What’s Your Leadership Style?

So what’s your leadership style? Do you rule with an iron fist or a velvet glove? Do you lead from the front and get your hands dirty or adopt more of a backroom general approach? Maybe you are a transformer, or a visionary or play coach. The truth is that most of us have one style which probably comes more naturally to us than others but ideally, when the situation calls for it, we need to have the ability to adapt and change. A leader after all is only as good as his team.

At the very least, we need to be aware of alternative styles and if we don’t have the personal capacity to fulfil all those modalities, then we need to build a leadership team that can.

If you don’t know the answer to these questions, or you aren’t good at being something different, then perhaps you are not yet equipped to fully realise your potential. Great leaders need to be personally reflective and have a good understanding of their strengths and weaknesses. They also need to be strong enough to ask for feedback from those that they work with and be able to deal positively with the answers they receive, whatever they may be.

One of things that aikido training does is bring you face to face with your true self, warts and all. That can be scary and over the years I have seen many students leave when faced with the prospect of having to change if they are to improve. The idea of ‘knowing thyself’ isn’t exactly new and may even have come from Ancient Egypt. At the very least it was expounded upon by Socrates, but just because it is ancient wisdom, it doesn’t make it any less true.

The Business Dojo promotes this ancient wisdom and gives you a methodology for finding your best self, and through that, enhances your ability to work effectively with others. It also helps you acknowledge your personal needs and to ensure that these are catered for. Without balance in your life, you are only heading towards disaster on some front. It is only when you have balance that you truly gain perspective on what is going on around you and find yourself in a place where you can bring about balance in others. When the interests of a team are all aligned as opposed to having to focus on the interest and needs of the few you have a truly effective organisation.