What is Your Leadership Style?

Have you considered your leadership style/s?

Do you prefer to take charge, direct, instruct and tell others what to do? Do you prefer to follow your leaders, rules, guidelines and procedures? Do you prefer to think through quietly and only ask questions when you need to?

Extraverts express themselves openly, whereas introverts prefer to stay quiet while they think. Both styles make conversations interesting and determine the flow. Either style can be highly influential, and it is not a fact that extraverts make better presenters. Sometimes you ask, sometimes you tell.

Results are important, and they exceed the effort put in. When you measure performance as a yardstick for potential and capability, then the amount of effort put in must translate into expected outcomes. Thus, as disappointing as it may sound, we place a premium over results than effort. Thus, volunteer leaders at the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games will be evaluated for their effectiveness and competencies to lead fellow volunteers, delegates, spectators and fans. Delivering a prepared talk, and making immediate changes to your script requires expressing yourself in another way. Tonight, I delivered a talk on delivering scripted comedy to amateur and professional magicians and I had to do just that, as we had two guests present. You have to be flexible to integrate changes, and redeliver your material differently.

When you participate in group sports, have you ever taken the lead? Have you pulled the pack when riding? Have you allowed fellow swimmers to draft you in your wake? Have you paced runners and moderated the pace so that they ran at race pace? You can take the lead, follow or support – these are positions of influence. When you think of leadership as positions, you can use prepositions to guide you in your chosen direction of influence: at, from, above, below, around, behind, front, and side. It is analogous to an aircraft approaching the runway; you fly into the wind, and not with it.

The next time you lead, consider your results and your approach.