What kind of leader are you?
Most of us don’t stumble into great leadership. It’s not magic, instinct, or pure charisma. It’s something we shape over time—through mistakes, reflection, and a lot of deliberate effort.
One thing that has worked well for me is defining a clear set of principles for the kind of leader I aspire to be, paired with a leadership style that reflects how I want to run teams on a day-to-day basis. It’s given me a north star to return to when things get chaotic, and a personal accountability framework for how I show up.
Have you done this? What would yours look like? How often do you revisit it?
Here are mine—for inspiration or critique:
My Leadership Principles
(Based on Forbes’ Five Basic Principles of Highly Effective Leadership)
Shared vision — A leader’s role is to communicate a vision that aligns and inspires the team and ensures everyone understands and is committed.
Positive culture — Great leaders create a culture of trust, high morale, diversity of thought, and minimal drama. When a leader can create a strong and positive culture, retention is easy. It becomes a place where people want to stay and grow.
Open communication — Clear, open communication is essential. Strong leaders set the tone by providing honest and regular feedback, and they expect the same in return.
People-focused, customer-centric — Leadership is about empowering teams with clarity, confidence, and connection. By helping others grow and succeed, we foster loyalty, drive impact, and create better experiences for customers. Happy teams lead to happy customers. Happy customers lead to a happy balance sheet.
My Leadership Style
Elevate…
Elevate the Craft — Delivering our best work requires time to sharpen our skills. We must prioritize growth and continuous improvement.
Elevate the Team — We’re not a family—we choose to be here. Our role is to create an environment where everyone thrives. I’m here to coach and guide, not dictate.
Elevate the Results — Intuitive design isn’t accidental. We must highlight the effort behind the scenes and consistently demonstrate the ROI of our work.
Empower — Everyone is empowered to own their work from end to end. You are accountable for both successes and failures (and learnings are very different from failures).
Trust — Micromanagement has no place here. We must trust each other to deliver the value we were hired for, creating space for autonomy and innovation.
If you haven’t done this exercise before, I challenge you to take a stab at it. You can build on frameworks you admire (like I did), or create something unique. The goal isn’t to be perfect—it’s to be intentional.
You might be surprised by what comes out when you ask yourself, “What kind of leader do I want to be—and what kind of team do I want to lead?”
That’s where it starts.