How do you want to design your own leadership journey?
Have you ever wondered who a real leader is? What are the qualities or skills that tell us whether one is a leader? Maybe you’ve even looked within yourself for those qualities that are considered most desirable to be a good leader. All these questions arise in the mind of almost everyone who really wants to be an effective and good leader and is interested in developing and finding out how to do better.
However, does this mean that there is a certain set of qualities or patterns that we should follow to be a leader? Various sources tell us that a leader should be courageous, humble, charismatic, should support and motivate the team, should be empathic yet assertive, should be able to communicate effectively, should be trusted, and many other requirements that fit into the silhouette of a “good leader.” Certainly, all these skills are not an invention of the business environment or the Internet, but are a collection of all the qualities that have been defined by experts in the field of strategy and change on the basis of a comprehensive understanding of the area from the perspective of current leadership models, expanding them with psychological and social aspects and supplementing them through conversations with high-ranking managers who share their knowledge and experience.
But let’s consider, does this mean that there is one or several best ways to be a good leader? Is there only one assertive way to communicate? Is there only one way to motivate employees? Absolutely not. How we learn or develop certain qualities depends largely on our personality and awareness of our strengths, values, and talents. We don’t have to resemble anyone, the best we can do is to discover qualities in ourselves that will set us apart from others, because as my mentor said, “diversity is beautiful.” With this diversity, our predispositions that are unique to us, we can transform our different traits from those written into a leadership template into something that makes us unique and authentic.
Therefore, the fundamental question is how we would like to design our own leadership and which of our personality traits can be our leadership superpower.
During the first week of WaveMakers Leadership Program— PERSONALITY self-development, we were asked a few questions by people from our different backgrounds.
I’ll honestly admit that this opened my eyes to long-forgotten qualities that are special to me and that can make me an authentic leader. I realized that many times we forget something that makes us special because we consider it something every day in our lives. It was only when we had the opportunity to share insights together during the session after this exercise that it turned out that what is “not special” to us for others was something they noticed as a quality that I stand out, for which they appreciate me, or because of which they will turn to me with some request precisely because they know I am up to the task. Very often these are qualities that people do not notice in themselves or desire and work to develop — which is perfectly normal because everyone is a different person, but in practice, it means that these qualities make us unique in comparison with others, and it is for these qualities, among others, that we are valued in each environment.
A summary of how to remember our superpowers that we have and make us unique and in stressful situations, or when we lack confidence visualize an image of our unique trait that will remind us of this. For this reason, the anchoring effect — cognitive bias — has also been heavily emphasized in recent meetings. This is a method of inference that involves anchoring on some information and then modifying it to answer a question or make a judgment.
To this end, the question was asked which anchor did you decide to set for your future leadership? And guess what? It wasn’t until I visualized my anchor as my superpower, which I would like to take with me on my journey as a leader, that I realized how special it is and how proud I am of it. Many people shared their superpowers, and among the entire group, none of them were repeated — yet all of them were equally beautiful, unique to, for example, honesty, being an inspiration, team spirit, or resilience.
After this, I was reminded again of what makes me unique, and the people I asked for help helped me rediscover it.
Therefore, my anchor that will remind me of this is “explorer,” which in my mind represents the image of a lone traveler in the mountains with a huge baggage, which for me is a metaphor for collecting experiences that I will carry throughout my life to share what I have discovered with others, while all the while driven by the desire for more adventures, deep conversations, discovering areas for improvement, deeper and deeper analysis, further seeking growth, while maintaining ownership and independence. When this image pops into my head, I feel that it is consistent with me and how I try to operate in the business environment, which gives me the strength to keep going and reminds me of what makes me my own unique and authentic leader.