How do you lead? It might sound like a philosophical question, but it’s a vital one to understand if you want to lead both successfully and authentically.
It’s a question that a lot of my coaching clients grapple with. Some aren’t quite sure how they lead, while others have a sense of it but struggle to put it into words. However, being able to understand and articulate your distinctive leadership style clearly can be helpful in a number of ways:
It can help you understand your leadership strengths and weaker areas, allowing you to know where you need to pull in additional resources, take extra care, or draw on the strengths of others.
It enables you to lead authentically by providing a blueprint for how you lead at your best. This builds trust with your team, who know what to expect from you because you act consistently. It may also lead to insights that you're not working in the right place for your particular way of leading.
It supports you in decision-making. The next time you have a tricky work dilemma, ask yourself, “How would I respond if I were fully embracing the way I want to lead?” This also helps ground you when things get tough.
Being able to articulate it clearly, compellingly and concisely can support you in job interviews and promotion panels. It’s not about saying what you think someone wants to hear about “good leadership” - it’s about demonstrating that you have a high level of self-awareness, know how you want to lead and are aware of the strengths and limitations of that style.
Without knowing your distinctive leadership style, it's easy to second-guess yourself, mimic others, or fall into a performative version of leadership that doesn’t feel right and that others can sense isn’t real.
Why Copying Others Won’t Work
There is no single “ideal” leadership style, and effective leaders understand the importance of adapting their approach to fit different contexts and challenges. Leadership trends will come and go (just look at the recent rise of “strongman” leadership in politics, and the emerging signs that, in the US at least, there is an emerging backlash).
Too often, the emerging leaders I see find themselves trying to mould who they are into someone else's version of what a leader should be. Maybe it’s a previous boss, a high-profile executive, or even a well-intentioned mentor. If you try to lead by flattening yourself to fit into someone else's shape, you will lead awkwardly, be ineffective or burn out from putting on a mask or persona at work each day.
My advice? It might sound a little clichéd, but the most successful leaders are those who lead in ways that feel authentic and natural to them. Your distinctive leadership style represents you at your best, rooted in your strengths, personality, values, and purpose.
By nature, it’s aspirational. You won’t embody it perfectly every second of every day, but with intention and thought, you can access it when it matters most.
Finding Your Distinctive Leadership Style
So where do you start? The first step is to think purposefully about how you want to lead and to consider your strengths as a leader. Finding your distinctive leadership style requires you to be honest with yourself, seek feedback from others, and commit to leading in ways that align with your values and strengths. If that fills you with in trepidation, then I have a guide to finding your own leadership style that you can download here.
Leading well is not about being the loudest voice in the room or the one with the flashiest strategy. It's about being the leader who knows who they are and leads from that place, both consistently and unapologetically.
If you want 2026 to be the year that you find your distinctive leadership style and consistently embody it, then get in touch to see how I can support you to do just that.