Discovering My Personal Leadership Style: A Journey of Self-Reflection

Discovering My Personal Leadership Style: A Journey of Self-Reflection

Leadership is not just a title; it’s a skill that requires constant development and self-reflection. As individuals, we all possess different leadership styles that are unique to our personality, experiences, and values. However, discovering our personal leadership style takes time, self-awareness, and self-reflection. In this article, we will explore the journey of self-reflection through the lens of discovering our personal leadership style.

Understanding Personal Leadership Style

Before we dive into the journey of self-reflection, it’s essential to understand what personal leadership style is. Simply put, personal leadership style refers to the way we lead others, communicate, make decisions, and handle challenges. There are various theories surrounding personal leadership styles, but most commonly used are the transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire leadership styles.

Transformational leadership focuses on building relationships between leaders and team members. Leaders inspire and motivate their team to achieve shared goals. Transactional leadership focuses on maintaining the status quo and providing rewards for good performance while correcting bad performance. Laissez-faire leadership is a hands-off leadership style where the leader delegates tasks to their team and trusts them to complete their work.

Journey of Self-Reflection

Discovering your personal leadership style requires self-reflection to better understand who you are and how you interact with others. Self-reflection allows you to look inward and identify your strengths and weaknesses. It’s a journey of self-discovery that leads to a greater level of self-awareness.

When starting your journey of self-reflection, it’s important to ask yourself questions such as:

What motivates me to lead others?

What are my values and how do they align with my leadership style?

What are my strengths and weaknesses as a leader?

How do I communicate with my team members?

What is my decision-making process?

It’s essential to be honest with yourself when answering these questions. Once you’ve identified your personal leadership style, you can start developing it further. For example, if you realize that your communication style is lacking, you can work on improving it by taking courses or seeking feedback from your team members.

Personal Leadership Style and Examples

Let’s explore the different personal leadership styles and examples of people who embody them.

Transformational leadership:

Barack Obama – Barack inspired and motivated people during his presidency by connecting with them on a personal level.

Richard Branson – Richard is known for his charismatic leadership and his ability to inspire people to achieve ambitious goals.

Transactional leadership:

Elon Musk – Elon uses rewards to encourage his team to achieve their goals. He set up a reward system for his team for meeting production targets in the Tesla factory.

Steve Jobs – Steve was known for his hands-on approach to leadership. He would personally oversee every stage of the product development process.

Laissez-faire leadership:

Warren Buffet – Warren is known for delegating tasks to his team and trusting them to complete the work on their own.

Mark Zuckerberg – Mark allows his team to be creative and come up with their own ideas for Facebook projects.

Conclusion

Discovering your personal leadership style is a journey of self-reflection, self-awareness, and self-development. Knowing your personal leadership style helps you understand how you interact with people, make decisions, and handle challenges. It’s important to be honest with yourself when answering questions about your leadership style, as this helps you identify areas of improvement. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to leadership, but understanding your personal leadership style helps you lead with confidence and authenticity.