Crafting your unique leadership style

Being a leader is tough and it’s not a role suitable for everyone.

Born leaders possess innate skills including high levels of determination and resilience, and the ability to effectively manage stress.

Whilst the majority of leaders have to work at their craft. Developing these attributes to define an effective business and personal leadership style.

Every leader however will need to continue to hone their skills in recognition of the changing needs of their followers and the wider business context of fast-changing competitive demands.

Here are 5 critical skills essential to crafting a unique leadership style.

Adaptable and Flexible

Determination, grit and passion are important leadership qualities. Equally important is not being wedded to your view and approach even as the leader.

An adaptable and flexible leader recognises the importance of keeping abreast of cutting- edge developments in their industry. Realising new research, technological developments and consumer expectations can greatly enhance an organisations sustainability and success.

The ability for leaders to think quickly and flexibly in ever changing market conditions, will enable them to capitalise on the new developments and remain ahead of their competitors.

Authenticity

Employee’s today expect more from their leaders. They want to perform fulfilling work and feel valued by leaders they can believe in. Its therefore vital leaders know how to inspire confidence, passion and trust in the people they lead.

Authentic leaders do this by behaving with integrity and being consistent. They have high levels of self-awareness i.e. they know who they are, act in accordance with their values and use a strong moral compass to make rational decisions during challenging times.

Culturally Intelligent

Leaders are commonly expected to deftly handle themselves in a variety of social settings across all levels. In a globally entrenched society, what is more critical for leaders is the ability to appreciate, understand and leverage cultural differences.

This means leaders need to be concerned with cultural perspectives (e.g. alternative ways to communicate) and what can be learned from these. In doing so leaders will integrate cultural dimensions in to their organisations and unleash more human potential to achieve

meaningful work objectives. Thereby extending people’s worldviews, bridging cultural gaps, and enabling successful work across cultures. And by extension adding to organisational success.

Emotionally Agile

In a 24/7 world, the accelerating pace of work, innovation and change is placing greater pressure on the workforce. Successful leaders acknowledge this tension and recognise the importance of developing emotional agility; realising it is the key to well-being and success. Not only for individuals but organisations.

An emotionally agile leader is flexible in their thoughts and feelings ensuring they respond optimally to everyday situations and difficult challenges. They have mastered the power of the space that lies between a stimulus and a response. In doing so they have acquired new empathetic and compassionate behaviours which support the growing expectations today’s employees have for our future leaders.

Agile Learner (Self-Awareness & Versatile)

The ability to learn quickly has become ever more important in a technologically driven world. Leaders willing to adopt a learning mode, value and seek out lessons from experiences. As active learners they recognise when new attitudes, behaviours, or skills are needed and accept responsibility for developing them.

Becoming an agile learner enables the leader to learn from mistakes and/or set-backs. Asking insightful questions and openly inviting feedback from trusted and respected sources enriches the learning opportunities. Increasing the speed and responsiveness of the leader to future developments within their organisation and industry.

If you are new to leadership, facing a new leadership challenge or simply wish to take a powerful inventory on your leadership style why not check out my Executive Coaching Case Study on Leadership Development.