Emerging Leaders: The Persuader, Andria Herr

Emerging Leaders: The Persuader, Andria Herr

Recognizing Leadership Style:

Research has shown that certain leadership qualities correspond to certain leadership styles. In order to explore her leadership style, Andria Herr answered some questions for Center for Work Life. Expressive, decisive, direct and forceful were terms with which she seemed to most identify when asked about varying leadership situations. These are strengths of the Persuader Leadership Style and they have helped Andria to accomplish great things in her career. Andria is President of Hylant, and has 25 years of experience in the risk management and insurance solutions industry. Andria is a past chair and currently serves on the board of directors for the Foundation for Seminole County Public Schools and is a  past chair of the Seminole County Regional Chamber of Commerce. She is a past chair and serves on the Women’s Advisory Board for South Seminole Hospital. She was also named one of the “40 under 40” and “Women Who Mean Business” by the Orlando Business Journal.

Andria Herr
President
Hylant

Persuaders like Andria typically have a strong per­sonal drive to lead and guide oth­ers. They often have a solid abil­ity to con­vince oth­ers through a vari­ety of com­mu­ni­ca­tion skills, which can include com­mu­ni­cat­ing with a large audi­ence, assertive­ness and under­stand­ing the moti­va­tional dri­ves of others (indicators of high emotional intelligence). Typically they are vocally force­ful with­out rais­ing their voice. Additional qualities include excel­lence in express­ing ideas, assertiveness, self-con­fi­dence, deci­siveness, com­pet­i­tiveness and autonomous.

After we helped Andria identify her style, we explained the strengths of this style and also helped her identify qualities of the opposite leadership style. Opposite styles best help each other improve their weaknesses. Looking for leaders of the opposite style as mentors and mentees facilitates growth for both parties. Moderators are the opposite of persuaders. Moderators are viewed as diplo­matic, sen­si­tive, modest, fam­ily-oriented and they express themselves in a sup­port­ive and warm way.

When asked whether she most values recognition or trust from others, Andria wisely replied “Both, but without success, trust becomes difficult.” She makes a great point. Leaders create change by inspiring others, and this happens by continually seeking growth and setting an example of exceptional character.  In the words of Aristotle “Character may almost be called the most effective means of persuasion.”

Want to know more about leadership styles? Check out the information below and continue checking-in on upcoming Emerging Leaders blog posts.

This is part of the Emerging Leaders Blog series. Center for Work Life put on thinking caps to determine a method for reaching out and assisting leaders in the local Orlando community. The Emerging Leaders blog series is the result.  Based on the SPM (Spony Profiling Model), created by Dr. Gilles Spony at Cranfield School of Management, Presentation Trainer Marion Chapsal, developed a model of 12 leadership styles. The purpose of determining one’s fit in the model is to understand their strengths and learn from a mentor with the opposite leadership style. Not only has this series assisted notable female professionals who have participated, but these posts are also designed to help readers assess their own style. Each blog post reveals a leadership style, discusses that style’s characteristics and features a local leader who embodies the style.

The 12 leadership styles include the achiever, analyzer, driver, facilitator, humanist, innovator, maintainer, moderator, monitor, networker, persuader and pioneer.