What Kind Of Leader Do You Want To Work With?

For the last few months, I have been reflecting on the types of leaders I have worked with and what leadership footprint they left with me once I finished working with them.

I have three most memorable leaders whom I am grateful to have worked with, grateful to have known their influence and been under their wing for a time. Here they are in brief summaries which will not do them any justice to who they are as leaders and as people.

Leader 1

A strong willed, kind and caring mother. She had a vision which she communicated clearly and had a knack for caring about your personal life. At the same time, she was able to pull you up on things that needed to be done or changed with tact and kindness. A most intelligent woman with respect for your intelligence, autonomy and a deep trust in your capabilities, which she would nourish, support and challenge.

Leader 2

Caring, patient and diplomatic. I learned how to be a scientist from this lady. She taught me the fundamentals of running basic and complex experiments with a patience I have never seen in any other mentors/teachers. You never felt like you were asking a silly question or felt inferior because you couldn’t quite work out a simple concentration. There was always a kindness about her and there was never a bad time to ask a question or share some laughter.

Leader 3

Respect, trust and recognition/appreciation. Under this leader I discovered just how much trust a leader can put into you. She allowed and trusted me to run a whole program for the year, which included face-face group teaching sessions, marketing for their recent education pilot program and systems/process updates. In this role, I was given the autonomy to do what needed to be done under flexible working hours and given the opportunity to utilise an array of skills. At the end of the day, the gratitude and appreciation expressed for the work and effort influenced how much more engaged I was at work the next day and how much I wanted to continue giving to this work.

These leaders embody: kindness, respect, autonomy and trust. They also each have this in common--they owned their actions. For example, they never used another person above their position to lay blame on for an unsavoury decision. They also clearly understood and respected the importance of your wellbeing on engagement and performance at work--pointing out when people were staying late, making sure staff logged in overtime for time in lieu, expressing concern when lunch breaks were missed and enforcing a day off or early leave if something wasn’t quite right at home.

To me, they show that you can be an ambitious and successful leader when you are also caring, kind and appreciative of your employees. You can lead well and foster meaningful connections, you can be purposeful with empathy and kindness on your side.

Sometimes in the thick of an overwhelming workload it can be easy to rush in and out of the office, delegate tasks, get to and from meetings, set new deadlines and goals...and easy to forget that a thank-you can go a long way, a short interaction with your employee about their child’s first basketball game can build a fruitful work relationship and that respecting autonomy and trusting your employee to do those things and not micromanage can build a happier workplace.

To leaders, what kind of leader do you want to be? What kind of footprint do you want to leave behind as a leader? How would you like to be described? To those who work with leaders, what kind of leader do you want to work with? What key words would describe your ideal leader?

Be the leader you want to be with your actions.