There’s a little bit of a leader in all of us. We have to take charge of our own lives, which takes a lot of leadership skill. And if you’ve harnessed your leadership skills, these may have parlayed into a management role in your profession. No matter where you are in your career or life, you must always hold on to those leadership qualities inside of you. Don’t be discouraged if you see someone else leading their life or their company in a different style than you would – there are actually several types of leadership styles that someone can apply in different situations or just as personalities vary.
Do you know what kind of leader you are? Let’s review a few indicators and see if we can find a match!
What Do You Value?
A priority for any leader, knowing your values in life and in business will play an important role in what you’re like as a leader. Depending on what you value – whether it’s skill, a passion to learn, personality, or tenacity – identifying these will not only help you to lead, but will help those who you are leading. You must make your values clear to your teammates so that they know how to interact with you to reach mass potential as well.
Laissez-Faire or Autocratic?
As is the nature of leadership, you’re going to need to know how to handle many different types of personalities. If you can master this, you’re going to be seen as a natural leader. But when it comes to actual leadership styles, there are two ends of the spectrum that you want to base your style off of: laissez-faire or autocratic. If you’re the type of leader that prefers to full trust your team and let them take the lead on their own work, coming to you if they need help, you’re of the laissez-faire camp. Other the opposite end, autocratic leaders make all decisions independent of other feedback, and what they say goes. Both have their pros and cons and there are many styles in between, but these are the bookend styles you want to keep in mind.
What Do You Want To Offer Your Peers?
Another way to determine what type of leader you want to be, or naturally are, is by thinking about what you want your teammates to take away from you as a leader. Do you want them to feel empowered, or like they have someone to come to when they’re in need of skill development? If so, you’re going to naturally veer towards a coaching leadership style, whose skills allow peers or subordinates to come to you with problems knowing you’ll help to point them in the right direction and maybe educate them on why things are done in a certain way. Huffington Post recently reported on this subject, with an excellent review of what different types of leaders can offer their peers. Knowing what you ultimately want your coworkers’ experience with you to be is yet another excellent way of discovering what type of leader you want to be.
With these key starting places, you’ll be well on your way to finding out what type of leadership style you identify with. Stay tuned for more advice on finding your leadership style by checking by blog for new updates.