Leadership Is What You Do

What is leadership? How do I lead effectively? What are my leadership styles?

Leadership is the behavior of a person that empowers others to participate in achieving a shared goal. Leadership is in fact majorly based on a built relationship gained by a leader to effectively influence followers. Leadership is shown by what you do, not what you say. It is shown by how you communicate, build relationships, and build trust.

Let’s look at types of leadership:

• Personal Leadership

  • Consistently displaying a positive outlook and willingly dealing with the stress and complexities of various situations

  • Integrating information from other sources to evaluate alternatives and make effective decisions

• People Leadership

• Motivating others and clearly communicating how each person can contribute to the objectives.

• Result Leadership

  • Meeting or exceeding goals, making difficult decisions, acting on opportunities that create value

• Living Leadership

  • Applying leadership to situations and challenges

Questions to ask yourself to determine if you are leading effectively:

Do I model the way?

Am I always authentic?

Do I bring energy to the room?

Do I treat people as humans and not resources?

Are my actions and words aligned with the brand of my company?

Do I lead with an entrepreneur mindset?

Do I have clear non-negotiables?

Here are a few leadership styles to consider and remember, be aware of their pros and cons.

Transactional

Pro: Provides structure and Stability

Con: Limits creativity, growth, and initiative

Transformational

Pro: Gives team autonomy to do their jobs

Con: Disrupts the status quo

Collaborative

Pro: More creative, innovative ways of thinking

Con: May lead to ambiguity in roles and responsibilities

Servant

Pro: Reduces turnover and disengagement

Con: Can easily become burnt out

Coaching

Pro: Focuses on being supportive, not judgmental

Con: Doesn’t always lead to the fastest, most efficient results

I challenge each of you to be mindful of your leadership role and exercise everything you expect from your team and show collaboration and consideration.

Carry the Brand of unlimited possibilities. Being a leader and coach, see your team have unlimited possibilities and not try to live up to your expectations. Give everyone an A and not a standard to live up to. Be willing to be coached by them as well as coach. Always allow your team to create their success and not just be a follower.

Finally, I challenge each of you to be mindful of the shadow you cast.

As a leader, accountability and value add are critical in my eyes and that’s the shadow I cast.