How to assess your leadership identity

As a leader one of the many internal demons I had to battle was whether my leadership identity was hitting the mark .

I knew that it was important to develop a consistently distinctive style and brand to inspire and influence our employees and shareholders but I often lacked clarity on the required development areas .

I would certainly have benefited from answering these five questions below posed by leadership coach Kate Dixon.

1. What Do You Stand For?

Your principles or values are the bedrock to your identity as a person but they become more critical to define , communicate and of course enact .These are values like honesty, harmony, a sense of humour, abundance and strength.

Knowing your principles is key for a couple of different reasons. When you act in accordance with your principles, you’re acting authentically, and you’re in harmony with what you hold dear. This alignment is what allows you to feel fulfilled and happy. Conversely, things that conflict with your principles can make you irrationally furious — or at least more frustrated than average.

Principles can also be key differentiators between people in similar roles (like you and the person who had the role before you, or you and the other candidate for promotion).

2. What Are Your Signature Strengths ?

Anybody who has put together a résumé has had a taste of signature strengths. These are action verbs that describe what you do, and do well. But to be of service to you with your leadership brand, signature strengths need to go beyond the résumé.

For example, my current bio says I coach leaders. While that’s true, it’s a little bland for a signature strength . My signature strength  is seeing the highest potential in my clients and holding them accountable to their goals. Much more action orientated and more likely to support my leadership brand and differentiate me from others who do similar things.

3. Do You Have The Essential Leadership Skills Every Leader Needs?

This isn’t aspirational but just a process check on whether you have the essential leadership skills that every leader needs.

Kate  believes there are five essential skills that every leader needs: compassion, curiosity, communication, vision and resilience. Of course, how they come to life will depend on your principles and signature strengths, and how you express these skills can help you solidify your leadership brand.

Leaders need compassion to relate well with the people on their team. But compassion could look different for someone who leads with a principle of justice and a strength  of directing complex projects as compared to another leader who leads with a principle of flexibility and a strength of public speaking.

Curiosity allows space for other opinions, communication gives teams essential information, vision connects your team with their goals, and resilience helps teams bounce back when things don’t go according to plan.

Knowing how these five skills come to life for you as a leader will help you define your leadership style and become more intentional in how you lead.

4. How Are You Known ?

Collecting feedback about your leadership reputation and how your brand is showing up for others is critical for improvement and growth. Most leaders get this type of feedback from 360-degree reviews.

Most leaders are uncomfortable with 360-degree feedback, but having the opportunity to hear how others perceive you is a gift that can help you focus your development efforts.

Just don’t over-index on the negative. A client of mine who had the best 360-degree scores and feedback I’ve seen in my career was debriefing his survey with me. He completely ignored the spectacular feedback he received from his team to focus on a single comment he received about his style from a peer. After talking it through, he was able to put the one comment into perspective and celebrate the responses he’d received that validated his hard work to shift his leadership presence in the prior year.

5. What is your Legacy ?

Your legacy is what you will leave behind and you may think that this future-oriented element shouldn’t have a place in your leadership brand. But by knowing what impact you want to leave your team and your organization with, you can more easily shape what you’re doing every day to ensure you leave the legacy you intend to. Why leave it to chance?

Selecting your principles and signature strengths, figuring out how the five leadership skills show up, collecting feedback about your reputation and deciding what legacy you want to leave will equip you well in defining your leadership brand.

Click here for Kate’s original post https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2019/08/16/five-must-haves-for-your-leadership-brand

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Paul Lyons is an experienced CEO who coaches leaders to improve their performance and wellbeing by developing their mental toughness. 

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