How do I want others to describe me as a leader?
When discussing leadership I often become very perturbed in disagreement with the all-too-common top-down approach to leadership. I believe this stems from a generally weak comprehension of what leadership is – therefore, before answering this question I think we need to establish some context and define our terms.
Leadership
: a position as a leader of a group, organization, etc.
: the time when a person holds the position of power
: the power or ability to lead other people
Leader
: a person who leads (…really?)
Lead
: to direct on a course or in a direction
: to guide on a way especially by going in advance
If you didn’t guess, the above definitions are pulled straight from the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, and I think it is safe to say that there 3 conclusions we can pull from them:
- For the most part, there is no good definition of leadership.
- Nobody knows exactly what a leader is.
- Most people don’t actually know what it means to lead.
This is why the question “How do I want others to describe me as a leader?” is so important –people’s perceptions of leaders form their definition of all things leadership.
As I mentioned at the beginning, I happen to disagree with the way leadership is collectively defined in society, because most people define leadership as a position. Leadership is not a position; it is not a right; it is not an authority. I believe leadership is a responsibility.
Every organization has a few designated leaders – these are your CEOs, your Presidents, your THON Chairs. This is no problem until those positions become synonymous with leadership, because no successful organization is truly led by one person.
The responsibility of leadership in my eyes is empowerment.
Therefore, whether people describe me as a strong leader, a demanding leader, a tough leader, a nice leader, a fun leader is irrelevant. A genius CEO can bring a small startup to IPO, but if his company dies with his resignation, he was a failure as a leader – his duties and responsibilities should have extended beyond himself. His job was to lead the company toward a better future. That being said, I would hope that people describe me as an inspirational leader, as ultimately, the job of any leader is to create leaders out of his followers.
What role does my personality play into that description?
To recap, I would like people to describe me as an inspirational leader – this is broad by nature, but there are definitely strategies I consistently use to inspire and empower my peers.
It was great discussing how our personalities can affect our leadership styles and success in an organization. My Myers Briggs personality type is an ENTJ:
- Extraversion
- Intuition
- Thinking
- Judging
Therefore, I generally gain more energy around large groups of people, always seem to be looking at ‘the big picture,’ value logical reasoning, and usually prefer to operate on a very structured plan.
Despite this, however, I find one of the best attributes a leader can have is a versatile personality. I often see myself on both sides of the Myers Briggs personality test, as different situations call for different processes of thought and action. For example, as a leader in the Penn State Blue Band, extroversion is very common, useful, and necessary for success, but it is even more important to be able to put that aside and work with team members one on one. In an organization where attitude and morale is so key to success, sometimes the leaders need to pull someone aside to give them a pep talk, or tell them what they need to improve on. Every once in a while a member will begin to stray away from the group mentally, and without introversion skills, a leader would not have the ability to bring them back.
Similarly, I find myself jumping back and forth between thinking and feeling with respect to decision-making. I have always operated under the idea that short-term decisions should be based on rational logic and facts, but long-term decisions should be based on emotion.
So how do I use my personality traits to fulfill my leadership mission – how do I use it to inspire and empower my peers?
My primary leadership strategy is to always be on everybody’s side – on drumline, for example, there are generally always a few people that each person doesn’t get along with, but I go out of my way to have a good relationship with everyone. In a competitive performance environment it is critical to make sure people can put aside their individual interests for the good of the group. This is a use of introversion because it takes getting to know each and every person on an individual level to accomplish. It also takes a combination of Thinking and Feeling to make good operational decisions, but also keep individual interests in mind.
Finally, it takes inviting people into the decision making process – giving everybody a part of the organization, and making them mentally invest – to build future leaders. Investment is critical; many leaders will take charge and make the organization their own, but this is counterproductive for the future. A leader must sell his vision and mission to his followers, and once they buy it, give them a role in its success. Leadership should be selfless and focus on members’ individual progress in addition to group progression – my job as a leader is to make sure each member has the tools they need to succeed.
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