A mentorship topic that comes up from time to time is that of leadership styles. Early on in my career, I used to look up to senior leaders in the organization and think that I need to learn to lead in the same way they do if I were to be successful and hopefully one day reach their level of achievement. Over time, I corrected this mental model with the following adjustments:
1️⃣ Learning from every Leader: We can and still should learn from all leaders around us. I have certainly learned something from every single leader I worked with as well as those I have read about - even at times if that was on what not to do. Learning does not need to be limited to leaders that are more senior than us, I have personally learned a lot over the years from peers or more junior leaders too I interacted with.
2️⃣ Diversity of Leadership Styles: There is not a single leadership style that determines success. Many leadership styles can bring success. This is supported by experience and the plethora of stories/books about successful leaders that are so widely different in their leadership styles. While there are some common pillars across these styles, every leader is unique in their approach. Embrace the diversity.
3️⃣ Authenticity: What's most important is for your leadership style to reflect you - i.e. for you to be an authentic leader. Anyone around you can quite quickly detect whether you are being genuine in the way you lead or not. As you learn from others (point #1), adapt what you find to be useful to your style vs. force fitting what you learned as is (which will not come out naturally).
👉 There are countless resources on this topic, but if I had to recommend one, it would be: Authentic Leadership by Bill George.
