generalist CEO will give way to the specialist, whether that's a global networker or someone with a knack for assembling all-star teams

James M. Citrin, corporate kingmaker, has long had a close-up view of the leadership demands of the world's most dynamic companies. As founder of Spencer Stuart's technology, communications, and media practice, the executive recruiter has placed 165 chief executives, chief financial officers, and directors since 1994. Big catches include David L. Calhoun, a General Electric star he helped lure to private equity-owned VNU (now Nielsen); Eastman Kodak CEO Antonio M. Perez; and Motorola chief Edward J. Zander.

From his perch, Citrin has watched CEOs of public companies fight a losing battle against the spiraling demands on their performance and time. "The job of the CEO has become so consuming and complex that if you actually list all the things a CEO is responsible for, no human being can do them all," he says. Add to that a tightening market for talent as more stars jump ship to private equity, and it's clear to him the model of the public-company CEO must change.

Over the next five years, Citrin believes boards will need to embrace the concept of the "specialist CEO." Boards of directors, he says, will need to get more realistic about the rarity of the perfect CEO. Rather than holding out for leaders who are experts at everything, they should instead warm up to CEOs with deep expertise in one or two crucial areas and enough know-how in the rest to build a high-performing supporting cast.

Citrin believes a change in what boards focus on may prompt a shift in the C-suite's structure. More chief operating officers will be near-equal partners, and more leaders with specific functions, such as heads of human resources and marketing, will interact with the board. In the future, Citrin expects five specialist CEO types to be in the greatest demand:

THE BRAIN

Whether they're algorithm geniuses, coding prodigies, or merely credentialed scientists or designers, CEOs in touch with their inner geeks will be a sought-after breed. As global competition intensifies the pressure for top-line growth, innovators-in-chief will be more clued in to the next breakthrough business. Plus, their expertise will help them inspire engineering and research, and development teams.

ARCHETYPE: Arthur D. Levinson, the CEO of Genentech. Levinson has a Ph.D. in biochemistry and is known for sending out late-night e-mails to his researchers on details in scientific papers. Citrin also cites Reed Hastings, founder, and CEO of Netflix and a former software engineer, who Spencer Stuart placed on Microsoft's board.

THE AMBASSADOR

A two-year stint in London may have counted as enough international experience in the past, but that won't be the case much longer. "More and more of our CEO specs are calling for explicit business experience in emerging markets," Citrin says. Boards are looking for CEOs with passports showing frequent visits to China and India, along with Russia, Brazil, and Dubai. Ambassadors won't just be familiar with these areas, Citrin says, but will have access to local governments, ruling families, and business tycoons.

ARCHETYPE: Citrin points to News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch, who has long wooed Beijing officials and launched alliances with local companies. Another example, he says, is PepsiCo CEO Indra K. Nooyi, who was born in Chennai, India.

THE DEALMAKER

Citrin believes dealmaking specialists—those able to both sell off non-core assets and go toe-to-toe with private equity players on big acquisitions—will be in heavy demand. Of course, buying and selling have always been part of a CEO's brief, but "increasingly, these large strategic transactions are really bet-the-company kind of deals," he says.

ARCHETYPE: Retired AT&T CEO Edward E. Whitacre Jr., who turned SBC Communications, once the smallest of the regional Bells, into a powerhouse with a market value of $242 billion. Says Citrin: "He's built the largest player in [his] field from an unlikely starting position."

THE CONDUCTOR

Corporations' walls are only going to get more permeable, as companies form alliances with outsiders and turn to networks of innovators for ideas to put into practice. Meanwhile, the need for collaboration among corporate units will expand, since the demand for new growth areas requires more creativity across divisions. Orchestra conductors will be skilled in getting everyone to play in the same key.

ARCHETYPE: A.G. Lafley, who says half of all new Procter & Gamble products should come from outside its R&D labs. Citrin also cites Lafley's integration of P&G's $57 billion purchase of Gillette as proof of his talent as a maestro.

THE CASTING AGENT

If you think "people are our greatest asset" is an overused bromide today, just wait. The talent war is only expected to worsen as boomers begin retiring en masse and emerging-market managers remain scarce. CEOs who can retain the best people and deploy them adeptly will be hot commodities.

ARCHETYPE: Xerox CEO Anne M. Mulcahy, who named operating chief and heir apparent Ursula M. Burns to the president's role in April. Says Citrin: "She's been able to put the right people in the right jobs to spectacular effect."

Tri-sector leaders have

Balanced motivations. A desire to create public value no matter where they work, combining their motivations to wield influence (often in government), have social impact (often in nonprofits), and generate wealth (often in business)
Transferable skills. A set of distinctive skills valued across sectors, such as quantitative analytics, strategic planning, and stakeholder management
Contextual intelligence. A deep empathy of the differences within and between sectors, especially those of language, culture, and key performance indicators
Integrated networks. A set of relationships across sectors to draw on when advancing their careers, building top teams, or convening decision-makers on a particular issue
Prepared mind. A willingness to pursue an unconventional career that zigzags across sectors, and the financial readiness to take potential pay cuts from time to time
Intellectual thread. Holistic subject matter expertise on a particular tri-sector issue by understanding it from the perspective of each sector

A leader who is equipped with EQ (Emotional Intelligence) has

Self-awareness: This is “about how you're feeling in the moment. It's that self-check-in,” Booth explains. Are you feeling stressed or depleted? Because if you are, your best self may not be showing up for work that day. To boost your self-awareness, Booth suggests simply taking a few deep breaths and asking yourself what you’re feeling. Or start journaling to better understand what your triggers are so you can recognize them in the moment.

Self-management: This is the outward-facing partner of self-awareness, essentially what are you going to do now that you know how you’re feeling. If you’re feeling angry or agitated, maybe you should wait an hour before replying to an email. Or go for a walk or call a friend. Or perhaps you wait until tomorrow to make a big decision because you know you aren’t in the right headspace to make it today.

Social awareness: This is about reading the emotions of those around you. Think of that director who paced around the conference room. He was lacking in social awareness. The solution is to truly seek to understand how those around you are doing. It may be intuitive or it may necessitate a direct question, such as: “I sense you are frustrated. Is that true?,” Booth explains. Or perhaps it means asking someone who is struggling, “What do you need from me right now?”

Relational management: This is what you do with that social awareness. One tip Booth shares is to think about the impression you leave on your team. “When they leave a meeting with you, how are they feeling? Do they feel deflated? Do they feel energized?” And if you don’t like the answer, what can you do to make them feel motivated and appreciated? This isn’t only important during tough moments. Happy times deserve relational management, too, such as sending a thank you note for a job well done. “If you are in a good mood, you might make someone's day as well.”

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