What is Your Leadership Identity?

Most of us have asked ourselves “who am I?” at various moments in our lives. I would suggest that more leaders should ask the corollary question. “What kind of a leader am I?” is the leadership identity question – and a useful one.

Useful, but with serious pitfalls, based on how we choose to answer that question.

The Major Pitfall

Too often our leadership identities are formed – whether consciously or not – by our behaviors. What does that look like?

• We take an assessment of some kind which helps us see some behavioral tendencies.
• We notice how we have responded in the past.
• Some combination of those factors leads us to think/say we are “this kind of leader” that could be a label from the style or assessment or a word that you use to describe your approach.

I know this is super common, and yet it is a potential flaw in our thinking.

Why?

Because:

• You are more than your behavior.
• You can change your behavior.
• In a complex world of work, you need to be flexible to change your behavior to meet the needs of the situation.
• Once you have identified yourself as a certain type of leader, it makes it much harder to do that flexing!

The More Effective Approach

So how should we identify our leadership identity?

Based on our values and purpose.

Your values are a far more effective way to define yourself. Why?

• Because our values don’t change – but behaviors can (and often need to)
• Because values are rooted to what we believe, not what we do.

Our purpose defines what we are trying to accomplish and why.

When our purpose and values are aligned, we have the basis we need to then determine our behaviors, rather than defining ourselves by them.

When we build our leadership identity in strict behavioral terms and frames, we make it far harder for ourselves to make or create change for ourselves. When we build identity based on our values and purpose, we build a solid foundational base upon which to continue to adjust our approach – the how we lead to meet the changing needs of our work, workplace, and team.