Over time, I have written many articles on leadership. For example, I have written about “how to be a more empathic leader.” Then I have also written in length about leadership challenges to conquer every time. I have even covered various topics to emphasize the importance of women's leadership and “how women can advance and lead in the workplace post-pandemic.” So, if you look through my articles on leadership, you can see that the many critical leadership-related topics and issues are well covered. Anyone can check these articles and get benefits in one way or the other. However, we need to have a necessary leadership-related discussion – understanding and developing personal leadership style.
What is Personal Leadership?
Personal leadership is an individualistic characteristic that utilizes various leadership traits as a governing point to direct their life course over time and chances. It receives guidance by one’s ability to define their goals and vision and stick with it like a personal mission statement. In leading, principles and sentiments develop through individuals' beliefs, integrity, honesty, vision, and self-discipline. Overall, it creates a significant non-offensive leadership style that may range from autocratic, authoritative, democratic, coaching, or affiliative.
Why is Understanding Personal Leadership Style Important?
As I mentioned above, personal leadership style is a characteristic overhaul trait of any individual. Your beliefs and emotions on any matter will vary from person to person. Furthermore, the effects of your opinion that constitute your leadership style will have an impact on you as well as your family. Also, you can always count on your community and workplace to get affected too. A better way to help you understand the importance of personal leadership style is an example of Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States of America.
Abraham Lincoln had excellent communication skills. He was so good at it that he reduced his political opponent to tears during a debate once during his political campaign. His wits and intelligence always helped him edge out his opponents. However, despite the effectiveness of his communication skills, Lincoln grew uncomfortable with the tone of his campaign. It was then he disciplined himself to use evolve his basic leadership qualities for the welfare of the American people. The rest, as you know, is history as his influences are still prevalent to this day.
Developing Personal Leadership Style
Everyone wants to succeed in life. Whether it is the personal life or professional prospect, we all want to succeed. The world may tell you that your career development is more dependent on technical skills and willingness to work harder. While there is nothing wrong with it, there is definitely more to it. It is where your soft skills come into play. Also, your ability to lead is a significant soft skill that matters. Even in your personal life, your ability to lead will substantially affect the people around you.
Positive leadership can help you and your friends and family achieve goals more conveniently. Likewise, a wild leadership nature can hinder career progress critically. Hence, it is crucial to develop a personal leadership style that matters. And here are a few ways to help you understand and, possibly, help you modify your unique leadership style if needed.
Ways to Understand and Develop Personal Leadership Style
Practice Self-Discipline
Self-discipline is the most potent way to evaluate and stay focused on your goals. It is a masterful skill that can enable you to plan things before you can accomplish them. Self-discipline is also a great way to counter addictions such as drinking, smoking, and other harmful habits. Also, the lack of self-discipline can lead to most failures in your life. You can even end up suffering from low self-esteem if you lack self-discipline. And it is needless to say; success rarely comes to people who don’t believe in themselves and are not the hardest worker in the room. Hence, it is essential to practice self-discipline to enhance your current leadership style and qualities.
Develop Situational Awareness
A common trait of a good leader has always been their ability to foresee problematic situations before they may occur. Such skills are extremely valuable when dealing with a challenging project on a tight deadline. It allows the leader to lead its team more efficiently. Hence, developing situational awareness can be the key to elevating your leadership persona to another level. It can help you avoid potential problems and recognize opportunities more often. Both of these qualities are invaluable for any leader.
Keep Learning
As a leader, if you believe you know it all, it only means you know very little. Good leaders are always the ones who believe in the constant learning process. Once you inherit this trait into shaping your leadership style, you will notice a significant improvement in everything you do. It is because constant learning enables a person to have a sharp mind and stay updated with new challenges to overcome.
Become an Avid Listener
Most leaders are known for their communication skills. It is what, primarily, keeps them in the spotlight. However, good leaders don’t crave the spotlight all the time. Instead, they want to evolve and improvise in the things they constantly do. Therefore, they practice listening because it is the only way to evaluate the current flaws and work on them.
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Shellye Archambeau is determined to help you with all possible strategies to climb the ladder of success. She values your feedback. Do mention them in the comment section below.