Do you have a leadership style? Do you have more than one leadership style? Wikipedia defines leadership style as, “a leader‘s method of providing direction, implementing plans, and motivating people.” Depending on the source you’re reviewing, you’ll find there are four, six, eight even ten types of leadership styles you’re able to choose from or emulate. So how do you know which style is your default approach to leadership? Can you change your default? And how do you build your leadership skills? Here’s advice on how to understand your leadership style and how to improve it.
What’s your approach to leadership?
If you don’t know which style sounds the most like you, read this overview from themuse.com. It’s important you have a sense of who you are when you’re in a leadership role. As Joyel Crawford, a Muse career coach and leadership development consultant explains, “Understanding how you lead and want to lead will give you a better sense of control over the size and scope of your reach and impact.” If taking an assessment might be helpful, give this one a try. It’s based on what leadership experts Bill Torbert and David Rooke, call “action logics.” Torbert & Rook explain, “These action logics assess how [leaders] interpret their surroundings and react when their power or safety is challenged.” This will help you identify what your default style might be, and give you exposure to other leadership styles to strive toward.
If you find that you tend to use more than one leadership style, and you’re more of a “Situational Leader” that assesses each scenario and chooses a response that Kat Boogard writes about here, you are in good company. She writes, “There’s no such thing as a “perfect” leadership style, because leadership isn’t one size fits all. All of these approaches come with their benefits and drawbacks, and some of them will be more effective in certain scenarios.” However, Boogard also points out that in spite of a lack of “default or preferred” style, there are still likely things you can go to work on to improve your leadership and style.
Can you change your default leadership style?
Yes. But it’s not easy. As Torbert and Rooke note, “…We’ve found that leaders who do undertake a voyage of personal understanding and development can transform not only their own capabilities but also those of their companies.”
What does this heavy-lifting include? “Programs in which participants act as leaders and challenge their conventional assumptions about leading and organizing are very effective,” explain Torbert and Rooke, “Such programs will be either long term (one or two years) or repeated, intense experiences that nurture the moment-to-moment awareness of participants, always providing the shock of dissonance that stimulates them to reexamine their worldviews,” they write.
How do you build your leadership skills?
Determine which of your leadership areas need some development. Then, write down your top leadership goals/ skills that need improvement. Choose three or four development goals that will help you improve your weaknesses. Experts recommend setting SMART (specific, measured, achievable, realistic and time-based) goals and building a road map to follow. Here’s one source you can use to set your SMART goals. Next, track your progress. Break down your goals into bite sized, more manageable pieces that you can tag and track. If you don’t find a way to give yourself little wins you can celebrate, you’ll likely be too defeated by your perceived lack of progress to make it to your end goal.
There are so many skill building and development courses online that are at low to no cost. We’d recommend a quick scan of Coursera.org to see if there’s anything that can kickstart your leadership development.
It seems there is always something new in the world of leadership; a new theory, a new set of best practices, or a “hot, new must have” skill popping up on resumes everywhere. You want to put yourself in a position of understanding yourself as a leader, setting your own goals, and growing confident in your current skills. Then when the new “it” thing comes along, you’ll be able to accurately assess whether it will compliment your skills, talents and style, and determine if it’s worthwhile to add it to your repertoire. Consider taking stock in yourself this year, and put yourself on a course of self-awareness and ultimately leadership development.