Welcome to the second installment of our Summer 2024 Leadership Journey: Finding Your Voice as a Leader.
Last month, we delved into leadership essentials, focusing on foundational concepts, behaviors, and skills. We closed that conversation with an introduction to different leadership styles, setting the stage for a deeper discussion.
Perhaps you hadn’t realized there are different styles of leadership. Often, we construct an image of the “ideal leader” and convince ourselves that their style is the only way to lead. While this can be inspirational, it can also be limiting and detrimental. If your natural style doesn’t match the ideal, you could be left chasing your tail or constantly feeling like a failure when you don’t live up to the standard you’ve set.
The reality is that there are as many different leadership styles as there are people. Much like personality traits, some commonalities can be grouped into categories and considered together, yet each leader brings their unique flair to these styles. Consider Servant Leadership, for example. One Servant Leader will be seen on the front lines pitching in with their team and pulling their share of the load, while another will be diligently working in the background to ensure the team’s success. Both adhere to the core concept of servant leadership in that they prioritize the needs of others, but their methods reflect their strengths, preferences, and tendencies.
Identifying Your Unique Leadership Style
So, how can a person identify their unique leadership style?
As we covered last month, having a solid grasp of leadership fundamentals and studying examples of good (and bad) leaders is crucial. This will form the foundation of your leadership philosophy. You’ll find yourself naturally resonating with certain examples or stories. Those are your breadcrumbs, so pay attention to what seems especially interesting to you.
This practice might guide you toward your True North – your authentic leadership style. Read books, learn leadership concepts, pay attention to what grabs your attention, and go forth expressing your unique voice as a leader. If you are one of those leaders, then we wish you well as you go forth and do great things! Most of us will need more support and development to refine our approach.
One valuable way to develop your leadership style and find your voice as a leader is to take an assessment that gives you insights into your natural strengths and preferences. One we love (and use) at Luminology is the Predictive Index Behavioral Assessment, which reveals a person’s natural drives and corresponding behaviors. Other effective assessments include DiSC, Culture Index, Myers-Briggs, StrengthsFinder, ProfileXT, Tilt365, and many more. The key here is to pick one and then use the results to learn something about yourself that might be useful. Most of those mentioned above will require payment or the assistance of a consultant. If you want a quick overview, try 16Personalities, which is free and will give you a pretty good approximation of your Myers-Briggs type.
Putting Leadership Theories into Practice
As you gather your examples of effective leaders and successful leadership tactics, you may feel inspired to try them out. Go for it! Experimenting with different approaches is part of your journey. Try some things you are learning and see how they work for you. While we cautioned against blindly copying others, let’s clarify this point.
As you’re starting to discover your leadership identity, emulating someone else can serve as a helpful first step. It provides a foundation to build upon and can be especially effective for people who tend to delay starting something until they have the perfect plan (see The Seductive Lie of All-or-Nothing Thinking). Imitation is not the end game, but it provides a starting place. It’s akin to trying something on for size to see what fits. You might get immediate internal feedback of feeling particularly comfortable (or uncomfortable) with a particular technique, but more than likely, you’ll still feel a bit uncertain. It’s important to give yourself some grace as you develop your leadership skills and remember that trial and error inherently includes room for “error”. Give yourself permission to make mistakes and learn from them.
The Role of Feedback in Leadership Development
Feedback is an essential ingredient in the leadership development recipe for success. As we covered in April (Workplace Performance Feedback — Know Your Type), there are different types of feedback and it is worth taking some time to consider how to effectively ask for what you want. Regardless of the kind, feedback is an important way to gain perspective. Evaluating your own performance in a vacuum is difficult, making outside opinions indispensable.
Engaging a coach is another valuable step. Coaches help you develop your leadership skills and find your unique voice. A coach often comes from outside your organization, offering a fresh perspective and helping you grow through probing questions and personalized guidance.
If you still feel uncertain or like you are wearing someone else’s skin, stay tuned for next month’s topic: Overcoming Imposter Syndrome.
But if you’ve found this article resonates with you, you’re already on the path to discovering your unique leadership voice. Ready to accelerate your growth? Contact us to take the next step.
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