Your personal leadership style shapes how you motivate teams, make decisions, and manage workplace challenges.
The best leadership style is the one you create for yourself, based on your values, personality, and goals. A personal leadership style is the unique way a leader guides and inspires others. It combines their behaviors, values, and principles to motivate and manage people.
This style grows from the leader’s personality, experiences, and skills, showing how they make decisions, work with their team, and shape the environment around them.
Here is a starting guide on how to develop your personal leadership style.
Doing a self-assessment and understanding your natural tendencies forms the foundation of your leadership style. Take time to identify what energizes you at work and where you typically struggle.
Consider keeping a leadership journal for two weeks, noting situations where you felt confident versus challenged. For example, you might discover you excel at one-on-one coaching but feel drained after large group presentations.
Ask yourself these specific questions to uncover your leadership patterns. Write down your answers and look for themes that emerge.
Share these reflections with a trusted mentor or participate in a 360-degree feedback process to validate your self-perception.
Your values act as a compass for decision-making and team interactions. Leaders who clearly articulate their values build stronger trust with their teams and make more consistent decisions.
List five values that matter most to you professionally, such as transparency, innovation, or work-life balance. Then rank them in order of importance when they conflict with each other.
Values only matter when they show up in your actions. For each core value, identify two specific behaviors you'll practice consistently.
If transparency is a top value, you might commit to sharing meeting notes within 24 hours and explaining the reasoning behind major decisions. A leader who values growth might schedule monthly stretch assignments for team members and dedicate Friday afternoons to learning new skills.
While you shouldn't copy others wholesale, understanding established leadership models helps you recognize your natural tendencies. Familiarize yourself with common frameworks to build your leadership vocabulary and identify areas for growth.
Each leadership style has strengths and ideal use cases. Most effective leaders blend elements from multiple styles depending on the situation.
Take a leadership styles quiz to identify your dominant approach.
What is a personal leadership example? A personal leadership example is how you adjust your approach based on context—like using a directive style during crisis management but switching to a coaching style for employee development conversations.
Effective leaders recognize that different scenarios require different approaches. Your style with a new hire will differ from how you lead a veteran team member facing performance issues.
Consider these factors when adapting your leadership style. Each variable should influence how directive or collaborative you become.
Practice this flexibility by identifying one team member who would benefit from a different approach. If you typically give detailed instructions, try asking more questions with your most experienced employee to encourage their problem-solving skills.
Self-awareness forms the cornerstone of authentic leadership. Leaders with high emotional intelligence adapt their style more effectively and build stronger relationships across their organization.
Start by practicing active listening in your next three meetings—focus entirely on understanding rather than formulating responses. Notice how this shift changes the dynamic and information you receive.
Emotional intelligence grows through intentional practice. Incorporate these EQ exercises into your routine to strengthen your self-awareness and social skills.
Leaders who develop high emotional intelligence see 20% better team performance. Your investment in EQ directly impacts your team's engagement and results.
Your leadership style has blind spots that only others can see. Create multiple feedback channels to understand how your style impacts different stakeholders.
Build a feedback culture where you can schedule quarterly feedback conversations with your manager, peers, and direct reports. Ask specific questions like "What's one thing I could do differently to support you better?" rather than general requests for feedback.
People need psychological safety to share authentic feedback about your leadership. Build trust by responding to feedback with curiosity rather than defensiveness.
Try implementing anonymous pulse surveys or suggestion boxes for team members who might hesitate to share directly. When someone offers constructive criticism, thank them immediately and follow up within a week to share what you're doing differently.
Developing your leadership style requires deliberate practice over time. Choose one aspect to improve each month rather than trying to change everything at once.
If you're working on delegation, start by identifying three tasks to hand off this week and create clear success criteria for each. Track your progress and adjust your approach based on results and feedback.