Great leaders aren’t only those who fall into the ENTJ type on the Myers Briggs test. Because everyone has the potential to lead, all personalities have the potential to lead. In fact, it’s tapping into what makes you you that helps you become a better leader. Read Arden Coaching’s exploration of your personality’s role in effective leadership below to find out how!
Giving Them the Authentic You
Of course, if you’re an introvert, your leadership style is going to be different from a leader who loves being in the spotlight. You don’t want to turn yourself into something you’re not, so the first thing you need to keep in mind is that you don’t need to change you to become a better leader; you need to highlight your strengths and improve on your weaknesses. The first step in understanding this process? Self-awareness.
Who Are You?
The best way to improve your leadership using your personality is to start by looking inward. How would you describe the way you engage with others? What do your beliefs say about your sense of leadership? These types of questions are thoroughly addressed in 360 leadership assessments, which are wonderful tools for taking inventory of how your personality and personal leadership style intertwine.
When you have your 360 results in front of you, where your leadership-specific strengths and weaknesses lie in regards to managing and interacting with others becomes clear.
To get a glimpse of the areas 360 assessments explore, check out our effective leadership self-assessment.
Playing to Your Strengths and Delegating Your Weaknesses
After an assessment that reveals your leadership tendencies, you want to zero in on your strengths and work to improve on or delegate your weak areas as needed.
If you have more of a reserved and quiet personality, others probably don’t describe you as commanding or authoritative in nature, but that doesn’t mean you can’t lead. If you’re this type of leader, you’re an avid listener who relies more on your actions to set an example for others. You might be a natural when it comes to highlighting the potential in others and seeking a greater purpose that’s outside of just you.
An extrovert may have more of a directly engaging charisma embodied through their ability to easily strike up a conversation with others and make important decisions without skipping a beat. But they could have the tendency to get caught up in how they talk the talk and miss out on listening to others and responding to how they feel.
See where each of these types needs to improve? An introverted leader may seek help for making company-wide presentations, tag-teaming it with another executive. An extroverted leader may seek to work on improving their Emotional Intelligence and ask a coworker to help keep them in check during challenging discussions. The critical part is to make sure that all areas are covered.
How Can an Executive Coach Help?
You can harness your personality to yield effective leadership by knowing who you are and working with your personal set of strengths and weaknesses. An executive coaching partnership starts with a thorough inward and outward look at your natural leadership tendencies and the areas you need to improve upon, helping to bring you to the forefront of your leadership! Find out how with our free guide to this pivotal development process, How Does an Executive Coaching Engagement Work?
