Leadership Style

                This week for my blog I have to write about what separates me from other people as a leader. I find this challenging, I feel like I do not know what my style is yet. Is it because I am twenty nine years old or should I already know what type of leader I am supposed to be. After reading Goffee and Jones article on “Getting personal on the topic of leadership”, I feel like the people which they talked about did not know what their style was at first either. Their style was something so natural, it was just who they were and then the people who studied them called it a style.

                To be aware of myself I would have to study myself and my leadership style. I would like to think that I am a very relaxed person, I do not believe in scolding other adults, at the same time I would never hold back from telling people the truth or giving them constructive criticism. I think that if I was to be studied as a leader people might say that I have a “niceness” to me, just like people would say that Bill Gates has a “geekiness” to him.

                Being nice works for me, I have always noticed that when I am in a leadership role I treat people with respect and I make them feel like their opinion counts. I make people feel useful by having them feel like they are helping me directly when doing their work. People like to help me because they see that I respect them; they do not want to let me down. I have seen over controlling leaders that treat their employees with little respect, I have always felt that this leads to rebellious behavior. Most people can only be pushed around for so long until they begin to become rebellious.

                I think that as a leader we have to have a bond with our team, many times bossing people around does not work; especially when working with well qualified and educated people. I see that I am the type of person that enjoys an “authentic leadership” style of doing things around the work place. “Aspects of authentic leadership include positive leader values, leader self-awareness, and a trusting relationship with followers” (Yukl, 2013). I hope that my leadership style can someday be as effective as a Bill Gates but I guess that only time will tell where this style of leadership can take me.

 

Reference-

-          Yukl, G. (2013). Leadership in organizations (8^th Ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.