How my Personal Leadership Style Helped Me Evolve as a Better Leader

Leadership is a personal thing. It comes naturally to an individual based on their personality traits. No two leaders are the same. Each have their own style that is determined by personal behavioral traits like introvert, extrovert, thinking, feeling judging, perceiving etc. It is like any other personality trait that manifests itself in how you lead or guide your team.

With 20 years of sales and marketing experience behind me, I can confidently say that my personal leadership style has had a lot of impact on me and has helped me evolve as a leader over time. 

My personal leadership style is that of collaboration and mentorship. I have always been a people’s person. My social side helps me forge good relations with colleagues and seniors and the same manifested itself in my actions later in my career when I had my own team to manage. I thrive on recognizing and developing the talents and skills of others. I give them complete autonomy to flourish in areas in which they excel while at the same time retaining some control over the process.

In the last decade of my career I have taken on various managerial roles, led different teams exceeding expectations and been actively involved in the corporate training and development of teams and therefore feel that my collaborative style has helped in more ways than one.

Boosts Team Spirit – Instead of working in solos, members work together, thanks to my collaborative style. It gives me an opportunity to get to know them on a personal level, form a bond. I know their passions, strengths, weaknesses which allows me to let them work on things they are passionate about. This leads better team spirit, relations and high levels of loyalty within the team. Over time this has translated into better products, services and innovative processes.

Improved Productivity – With each team member being allowed to focus on what they are best at doing, they are able to bring their strengths to the table. This leads to higher efficiency and greater productivity. I play by the strength of each member instead of stressing over weaknesses and result is improved quality of work. There is minimal revision and review which creates cost saving opportunity for the organization and better service being rendered to customers.

Sense of Balance in Decisions – With collaborative leadership style, employees is able to maintain an open mind. It allows the manager to hear multiple voices while at the same time retaining the authority to make a decision. Co-operation is encouraged. Although there might be differences of opinion with some being resolute, it is balanced by the others and they ultimately find a common ground. This helps reduce unconscious bias that is so common at the workplace today.

Boosts the Morale of the Team – Collaborative leadership style stems from my ability to work alongside my team members, solve problems together and most importantly learn from each other. This creates an inviting atmosphere at the workplace because it builds mutual trust amongst employees and this helps boost the morale of the team as they feel they are working for a common goal.

Give rise to Innovations – I have always allowed my subordinates complete autonomy, giving them all the space they need to flourish in their roles. As a result, they are encouraged to tap into their creative resources. Ideas flow and people are driven to innovate thinking, leading to the betterment of the project, the team and the organization as a whole.

Nobody feels pressured – Of course, as a leader I have to assign and delegate responsibilities, that’s part of my job as a leader but since all of us work together, no one member feels the burden of a task and the workload is divided. Problems are solved in a jiffy, people are more confident thereby leading to successful execution of the project.

Of course, the path hasn’t been a bed of roses and I have encountered my own share of challenges while trying to collaborate and co-operate. One thing I have learnt is collaboration doesn’t come easy especially in modern workplace which requires you to connect and work with people across different locations with just Cloud being a medium to connect with one another. So in an essence your collaboration and co-operations efforts are limited and restricted by technology.

But I have also learnt that if managed properly it can yield wonderful results not just for the team and the organization as a whole but for you as an individual as well. After all, in the words of John Quincy Adams, “If your actions inspire others to dream more, dream more and become more, you are a leader.”

By Vidya Rajan