I have been asked this question a lot recently: “What is my leadership style”. I find this a very hard question to answer. For one, it assumes that we don’t evolve our styles over time. It also assumes that there is one singular style of leader for all situations. But most of all, it is so much easier to have people point to someone and say, “Wow, now that’s a great leader,” than it is to articulate clearly in words what specific things you do that make you that kind of leader.
I do have one distinct quality that I can identify as part of my leadership style, and that is the ideal of empathy. I find it almost natural to put myself in someone else’s shoes and see the world from their eyes. I can resonate with a person’s struggle without needing to minimize it; I then begin working to help them solve their problem, based on their own specific needs. No two people should be led the same way. Before Brene Brown made it OK to talk about shame, vulnerability, empathy, and how they are all related to courage, finding joy, and succeeding, it’s important to remember that Corporate America simply wasn’t having these conversations in a meaningful way. Brene gave us the language to understand why empathy makes you a better leader, not a weaker one. In her work on empathy and vulnerability, she discusses that, “when you see a person in a hole, you climb down that hole to sit beside them and get down to that same level of vulnerability to connect in a sincere way.” This is the very essence of being an empathetic leader; having the ability and willingness to see and feel a situation from another’s perspective, and then connect with them in an authentic way that stems from being at that same level. Leading this way allows you to work beyond the barriers of hierarchy, culture, and shame to create an environment where people are comfortable enough to show up as themselves because they feel heard and supported. It is in environments like these that people tend to thrive, grow, and do their best work.
I have been lucky enough to work with Bruce Leamon and much of my self-awareness around leadership has been influenced by conversations with him. Bruce, himself, is heavily influenced by his training in the Leadership Challenge model and credits this seminal work by Kouzes and Posner for a lot of his ideas around leadership. He possesses this incredible ability to take big, complex thoughts, ideas, opinions and crystallize them into simple, bite-sized talking points. I HIGHLY recommend both this book and Bruce as an executive coach.
We were talking about leadership recently and my engineering mind was trying to decide if there was a way to create a framework for leadership that could be molded and adapted as one’s thinking and experience evolved. We talked about personal mentors and people who had inspired us and Bruce articulated the entire conversation with his usual succinctness into five distinct qualities we both could identify in almost every good leader:
- They do what they say and say what they do.
- They create an inclusive environment where people can show up as their authentic selves.
- They challenge the process and move things forward without breaking.
- They drive the mission by inspiring shared vision grounded in shared values and a clear strategy to execute.
- They reward people in the moment to drive positive behavior change.
Now, each number could mean something different to each of us but, at the end of the day, every great leader’s ‘top 5’ revolves around one thing, and one thing alone: Putting people first. Just as no two people can be led the same way, likewise, no two leaders necessarily need to guide their teams the exact same way. A ‘boss’ will stand up in-front of their teams but a leader will work to find human-first solutions to real-world issues, however they can, whether by emulating the advice of those that have been through the journey themselves or by building an entirely unique management model from the ground up.
So, to answer the question, “What is my leadership style?”- it consists of empathy, understanding, and vulnerability, built on a foundation of those five distinct characteristics that I’ve grown with over the years. But I’m continuously learning and my leadership skills are ever evolving and adapting to the times. Coming out of a year that required more adaptability than ever before what are some of the things you have learnt that make you a better leader?
