Challenging Your Leadership Style
If you are a leader in any capacity in your life, you have likely cultivated a specific leadership style - whether you realise it or not. There are many different leadership styles which usually reflect your personality; perhaps you are a headstrong leader who bulldozes through problems, or on the other hand, you could be a soft leader who prefers to help the whole team find their own way. There is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ leadership style, but there are certain ways to effectively lead a team which can benefit everyone.
If you have never thought about this before, now is the time to start. Whether you are a leader at work, or you are a parent leading your children through life, or you play sports as a team captain - here is how to challenge your leadership style.
Identifying Your Leadership Style
First up is identifying how you lead a team. There are quizzes you can take which ask a series of questions and tell you your leadership styles based on your answers. It’s advisable to take a few different quizzes to see if you get similar answers across the board.
Another way to identify your leadership style is to ask those you lead in life what they think. How do they perceive you as a leader? This opens you up to a vulnerable state in which you might have to accept some constructive criticism. This brings us to the next stage: your willingness to change.
Allowing Room For Change
As CEO and business leader Deepak Agarwal says, ‘Some situations require leadership to pause.’ This is one of the most helpful lessons you can learn as a human being, let alone a leader. If you constantly charge full steam ahead, you might lose sight of what is truly happening around you. Pausing is always important - but it does make you vulnerable.
If you are going to improve your leadership style, you must first open yourself up to criticism. This is easier said than done. You may consider yourself thick-skinned, but this is put to the test when you encounter pushback against your leadership style. Try to think of it as a kindness; the person providing feedback wants you to be the best version of yourself. Growth can be uncomfortable, but in the end, it is always the best thing.
Why Challenge Your Leadership Style?
It’s not that your leadership style necessarily needs to change completely - it is a part of your personality, and will never truly change. But challenging and recognising your leadership style will help you grow within it. It might be that you need to hone your leadership skills into a more evolved version of what they were before. We could all do with growth and learning, and it’s best not to shy away from this evolution. Take the road less travelled and dedicate yourself to being the most effective leader you can possibly be!