The word Leadership. What is the first thing that comes to your mind, when you hear the word leadership?
I believe most of us will have the same answer, Leadership means to take charge. In fact, the definition of leadership is the action of leading a group of people or an organization toward certain goals or objectives.
But often, we forget one important part of leadership, Which is to Understanding our leadership style.
I first discover my leadership style, when I join a corporate company, after joining the company for a few months, I was lucky enough, that all managers are enrolled in a 12 months long leadership program. In one of the programs, we are asked to answer questionnaires and divided into groups based on our scores. There are 4 groups in total.
The instructor then asks " Now draw a layout of your dream office, be creative, be crazy". Since everyone in my group has similar scores from the questionnaires, all our layout is, well almost similar. I mean, who doesn't want a big corner office, with a 70 inch TV, and all your awards, plaque, and trophies in a giant glass cabinet?. After a few moments, we were then asked to present our office layout group by group.
It came to my surprise that my group is the only group, that has an office layout where all of us have our rooms, with doors, blinds, and separated from each other. The other groups have their office layout where there is designated workspace space for everyone, but they are still able to talk and communicate with each other. And there is a layout where they are all in an open space, in front of the beach with lots of natural lights, and then this group, where they just draw Starbucks layout as their office, mentioning they can work anywhere.
From the project, It occurs to me, that our leadership style is not only about how we convey instructions, providing information, or inspire others but it is also a reflection of our personality. From the results of the simple questionnaire, we were able to group people based on their leadership style and people with a certain leadership style share the same personality, it is proven based on the similarity of the office layout within the same group.
I start to wonder, which leadership style is the best. Is my personality entitle me to the best leadership style? Do I need to change my personality to adapt to different leadership styles?
After finishing Visionary communication, Level 2, Project one Pathways, I learned that there are 8 different leadership styles. Pacesetting, Innovative, Authoritative, Bureaucratic, Democratic, Affiliative, Coaching, and Altruistic. I also learned that each style may be more effective in a certain situation and less effective in another situation.
Furthermore, the project mentioned that I will learn to adapt our leadership style and behaviors based on the situation and the people being led. Let me give you some examples. Democratic leadership is most effective when the knowledge of the entire team is needed to solve a problem. On the other hand, Authoritative leadership is less effective when explicit guidance is required.
Understanding our leadership style is a gateway to understanding leadership in general. Even though we are leaning towards a certain style it doesn't mean that other leadership styles are not meant for us. The reason for us to understand our leadership style is for us to identify which style needs improvement.
There is no such thing as the best leadership style. Look at fashion, for example, you may wear your sharpest suits and have the neatest hairstyle, but if you wear that and walk into a sports bar, that might not be the best outfit for that situation.
Leaders are made, they are not born. Effective leaders are
excellent communicators and display a high level of personal integrity. They
are open-minded, optimistic, and lead by example.
A good leader is the
one who able to determine which leadership style to be used based on the
situation.
