By Shawna Simcik, Senior Vice President of Leadership Development, Keystone Partners
Stop fixing ‘problem leaders.’ Learn how coaching diverse leadership styles and neurodivergent leaders builds resilient teams and drives performance through inclusive development.
I have to tell you, I’ve watched countless leadership teams struggle with what they perceive as a “problem leader.” You know the one who is too direct, doesn’t read the room well, whose communication style feels abrasive. HR gets pulled in. Performance conversations happen. And yet, when you look at the results this leader delivers, they’re often among your highest performers.
Here’s what I’ve learned after years of leadership development work and my training in industrial/organizational psychology: this may not be a problem leader. They might be a misunderstood leader. And the difference matters tremendously.
Understanding Different Leadership Styles
Leaders who get labeled as “difficult” or “too direct” often have communication styles that differ from organizational norms. Some may be neurodivergent – with conditions like ADHD or autism spectrum traits – though it’s crucial to understand that I’m not qualified to diagnose anyone, and neither are most managers or HR professionals. We simply don’t know what someone may be dealing with, and making assumptions about underlying conditions can be harmful.
What I can say from my organizational psychology background is that different cognitive and communication styles – whatever their origin – often bring remarkable leadership strengths: innovative problem-solving, intense focus on critical tasks, direct and honest communication, and a refreshing lack of office politics.
That said, let’s be clear: some leaders do genuinely struggle with interpersonal effectiveness in ways that negatively impact team performance and morale. The key is understanding the difference between a leader whose style is simply different and valuable versus one who needs genuine development in core leadership competencies – or, frankly, one who is just being ineffective or difficult.
The challenge isn’t automatically the leader. Often, the challenge is that we haven’t equipped their teams – or our organizational cultures – to understand and work effectively with diverse leadership communication styles.
Beyond Neurodivergence: The Broader Picture
This pattern extends well beyond any single explanation. Leaders from different cultural backgrounds may communicate more directly than American corporate norms expect. Women leaders often get characterized as “too aggressive” for behaviors that would be praised in their male counterparts. Introverted leaders might be seen as “not engaging enough” when they’re simply processing information differently.
We’re quick to label these differences as problems. What if, instead, we recognized them as valuable diversity that strengthens our leadership bench?
The Real Challenge: A Lack of Inclusive Leadership Training
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: when we label these leaders as problems, we’re often identifying a gap in our own organizational capability. We haven’t done the work to build truly inclusive cultures that can leverage diverse leadership styles.
Think about it this way – if your team can only work effectively with one type of leader, you don’t have a resilient team. You have a fragile one.
At Keystone Partners, our research on resilience has shown that adaptability and the capacity to work through change are essential organizational capabilities. Teams that can only function with a narrow band of leadership styles lack the resilience needed in today’s complex, rapidly changing business environment.
Coaching the System, Not Just the Leader
So, what is the solution? It starts with shifting our approach from “fixing” the leader to coaching the entire system.
Coaching for the leader might include:
- Understanding how their communication style lands with different team members
- Developing strategies to signal their intentions more clearly
- Building awareness of when their direct approach might need context-setting
Coaching for the team should focus on:
- Understanding different leadership communication styles and their value
- Developing skills to ask clarifying questions rather than making assumptions
- Building psychological safety to address misunderstandings directly
- Recognizing that “different” doesn’t mean “wrong”
Coaching for the culture means:
- Examining unspoken norms about “acceptable” leadership behavior
- Creating space for multiple communication styles to be valued
- Building manager capability to support diverse teams
- Moving beyond surface-level diversity to true inclusion
The Business Case Is Clear
This isn’t just about being nice or checking a Diversity and Inclusion box. Leaders who bring diverse perspectives and approaches drive innovation, challenge groupthink, and often achieve remarkable results precisely because they think differently.
When we invest in helping teams understand and work effectively with diverse leaders, we’re building organizational resilience and unlocking performance that was always there – we just couldn’t access it because we were too busy trying to make everyone fit the same mold.
Moving Forward: Team-Based Development
Our research at Keystone Partners has demonstrated that team-based development investments have significantly greater impact than individual coaching alone. When you coach just one person on a team, that team reports dramatically higher resilience scores than teams with no development investment at all.
Imagine the impact when you coach the entire team – including the leader – in how to communicate more effectively across different styles. You’re not just solving a “problem leader” situation. You’re building a capability that will serve your organization through every leadership transition and change you might encounter.
What You Can Do Now
If you’re in HR or talent development and you’re facing situations with challenging leaders, I encourage you to pause and ask:
- What specific behaviors are causing friction? Get concrete. “Too direct” means different things to different people.
- Is this a leader problem or is this a team readiness problem? Be honest about whether your culture and teams have the skills to work with diverse leadership styles.
- What would coaching the system look like? Instead of sending one person to get “fixed,” how could you invest in the team’s collective capability?
The organizations that will thrive in our increasingly complex world aren’t the ones where everyone leads the same way. They’re the ones that can harness the power of cognitive diversity, different communication styles, and varied approaches to problem-solving.
That starts with reframing challenging leaders – understanding whether their style is simply different and valuable, or whether there are genuine development needs – and doing the hard work of building cultures that can leverage that diversity.
About the Author
Shawna Simcik is Senior Vice President of Leadership Development at Keystone Partners, where she oversees the quality of leadership development engagements and stays immersed in research on leadership and human capital. She holds a master’s degree in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from the University of Nebraska and is certified in Everything DiSC®, with specialized training in understanding diverse behavioral and communication styles. Shawna has spent nearly two decades helping organizations build resilient teams and develop inclusive leadership capabilities that drive business results.
Ready to build more inclusive leadership capabilities in your organization? Keystone Partners specializes in leadership development programs and executive coaching that help teams work more effectively across diverse leadership styles. Contact us to learn more.