Three Pieces of Your Leadership Personality

At Papillion La Vista South High School, where I teach & coach, we have a Leadership Academy program. This program is for select juniors and seniors who are identified as emerging leaders in their club, sport, or activity. I’ve been fortunate to be one of the teachers for this program for the past 11 years. The next couple of resources that I will share with you have been inspired by one of the lessons we teach when we talk about leadership styles.

A LEADERSHIP PERSONALITY

Each person has their own unique personality, but that personality is constantly evolving is they experience more life and build more skills. That personality also sees different parts of it emerge in different social settings and situations.

While this is true of our personalities as a person, it is also true of our personalities as a LEADER. In our Leadership Academy program, we aren’t trying to create leaders who all look, act, and operate the exact same. We are trying to help the students who are apart of the program to understand who they are as leaders, how they are uniquely created, what parts of their LEADERSHIP PERSONALITY that come more naturally to them, and what parts of their LEADERSHIP PERSONALITY they will need to be more intentional to develop.

We look at 3 KEY PIECES of their LEADERSHIP PERSONALITY:

1. Visionary

2. Relational

3. Organizer

While I could talk for an hour on each of these aspects individually, I don’t think you really want to read all of that. So, I hope the descriptions below give you a solid picture of each of the 3 KEY PIECES of a LEADERSHIP PERSONALITY. Let’s look at each of these pieces individually.

NOTE: Each of the 3 KEY PIECES of a LEADERSHIP PERSONALITY will be visualized with an image. Each image shows three parts: The TARGET represents the team goal, the X represents the Leader, the CIRCLE represents the team.

The VISIONARY piece of our LEADERSHIP PERSONALITY is the part that allows us to DREAM BIG and chase what may seem impossible to others. I think when most people think of LEADERSHIP this is what they first think about. The person up in front of a group giving an impassioned speech that is highly motivating and inspires the people they are leading. Now, let’s be clear, not all VISIONARY leaders are giving impassioned speech, but they are driven by a VISION of what is possible!

The VISIONARY leader usually has their eyes firmly fixed on the goal. The goal is what they think about most of the time and what gets most of their attention.

The RELATIONAL piece of our LEADERSHIP PERSONALITY is the part that allows us to connect to and care for others. It also allows us to see the potential of each individual on the team I think when we reflect on the LEADERS who have impacted us the most, we typically think about this type of LEADER.

The RELATIONAL leader usually has their eyes firmly fixed on the people. The people of the team is what they think about most of the time and what gets most of their attention.

The ORGANIZER piece of our LEADERSHIP PERSONALITY is the part that allows us to invest in and commit to the process that produces success. It also allows us to see the details that greatness requires. Unfortunately I think people who are naturally strong in this piece typically aren’t seen by others as LEADERS. We would be wise to recognize the importance of this piece of a LEADERSHIP PERSONALITY and see these people as LEADERS. 

The ORGANIZER leader usually has their eyes firmly fixed on the process. The work that needs to be done and how it needs to be done is what they think about most of the time and what gets most of their attention.

PERSONAL REFLECTION

1. Which of the 3 Key Pieces - Visionary, Relational, Organizer - did you connect with the most? Explain.

2. Which of the 3 Key Pieces - Visionary, Relational, Organizer - do you see being your weakest link to your Leadership Personality right now? Explain.

3. If you broke down your Leadership Personality down like a pie chart, what percent of your Leadership Personality is made up from each of the 3 Key Pieces? What does that break-down explain about you?

4. If you are a person with a lot of leadership responsibility for your team - a Head Coach, Athletic Director, Principal, Team Captain - which of the 3 Key Pieces is your team the strongest in? Which of the 3 Key Pieces is the weak link for your team? What is the break-down (see #3) of your Leadership Team?

When I was 25 years old and named the Head Coach of the Lady Titan Cross Country program at Papillion La Vista South HS, my first time being a head coach, the break down of my LEADERSHIP PERSONALITY was probably as follows 50% VISIONARY, 40% ORGANIZER, and 10% RELATIONAL. This breakdown served me well as we were building a program from scratch. When you are starting from nothing, you need to have a vision of what it can become and a clear plan to get there. My VISIONARY and ORGANIZER pieces served me really well. Over time though, I quickly learned that I had to grow the RELATIONAL piece of my LEADERSHIP PERSONALITY if I was going to be the best coach I could be for our program. If you’ve read anything I’ve written about using journals with your team, that was developed to help me be intentional about growing my RELATIONAL leadership skills. Now, at the age of 47 with 24 years of head coaching experience, I would break my LEADERSHIP PERSONALITY down as follows 40% VISIONARY, 30% ORGANIZER, and 30% RELATIONAL.

TAKE IT TO YOUR TEAM

I would encourage you to share the information on the images above with your team. Then take them through the same reflection questions. Learning about the make-up of your team through the LEADERSHIP PERSONALITY of each team member will help you understand your team better.

Maybe this isn’t a conversation that you see benefitting your whole team, that is okay. At a minimum, I would make sure I have this conversation with the student athletes who are the leaders of our program. Understanding the LEADERSHIP PERSONALITY of your team leaders/captains will help you support them better as they grow into their role.

LOOKING AHEAD

Next month’s FREE2COMPETE resource we’ll dive deeper into these 3 KEY PIECES of your LEADERSHIP PERSONALITY. We’ll focus on the natural tension that exists between each piece. Why they need each other and why they frustrate each other. Understanding these tensions will help you lead your team better and better develop your Leadership Team, even if that is just you!

PASS IT ON!

If you found value in today’s resource, please share this link with someone you think would find value in it as well!