Knowing Your Leadership Archetype Can Set You Up For Success
What’s your leadership archetype and why does it matter?
How would you describe your leadership archetype or style? Are there times when your current style works for you and times that it does not? Recently, I had a leader share with me that her style evolved based on how she observed other people leading since she had had very little formal leadership development, like executive leadership coaching. This is a common experience for women as they progress in their leadership roles, and it can lead to developing an inauthentic or ineffective style. Being a leader in a nonprofit organization does not mean you have to have a one size fits all approach. By looking at some of the women who spoke at the Democratic National Convention, I noticed a few different leadership archetypes that we’ll take a look at here. Recognizing your leadership archetype, what your talents and skills are, and how to use them effectively to achieve desired outcomes, can make the difference in how successful you are in your role. You can become an authentic and confident leader who trusts herself and gains the trust of others.
The Empathic Leader
The Former First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama, is an example of an empathic leadership style. This type of leader’s key characteristics is that they are attuned, relatable, and transparent. Empathy, or the ability to walk in other’s shoes as she shared, can be a great way to build a connection with your team. Developing emotional intelligence, being an empathic leader allows you to take into consideration people’s personal and professional experiences, and you value being supportive and encouraging. Other people can relate and connect with you, making it easier to get them to buy-in and invest in the outcome. Being transparent, honest with them about what’s known but also what may still not be clear, builds trust in you, and a belief that you will be honest with them. An area of growth for this leader is balancing empathy and accountability, thinking about support more broadly, and knowing when to set and enforce limits. Leadership coaching can support learning to establish and maintain boundaries and to discern when to share sensitive information, and how much to share so that it’s not overwhelming.
The Trailblazer Leader
The United States Senator and Democratic Vice- Presidential nominee Kamala Harris represented the trailblazing leader. The trailblazer challenges the status quo; they are conscientious and committed to pushing boundaries to achieve high-level goals. As a trailblazer, you get people excited for a change. You get them to find new ways to solve problems and encourage them to own what is working and what is not. Your primary focus is the customer/ consumer and service delivery. This focus is valuable in nonprofit organizations since the general goal of nonprofit organizations is to serve under-served people and communities. The focus of executive leadership coaching would be helping you to measure risk and prioritizing which initiatives to pursue. Coaching can support finding a balance between solutions that are conscientious, feasible, and sustainable.
The Dignified Leader
Former Second Lady of the United States Jill Biden embodies dignified leadership. This leadership style emphasizes a focus on core values, precedent, and steady decision-making that is similar to a bureaucratic leadership style. If this is your style, your team will respond to your knowledge of prior practices that inform decision-making. Your calm approach can help to keep them focused and on task, and they will feel confident in how you deal with high-risk or challenging situations. For women in leadership positions who embody the dignified leader, coaching can support you in learning to be innovative, generating new solutions from existing practices, being comfortable with change, and taking risks. Another executive coaching benefit is having a thought partner and sounding board that can help you to look at different sides of a situation.
The Positive Disrupter Leader
Actress and Comedian Julia Louis-Dreyfus is representative of the positive disrupter’s leadership archetype. This leader is willing to take risks, utilizes directness, and highlights disparities to create change. These characteristics are a positive form of disruption you can use to energize people, that feel unheard or disillusioned. People respond to this type of leadership because they regard the leader as someone willing to get out in front of an issue and call it out so that changes can be made. Coaching can support you in utilizing the cost-benefit analysis to determine where there are threats, as well as opportunities for progress. By identifying appropriate ways to use disruptive tactics, the leader can create allies internally and externally and increase the likelihood of success. This leadership style can also result in feeling isolated. Learning to build bridges of allyship and support can be an executive coaching benefit as well.
The Mission-Driven Leader
Actress Kerry Washington represents the mission-driven leadership style. This leadership style is characterized by humility, being focused on representing diverse perspectives, and remaining focused on the core mission. Team members experience this type of leader as one who is humble and does not try and use power to control them, the opposite of a top-down leadership style. They will respond to your approach of inclusivity in the decision-making process and keeping them connected to the principles of the mission or goal of the work. Executive leadership coaching can help you find ways to tolerate discomfort and ambiguity in the decision-making process. Coaching can also help you to feel confident in having the final say when necessary. While staying focused on the mission is vital, it’s also important to evaluate the organizational mission regularly and be strategic in helping it to evolve.
Finding your leadership style
There are many different leadership styles and core leadership skills that are valuable to women in leadership positions. Have you figured out which one describes you or which skills you would like to develop? Different skills can be beneficial depending on the type of work, work environment, team, and desired outcomes. An Executive Leadership Coach can work with you to identify what your skills are and how to best use them by guiding you to develop action plans that support your growth in other areas. With leadership opportunities comes a higher sense of purpose, the opportunity to utilize more complex skills, and increased autonomy. Executive coaching can be a pivotal investment in bridging that gap between feeling unfulfilled professionally and excelling as a leader. Whether you’ve started the executive job search or you’re already a CEO if you’re ready to maximize your leadership, set up a free strategy call here and we can discuss how coaching could help you reach your goals.
