So, you have been offered a leadership role, or one has just popped up. Great right?! You finally have the opportunity to up your salary, take on more responsibility and shape the company culture.

Yes, that is all true, but some downsides come with that. Unfortunately, more responsibilities mean longer hours and probably longer meetings.

Like everything in life, leadership comes with its positives and negatives. However, it is not as rigid and predefined as many people think. Leadership is what you make it, and this makes it tricky.

There is no one telling you what to do or where to go. And there appear to be no right or wrong answers, at least at the start. So, exploration and creativity is part of leadership to ensure you get on the right path.

Unfortunately, many leaders have great potential but end up failing their first few leadership roles. Many put it down to lack of experience, but it is often a sum of things.

Many new leaders are not quite sure what type of leader they will be. Another problem they face is understanding what leader they would like to become. It is often these two questions that can cause leaders to act in undesirable ways.

So, before taking that leadership role, think about this question:

“What kind of leader am I going to be?”

There is no straightforward answer. However, with a bit of guidance, you can find the answer.

You Are the Sum of the Leaders in Your Own Life

Whether we like it or not, our environments shape who we are. And in most cases, they play a very essential role in how we act. Although we would not always like this to be the case, it is true.

When we are around hardworking individuals, we do our best to keep up. We may not enjoy doing it, but we feel more obliged to be part of the people who make up our space.

In life, we indeed seek to replicate the behaviours of others, and a lot of the time, it gets us far. We often copy the behaviours of people we want to be appreciated by. I have even seen replicating people as an interview strategy to be more likely to get the job.

Although we use this strategy in our own lives, it can also influence us negatively when we are around people who do not show desirable qualities. And when it comes to our leadership, it is the same.

The leaders we have shaped our perspective of the leader we should be. These do not need to be managers at work. They can be our parents, school teachers and anyone who has some authority over us.

It is possible to learn from the negative things our leaders have done. However, without asking this question, you may never consider the implications of your leaders on the leader you seek to be.

Self-Reflection Is Key

Upon self-reflection, I identified that I disliked many of the leaders in my life. Either I found them uninspiring or rude. It was clear to me that the leaders in my own life had let me down, and I could do the same to others.

It can be exciting to take on a leadership role that has been given to you, but it is vital to self-reflect. Many of us have not been shaped in perfect environments, and that is not a bad thing. In some ways, it is a good thing. It allows us to learn from the mistakes of others and build good practices.

However, without acknowledging those mistakes, we can pass them on to our teams and even future leaders. Therefore, I often get leaders to consider these two things:

1. What qualities do I seek to pass on to my team?
2. What qualities do I seek for future leaders to learn from me?

Going into a leadership role with these two things at the front of your mind will better prepare you. However, it is not just about creating a list of things to answer the two questions above. It is also about generating actions that you will take in your daily life as a leader to ensure you practice what you preach.

Closing Thoughts

Our leadership goes past the leaders we have had. It is also a reflection of the company we keep. We have probably all heard the quote:

“Tell me with whom you associate, and I will tell you who you are.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Before taking a leadership role, it is essential to understand that leadership will make you vulnerable. It is a reflection of who you are and will sometimes even bring out the worst in you.

However, what matters is understanding what you are striving towards. And that all starts with asking the simple question:

“What kind of leader am I going to be?”

Leaders fail not because of their incompetence, but because of their lack of preparation to become who they wish to be.