Leadership?

I often wonder about myself as a leader - you see it's hard to analyse your leadership style when you work mostly on your own.

Several years back I took a leadership survey that showed I was a 'coercive' leader. I know precisely why! The band I was in needed coercion to rehearse, to gig, to do anything basically! And though the band was supposedly a collective, I had to take the lead or nothing would have happened.

Interesting, because when I applied my work profile, I came out very differently indeed. I was an affiliative leader - and that makes sense to me. I want people to follow me because they trust me and have faith and confidence in my decision making. I want to lead through example and through good practice.

I've never been that good at being authoritative except when I am very confident about my subject - so as a leader that's probably something I should look at. I may not know the answer, but I am sure I know someone who does, so I should use that resource.

There's lots of writing on leadership, lots of academic study, but the best thing I read on leadership the other day was 'learn from good leaders you know, don't try and copy them'. You have to be authentic, to be the kind of leader you are.

So though I know it would be good to be a stronger leader, like my previous boss, I also know that I cannot copy their methods and be a successful leader. I have to be the leader I am, and be true to myself. Authenticity, surely, deserves the respect of those who would follow you.

I took an Emotional Intelligence test yesterday. It said I had a score of 75 (average is 50, best is 100). I answered some questions the way I genuinely react in a situation, realistically - even though I knew they weren't the best answers on offer. I was, in fact, authentic.