The Importance Of Knowing Your Leadership Style
Bradford R. GlaserTeams are comprised of many individuals with varying experiences, backgrounds, ideas, and personality styles, and each employee is motivated by different things: recognition, autonomy, close supervision, or social activities. Effective leaders draw out the best performance from their employees by understanding each member's personal style and flexing their own style to meet the needs of employees.
This post will break down the four main leadership styles and look at the leadership styles of some of the most famous and effective leaders throughout history, analyzing their personal style and how they played to their style strengths.
Let's get started!
- Identify your style
- Learn to flex your style
- Play to your style strengths
Table of Contents
The Importance of Leadership Style
A personality style acts as a lens that shapes how a person sees the world and how the world sees them. It plays a significant role in their job and in how they communicate. Awareness of your personality style can allow you to communicate better, assess others' needs, and forge productive relationships. It can also help you describe your style of leadership more clearly and intentionally to others, especially in team or coaching conversations.
There are four types of leadership styles. Some leaders can encompass more than one type, and people can also have varying degrees of assertiveness and expressiveness within the styles. The four types of leadership styles are as follows:
- Direct: Direct leaders have high assertiveness and low expressiveness. They lead by taking charge.
- Spirited: Spirited leaders have high assertiveness and high expressiveness. They lead by inspiring.
- Considerate: Considerate leaders have low assertiveness and high expressiveness. They lead by building group harmony.
- Systematic: Systematic leaders have low assertiveness and low expressiveness. They lead by planning carefully.
Personality Style and Leadership
A leader's ability to identify these differences and quickly adapt to address individual needs can be the difference between leadership success and failure. How does personality style relate to effective leadership? Personality style is based on assertiveness and expressiveness. Assertiveness is the degree of effort someone makes to influence others. Expressiveness is the degree of effort people put forth when they reveal their emotions to others. Understanding both allows you to describe your style of leadership with greater depth and accuracy.
Identify your leadership style: What's My Leadership Style
When you combine assertiveness and expressiveness, four distinct and different personality styles emerge: Direct, Spirited, Considerate, and Systematic.
Hundreds of studies have tried to identify the primary source of effective leadership. Successful and well-rounded leaders generally exhibit four areas of focus, and who better than U.S. presidents to represent successful leaders?
Envisioning the Future = Direct
Leaders possessing this strength influence others by taking risks and demanding action. Thomas Jefferson was a Direct leader with a high level of assertiveness and a low level of expressiveness. His bold decision-making, strategic vision, and willingness to challenge the status quo allowed him to lead purposefully. Direct leaders like to cut to the chase and tell other people "how it is." They possess an exceptional degree of confidence, and they are not afraid to take risks to get significant results. They excel at envisioning the future and lead by taking action, seeking out promising opportunities, and directing their attention toward the finish line.
Engage Others = Spirited
Spirited leaders have the talent to inspire and motivate others. They engage the people around them, generate excitement, and rally the troops to achieve a common goal. Spirited leaders like Franklin Delano Roosevelt are highly enthusiastic and can persuade others to see their point of view.
Encourage Others = Considerate
Abraham Lincoln was a Considerate leader whose style resulted from a combination of low assertiveness and high expressiveness. Many highly regarded him for adding the best and the brightest to his staff and pulling together a team uniquely suited for dealing with the Civil War crisis. Considerate Leaders engage others and excel at being supportive, active listeners.
Execute Results = Systematic
Leaders with this strength are detail-oriented and use informed decision-making to achieve high performance. Much like George Washington, they are deliberate, accurate, and focused. While they may appear to be controlling, this is only a result of their meticulous nature.
Four effective presidents, yet four very different personality styles; how is this possible? Effective leaders know how to draw on their natural strengths, and they know how to flex their personality style to meet the needs of others. Leadership is critical to the success or failure of a business.
Assess and Improve Your Own Style
Knowing your leadership style can be a critical first step to improving your abilities. The HRDQ assessment, What's My Leadership Style, helps uncover the personality traits that define your leadership style. Our leadership style assessment quickly and accurately identifies a preference for one of the four behavioral leadership styles. When you’re asked to describe your style of leadership, this tool helps ensure you’re not just guessing – you’re grounded in insight.
You never know when you'll be called upon to lead, and our What's My Leadership Style can help you unlock your true leadership potential.
