Calibrate your leadership style with three questions

by: Jeffrey DeWolf

Leadership positions at all levels exist to ensure results through the efforts of others. Leadership style and behaviors themselves, however, often create barriers to getting those results.

One non-negotiable for effective leadership is self-awareness. It’s important to be aware of how your leadership style, habits, and attitudes affect others.

An aware leader is one who understands his or her limitations and humbly seeks to remove stumbling blocks caused by natural tendencies and rote management practices.

In my experience, a common thread runs through many of the relationship problems that exist between leaders and employees. Most of the time, leaders are simply unaware that a change in their own personal behavior could result in significant operational and morale improvement.

The problem is not that a leader is inflexible or unwilling to change, it’s that he or she has never been actually told what changes might help.

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