Finding your leadership style

There are many different ways to lead. Of course, there are certainly right ways and wrong ways, but I believe there is no single style that suits every leader and every company’s culture. Does your leadership style best reflect who you are and the goals you are trying to achieve? 

When determining the type of leader you want to be, take time to dive deep into your personal values. Values influence your behaviors, and identifying which values are most important to you will dictate which leadership qualities, abilities and actions you will bring to your company. For me, service is a value I hold to the highest standard and it’s how I determined which leadership style I wanted to pursue – servant leadership. 

I work in the business, on the business and everywhere in between. You might see me in a boardroom making crucial business decisions one day, and the next you may see me sweeping a floor alongside a service partner. To me, leadership isn’t just delegation or instruction. Effective leadership requires one to be a servant leader by getting into the thick of things with the team when needed, treating others with respect and setting a good example.

I’ve embraced servant leadership not only because it aids in the success of my business, raises levels of trust in my management team and enhances service partner commitment to our organization, but also because it teaches our service partners lessons they can apply to all areas of life, especially those outside the workplace.

Servant leadership is all about making hard decisions for the betterment of the team rather than yourself. We simply cannot risk the health of the organization for our own comfort. We can’t turn a blind eye. We can’t avoid the tough calls. As hard as it is to do, we have to peel back the onion to find out where mistakes are being made, even if we know it will uncover problems that will be difficult to face. Great things don’t happen in the middle of the road. As Jim Hightower said, “There is nothing in the middle of the road but yellow stripes and dead armadillos.”