Who Do You Think You Are? The Real Deal on Leadership Identity

Whether you know it or not, you have a leadership identity. And that identity plays a very real part in how you do the work of leading every day. It is hard to overstate the role our identity plays in how we lead, and yet it isn’t something we often talk about. Let’s start to change that today…

While there is great value in understanding ourselves well enough to develop an identity as a leader, there are also possible pitfalls in developing our leadership identity too. I guess it is no surprise that this is complex, but the role of a leader is complex too.

Let’s look at both sides of this leadership identity coin, and close with some overall thoughts.

The Value of a Leadership Identity

There are tools, models, and styles that have been developed to help us better understand ourselves as leaders. When we have an identity as a leader, it can help us:

• Deepen our understanding. Assessments and models can help us see ourselves and our strengths and approaches in new ways. Often, they help us see ways we can lead that seem both comfortable and helpful.
• Gain clarity. In a complex world, having an identity helps us be clearer on what to do in the myriad situations we find ourselves in. It gives us clarity that “this is how I lead.
• Build our confidence. When we have some success with an approach, our confidence grows by “leading that way.” And confidence is important in our ability to lead effectively.

Often those assessments come to be part of who we see ourselves as (or how we think we are supposed to be as a leader). The logical extension of this is that we come to see those assessment results as our identity as a leader. As helpful as these tools can be, when we take the results to that conclusion, there are potential problems.

The Pitfalls of a Leadership Identity

What follows may feel like a “but”, to what you just read. I’d rather you read it as an “and”. In other words, there can be real value in our leadership identity, and there can be pitfalls too. Everything above is true, and a leadership identity can ….

• Create unhelpful constraints. Once we have decided how we are going to lead, we don’t/can’t consider other options. Our identity can keep us from changing.
• Become fatalistic. If our style is “who we are”, we don’t see ourselves as being able to change.
• Become over-simplified. Once we have narrowed and clarified our identity into a word or style, we further limit our ability to adapt.
• Lead us to defensiveness. When we feel someone is attacking who we are (not our actions but our identity), it is easy to get defensive.

Now What?

If your identity is too clear and becomes too much of who you are, it may limit you, box you in mentally, and keep you from growing as a leader. For you to lead most effectively in a complex, uncertain and changing world, part of your leadership identity must include your ability to grow and flex. If it doesn’t, you run a significant risk of becoming dogmatic, defensive and unable to adjust based on the situations you face.

When and if that happens, no one wins – not your team, organization, or yourself.

Identity is critical to your success as a leader, so crafting it carefully matters. You will get new insights into what leadership identity will best serve you by reading and applying the ideas in my book, Flexible Leadership: Navigate Uncertainty and Lead with Confidence.