Do you know what kind of leader you are? Regardless of your position in your career, there are always ways to be a leader in your personal life. You are the decision-maker in your own life, therefore, you need to know how to lead yourself to the life you have always wanted to live.
Style is how you do something, and is best described as what you do, how you do it, and how often. Style is different than personality, although it is easy to mistake one for the other. Your leadership style is how you present your personality to those around you. To determine your leadership style, you need to first be honest with yourself. Then, you need to understand your values and how you want to embed those into your leadership style.
Get to Know Who You’re Leading
The first step in determining your leadership style is by understanding what makes you tick. What are some of your strengths? What are some of your weaknesses? How can you leverage your strengths into a leadership style that your relationships will accept? Although it may be a humbling experience, talk with your friends, colleagues, and family about how you are. This will give you first-hand knowledge of your strengths and weaknesses, as well as how others perceive you and just a great opportunity to receive pivotal feedback.
Self-awareness regarding how others perceive your decision-making is an efficient way to understand your natural strengths and weaknesses. It is also crucial in defining your leadership style, as you cannot be a leader without the respect of others. When you gather insights into other people’s perspectives, it eliminates the potential of miscommunication and allows you to lead successfully.
Effective Ways to Determine Your Leadership Style
Once you have gathered knowledge of your peers and gained self-awareness, you can then start the process of determining your leadership style. There are lots of ways to navigate the style in which you want to lead. Leadership style also depends on who you want to lead. For example, you cannot lead your partner the same way you lead your company team, so you may have to adjust and adapt your style according to the life sphere.
Consider the leaders in your life who you hold to a high standard. Are there any qualities they have that you want to emulate? You can take an active role in shaping your unique leadership style by reflecting on the characteristics of those you think to lead well. Think of past friends, family members, bosses, and partners that have exemplified traits worth knowing. If you value the way your old boss communicated or the way your partner makes you feel safe, then take note of these ideas and implement them to your style.
Most importantly, you can demonstrate to others your leadership style. Outside input helps to minimize misconceptions about ourselves and puts a spotlight on the things we do well and may need to change. Due to insecurities and self-doubt, we may not even consider the traits others value in the way we do things. In addition to this, you can also take a leadership style assessment test. Similar to a personality test, these kinds of assessments are another way of gaining outside perspective based on how you already think about things.
Each Journey is Unique to You
Defining leadership styles is unique to everyone. Regardless of how you choose to define yours, understanding how you lead can be a major step in knowing how to make the right decisions in your life (personal and / or professional). Knowledge is a powerful tool in changing behavior for the better. With it, you can become a person someone wants to follow.
Source: Catherine Tansey (2021) How to Identify Your Leadership Style, https://lattice.com/library/how-to-identify-your-leadership-style
Source: Deep Patel (2017) 6 Ways to Figure Out What Type of Leader You Are, https://www.forbes.com/sites/deeppatel/2017/03/13/6-ways-to-figure-out-what-type-of-leader-you-are/?sh=4e2085d662d3
Source: Peterson, Abramson, Stutman (2020) How to Develop Your Leadership Style, https://hbr.org/2020/11/how-to-develop-your-leadership-style
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