The most effective leaders in business and academia lead from their strengths. To be an effective leader, understanding your strengths, and developing a leadership style aligned with those strengths, is essential to your leadership success. This article will provide insights into strategies for choosing and developing the best leadership style for you, whether you are in a management role or leading as an individual contributor.

Determine Your Strengths

First, it is important to understand your strengths. When alignment exists between your strengths and your leadership style, you will be a more effective leader, and you will find greater joy and satisfaction in your leadership (Pizarro, 2020). We perform at our best and achieve optimal impact when we are operating within the center of our strengths (Erikson-Farr, 2023).

Heaslip (2023) suggested the best way to initially determine your personal strengths is through a strengths assessment. Many assessments ranging from free to purchased are available, including the following linked examples:

• Gallup’s Clifton Strengths assessment

• Mindtools’ What’s Your Leadership Style

• Leadership Style Inventory (LSI) test

• Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Assessment

These and other assessments can help you focus in on your strengths and plan for developing them. Focusing on developing your strengths over weaknesses can help you level up as a leader (Pizarro, 2020). Once you have discovered your personal strengths, you are now ready to review available leadership styles for alignment.

Discover Leadership Styles

Many different leaderships styles exist, and It’s important to note that there is no one right way to lead. Today, we’ll briefly discover a few leadership styles: democratic, laissez-faire, servant leadership, and visionary. Authoritarian, democratic, and lasses-faire styles were first named in leadership research in the 1930s (Perkins, 2020). Other styles, such as visionary and servant leadership, have been more recently defined. This article is not an exhaustive listing of all possible leadership styles. Once you have discovered your strength, conducting some of your own research on various leaderships styles is a great next step.

Democratic

This style of leadership leans on strengths that encourage the collaboration and reaching of mutually agreed upon decisions (Heaslip, 2023). Some strengths that resonate well with a democratic leadership style include communicative, flexible, and collaborative (Parsons, 2025).

Laissez-Faire

If you have ever worked for a manager who has empowered you to complete the work however you see best, then you have worked for a manager operating with laissez-faire leadership style. This style is a hand’s off approach to leadership, and related strengths to leverage include trust, delegation, and communication. Laissez-faire leadership reminds us that it’s also important to ensure that your chosen leadership style works with the type of team you are leading. For example, laissez-faire leadership may not be as successful with an inexperienced team (MacLeod, n.d.).

Servant Leader

Servant leaders are known to lead by example and care deeply about their teams. Often, servant leaders prioritize their team’s well-being and growth needs and therefore approach leadership from a highly supportive viewpoint (Heath, 2023). Some strengths of a servant leader include empathy, collaboration, active listening skills, and supportiveness (Parsons, 2025).

Visionary

Visionary leaders inspire others to achieve their best and highest outcomes. Visionary leaders can bring strategic goals to life and inspire others to achieving them (Wells, 2023). Strengths that align well with this style of leadership include persuasion, collaboration, communication, and a strategic mindset.

Determine Alignment and Implement

It’s now time to review your strengths and compare them with leadership styles. Where are you finding the greatest alignment?  Remember, developing your strengths is key to continuous improvement and becoming the leader that you desire to be (Perkins, 2020). After you have determined your strengths and selected a leadership style, it’s time to make a plan for how you will continue to grow and improve as a leader. Investing in continuous learning and further training can help you continue to improve your leadership skills.

References

Erikson-Farr, B. (2023, October 5). What is your leadership style? Gallup CliftonStrengths.  https://www.gallup.com/cliftonstrengths/en/511814/leadership-style.aspx

Heaslip, E. (2023, December 28). Finding the leadership style that works best for you. US Chamber CO. https://www.uschamber.com/co/grow/thrive/finding-your-leadership-style

Heath, W. (2023, September 24). Become a servant leader. LinkedIn Pulse. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/become-servant-leader-william-heath 

MacLeod, C. (n.d.). What’s your leadership style? Mindtools. https://www.mindtools.com/azr30oh/whats-your-leadership-style

Parsons, L. (2025, February 19). How to determine what my leadership style is. Harvard professional & executive development. https://professional.dce.harvard.edu/blog/how-to-determine-what-my-leadership-style-is/#Why-You-Need-a-Leadership-Style

Perkins, L. (2020, August 18). Choosing the right leadership styles in management. University of South Florida corporate training and professional education office. https://www.usf.edu/continuing-education/lifelong-learning/news/2020/choosing-the-right-leadership-styles-in-management.aspx

Pizarro, M. C. (2020, October 20). Why leading from your strengths makes you a stronger leader. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbescoachescouncil/2020/10/20/why-leading-from-your-strengths-makes-you-a-stronger-leader/

Wells, R. (2023, October 31). 5 ways to show your visionary leadership skills. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelwells/2023/10/31/5-ways-to-show-your-visionary-leadership-skills/