What Kind of Leader Do You Want To Be?

There is no shortage of advice on how to be a better leader.

If you are active on social media or pay attention to the latest in business literature you’ll find that there is simply no shortage of opinion out there to help you be a better leader. There are tons of strategies and guides to improving your leadership as a whole. The question I’m asking is this: regardless of skill, what kind of leader do you want to be? There are many types of leaders and it's not my goal to discuss all of those types. Rather, it's to raise awareness of taking deliberate steps to know the kind of leader you want to be. Effective leadership stems from an awareness of oneself: both strengths and weaknesses. Let’s look at leadership from the following perspectives: are you a leader who delegates or micromanages? The key difference between these approaches is one of trust: do you trust those people you manage to do the job that they are assigned?

The answer may not be as simple as you might think. You may say to yourself: of course, I trust my team! I like them all and I know they can trust me. That sounds easy: but let's say that your success, your career, and your professional reputation depend on doing a good job.

Now that you know that, can you afford to take a hands-off approach to what your team is doing? Shouldn’t you take an involved approach in the details? If this feels right to you, then perhaps you are more of a micromanager than you might realize. But don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing. There may be a very good reason to be so involved in the details. Perhaps your team is very junior, or composed of team members who have never worked together before; a more detailed leadership approach may be necessary. But what if you have a more experienced team, or a team that is more successful…would you need to be so detail-oriented in leading them? Can you trust them to do their jobs without your constant scrutiny?

Only you know the answers to these questions, but it's important that you know yourself and know what kind of leader you should be in your circumstances. Self-awareness is essential to making the right decisions.

Delegating work works, provided the one delegating works too.

Robert Half