What Kind of Leader Are You? Part Two

When I talk with someone about leadership coaching, one of the questions I typically ask to get a sense of who they are is, “What kind of leader are you?”  Each person’s responses tell me about how they perceive themselves, and how they understand leadership.

Some people view leadership as a set of qualities that leaders have from birth.  Leaders are recognizable from an early age, and their behavior as children identifies them as having leadership potential.  People either have leadership ability or they do not, and they are not able to change that.

Other people tend to view leadership as information; leaders “know what to do” in different situations.  Leaders are people who work hard to be prepared to make good decisions.  They accumulate knowledge and try to know as much as they can.  People acquire leadership as they gain information and experience.

I also talk to people who believe that leadership is not what you know, it is who you know.  Leaders work hard to build strong, effective relationships.  if you have a good mentor, if you work well with other people, you can be a good leader.

We can each think of examples of leaders for whom their personality, their knowledge and experience, and their network of relationships are essential.  There are also examples of leaders who relied too heavily on one of these essential aspects of leadership, or were able to be very effective despite an apparent lack in one of these areas.

As I work with leaders who strive to become more effective, I become more and more convinced that the key to becoming more effective is the realization that there is no magic leadership formula.  Each leader, each person, finds the leader that is within themselves and becomes that leader.

The most significant barriers to being a leader are within yourself.

How do you see yourself? What kind of leader are you?

[Image by mikebaird]