what's your leadership styleNo two leaders are the same. Two leaders can be equally amazing, even though they have completely different sets of personality traits and professional talents. In fact, being an amazing leader isn’t derived from personality traits or professional talents (though those things, of course, are important). Being an amazing leader is all about understanding your personality traits and professional talents, and how they compliment and support those of your team members.

So, what’s your leadership style? The success of your firm or business depends on your ability to lead your team…so…what it is? Are you bossy and autocratic? Are you a visionary? Ask yourself these questions to find out:

What are your core values?
What are the values that you live and die by? That drive your every decision? Respect, integrity, authenticity, courage, service, humbly, wisdom. Those with deep-seated core values make better leaders. Determining what your core values are will help you weigh your options and make better decisions…especially when it comes to human resources and hiring.

What is your personality type?
There is no right or wrong personality type for leadership. Introvert or extrovert, disciplined or action-oriented, your personality is a huge part of your leadership style, and understanding your personality will help you build a team that will either support or compliment the types of leadership efforts you put in.

What are your strengths and weaknesses?
Assessing your strengths and weaknesses will help you recognize (and ultimately achieve) your full potential as a leader. Consider the wins and losses of your past. Now, consider your present-day wins and losses. What has changed? Where can you deduce patterns? What kind of person do you need on your team to fill in the gaps where you are weak?

What do your team members say about you?
Ask your team members how you’re doing as a leader—what your strengths are, and how they would characterize your style. Ask them what you can do to improve. Sometimes we are so blind to our own areas of strength and weakness that we need other people to point it out for us…constructively, of course.

Once you’ve answered these questions for yourself, you’ll have a better sense of what category of leader you fall into. There are so many different leadership styles, but these three tend to cover most of the bases:

1. Autocratic. You’re maybe a bit bossy, and like having total control of your team. Your employees aren’t expected to have ideas or opinions—they’re just supposed to execute on demand.

2. Visionary. You’ve got a vision, and know how to pull your team together to achieve it. Visionary leaders are great at fostering employee loyalty, and encouraging employees to achieve a goal via their own path.

3. Democratic. Democratic leaders are sometimes uncertain, which leads them to rely on the input of their team members for fresh ideas and initiatives. The democratic leader is in the trenches with his team, though he or she makes any final decisions.

Each leadership style has its pros and cons, but there are famous leaders in each category. Steve Jobs was known for being bossy, while Larry Page has honed a more democratic leadership style, and Nelson Mandela is the prime example of an effective visionary leader.

Once you understand your leadership style…then what? Apply what you now understand about yourself to your firm’s hiring, training and development practices. At Hiring & Empowering, we’re huge advocates for using the Kolbe Personality Test to help leaders and team members understand each other, communicate more effectively, and leverage each others strengths for the benefit of the firm as a whole. At the end of the day, the big takeaway here is that leadership style matters…and the success of your firm or business depends on your ability to leverage it.

Schedule a Free 30-Minute Discovery Session

If you’re unsure about your leadership style and think that some of the problems at your firm could be addressed if only you had a better understand of your own personality or your team members’ personalities, then click the button below to schedule a free 30-minute discovery session with our co-founder, Molly Hall. You’ll have the chance to explain the pains your firm is feeling, and she’ll have the chance to suggest some solutions.

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