Why knowing your leadership style is so important

Last week, I asked you all which leadership style you thought was most effective in today’s world:

1. Inspiring and motivating
2. Adapting and responding
3. Emphasizing teamwork
4. Making decisions independently

And the results were really interesting. 45% of the votes were for (a) inspiring and motivating. 36% were for (b) adapting and responding. And (c) emphasizing teamwork and (d) making decisions independently tied for 9%.

All four options have their benefits, right? Inspiring and motivational leaders tend to have positive attitudes and increase office and team morale. They ask questions and look to inspire growth in their employees. Leaders who can easily adapt and respond to challenges encourage their employees to experiment and discover new workflows when they hit a snag. Then those who emphasize teamwork push for open communication, which promotes innovation and creativity from employees.?

Alternatively, leaders who end up making decisions independently ask that their employees follow through with those requests. There’s no real innovation or collaboration, there’s no leadership given to the team; the experience tends to be pretty neutral to demoralizing for everyone involved.?

All leadership styles have qualities. But in recent years, research has shown that thoughtful, collaborative and empowering leadership improves employee productivity and overall satisfaction. So, it’s interesting to see that two total opposites: emphasizing teamwork and making decisions independently, received the same percentage of results.?

The benefit of learning and owning your leadership style is that it can significantly improve how you relate to your team. Learning which leadership style you have can also help you shift your style if it’s something you don’t feel aligned with. For example, if you are making decisions independently but want more collaboration and teamwork, you can start learning more about that leadership style and change your behaviors.?

All information is good information! And this information is crucial in creating businesses with solid, happy teams!

What do you think? Let me know below!

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