Embrace Your Leadership Style!

You’ve got style! More than one, in fact. Consider how you walk, talk, dress, work, and play. You have styles for each.

And then, there is your leadership style. Every leader has a style. Yours is unique, but it still falls into a recognizable category of attributes.

It’s liberating to learn there is no one right way to lead. You may be visionary and inspirational, or practical and detail focused. Maybe you follow proven paths, or maybe you prefer innovating. Some people seek consensus, others drive performance through strategy and coaching. The question is, how do you lead?

Uncovering Your Leadership Style

Do you know your leadership style? “Ask yourself: Why do I want to be a leader?” suggests Marilyn Manning, Ph.D., founder of The Consulting Team. “You have to know your own style, values, and belief system,” she explains. “Once aware of your own motivations and style, you have fewer blind spots and can better manage challenging situations.”

Toastmasters’ Pathways learning experience highlights eight leadership styles: bureaucratic, authoritative, innovative, pacesetting, democratic, affiliative, coaching, and altruistic. Each of us has a natural leadership style that fits best into one of these eight styles. That’s your core or default style. As you read about the eight styles, note which most resonates with you.

Bureaucratic:

Do you establish and enforce rules and help create clear divisions of labor? Is your leadership approach top-down, and team culture hierarchical? Do you emphasize compliance and accountability? Some will welcome your clarity and decisiveness.

Authoritative:

You confidently chart a long-term course for your team, inspiring enthusiasm for your shared mission. During times of change your steady style deftly guides your team. Clubs that are rebuilding often benefit from this style, which returns the club to productivity and vibrancy.

Innovative:

Are you a visionary leader? Do you inspire and galvanize your team to boldly go in a new or different direction, encouraging others to innovate together? Creativity flourishes when innovation is embraced. By valuing others, your team creates an exciting approach to success.

Pacesetting:

In settings requiring big changes, turnarounds, or high achievement, you rally others to move mountains or turn around underperforming teams. Productivity and accountability are emphasized in this accelerated environment where the team or club emulates your approach to achieve success.

Democratic:

Are you a consensus-builder? Do you emphasize communication and collaboration among your team? By doing so, you motivate others to participate. Your democratic style assures everyone has a seat at the table and a say in the organization’s or club’s direction, increasing unity and cooperation.

Affiliative:

If you put people first, are collaborative, and focus on your teammates’ emotional needs, your style is affiliative. You create positive personal relationships and tend to avoid conflicts. Depending on the leader you are following or club culture you’re inheriting, this focus may bring healing, relief, or a renewal of commitment when you shine the spotlight on members’ needs.

Coaching:

Like a strong educator, you prepare your team by building their confidence and competence, teaching skills, providing positive feedback, and often working one-on-one to help team members reach their full potential.

Altruistic:

You are committed to personalizing your approach with an altruistic style. Do you motivate others using an empowering, ethical approach? Do you derive purpose by focusing on each teammate’s fulfillment? If so, your core leadership style as a servant leader is altruistic.

If you still aren’t sure of your leadership style as it relates to these eight archetypes, the Pathways Level 2 project Understanding Your Leadership Style includes a survey to help you identify your style. Results may surprise you, or confirm your initial thoughts, as well as clarify what skills to sharpen, such as delegation or patience.

Embracing Situational Leadership

It’s ineffective to force your leadership style on others—doing so can lead to resistance and resentment. Successful leaders embrace situational leadership, recognizing differing styles in situations—from high-stakes negotiations to leading a new leadership team, from engaging in tense budget meetings to addressing conflicts.

“Effective leaders should be multidimensional, adapting their core style based on the individuals and the situations, rather than relying on a single leadership style,” asserts Karen Snyder, a trainer, facilitator, and coach for Concordia Consulting. “You will need to tailor your style to the person and situation you are managing.”

In his third year in Toastmasters, future two-time District Director Bill Meyn, DTM, learned an important leadership lesson. As a new Area leader in Southern California, he visited a club whose statistics showed no educational accomplishments.

With an admittedly bureaucratic style, Meyn quoted policy and insisted all speeches should come from Toastmasters manuals. When members asked whether non-manual speeches were ever acceptable, he firmly answered, “No, you should never do that!” Club members quickly tuned him out.

Decades later, Meyn recognizes, “I could have taken a softer approach for better results.” Factoring in the people and situation in his approach to this club’s members and skill-building would have made everyone more amenable to working together.

Teams are full of people with different leadership styles. And that’s a good thing. Learn to recognize other styles and shift yours when necessary for the most success.

“The best teams are the ones that are complementary, not similar in style,” says Allison Tabor, author of Work Your Assets Off: Stop Working So Hard in Business and in Life. She cautions, “While you may be drawn to others who share your style, such teams can be one-dimensional, and accentuate biases of that style.”

Presentation coach Michael Chojnacki, DTM, models the qualities of an affiliative leader. Drawing on his Aikido training, he helps clients foster teamwork and cohesion through positive relationships. At Surf City Advanced Toastmasters in Scotts Valley, California, Chojnacki practiced the Platinum Rule—treat others as they want to be treated—to strengthen trust among club members. He adjusted his language, pacing, and physical presence to help others feel comfortable and understood.

Chojnacki’s methods demonstrate that trust and rapport flourish when leaders genuinely care about their teammates and communicate with empathy. Trust blooms when you truly care for your teammates, regardless of their differing leadership styles.

An easy way to understand your teammates’ styles is simply to ask. At the beginning of your club officer term or when your project kicks off, share your style and ask others what theirs are. Keep those styles in mind as you work together in times of both calm and stress.

Your self-management, social skills, and empathy are invaluable in gleaning the essence of those you are partnering with. Observe their body language, speaking style, pacing, and vocabulary. You will learn far more from listening and observing than by speaking. Asking open-ended questions like “What do you think?” or “What ideas do you have about accomplishing this objective?” and listening intently will open others up and build rapport and trust.

You’ve taken the lead in understanding your style as a leader and embracing the styles of others for the benefit of shared goals. Allow me to lead the applause for you, a leader of style!

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