OK. OK already.
I was rightfully taken to task after my blog post on setting leadership goals for 2025. You see, I launched into the weekly leadership reflection questions with “in one sentence, describe your ideal leadership style.” Several people pinged me to say, “that’s the hard part, Gary. Thanks for nothing and Happy 2025.”
Indeed, I leapfrogged over the hard part. Alas, I got ahead of myself.
So, let’s back up now and help you get the one sentence – that compelling prose that describes your ideal leadership style – your vision for how you will lead.
There are many articles and exercises on leadership styles, many of which I imagine you have read. You can be authoritative, servant, transactional, and a host of other adjectives.
These types of frames are important to consider, but anyone who has led knows that it is not the same day-in-day-out. Your style changes with your mood and the circumstances – not every situation calls for the same approach (hey … there really are times when it’s better to be authoritative or transactional than democratic or coaching).
The sentence that can guide you is the one that you would want most people to use to describe you most of the time. This description is so dependably “you” that your team will offer you grace when you don’t show up the best you that you can be. Hopefully, you also offer yourself that same grace (one can hope, right?).
Here’s the trick. You need to define your ideal style succinctly and then work to align your actions until – surprise—everyone starts describing you the way you intended they would.
If you want your team to describe you accurately (and inspirationally) in one sentence, you best be able to do that yourself.
The joy nestled in this sentence is that it can evolve throughout your leadership journey, just like your vision for yourself will (in all its manifestations – personal, professional, etc.). Use it as the basis for an annual reflection on how you hope your leadership will evolve in the coming year.
To set your vision and create this sentence, you will benefit from a balance of self-reflection and external input. The creation of your leadership vision needs to be both aspirational and grounded in your present reality.
THE SELF-REFLECTION
Before you go “out to market” for input, it’s good to establish your self-perception—to get concrete about how you wish people described you as a leader.
Here are a few questions that I’ve used to help myself and others come up with that sentence.
A word of caution: It is more important to follow your curiosity on these questions – to answer the ones that jump out to you – than to carefully answer every single one (unless, of course, that’s where your curiosity takes you). You’ll trim this thinking down later in the process, running it through the filter of what you have heard from others.
Take the leaders you have known and (especially) worked for. Which ones inspired you most? How would you describe them in one sentence?
How are you different from those leaders? What do you consider to be unique and different about your approach?
Which of your values do you want to be evident in how you go about your work – the ones that others could name based on the way you go about your work and the things you do?
If your team were to describe you in one sentence, what would you want them to say? How would they describe you on your best day?
What do you think of as being your weaker leadership moments? Why do you evaluate them that way?
What would you be excited to hear someone say about you?
What is the most challenging area of leadership for you? How would you want those around you to describe how you handled that challenge?
The next step is critically important.
Put everything you wrote in a drawer or file in your “Leadership Musings” folder on your desktop. Then forget about it for at least one week. Really. Forget about it.
The next time you sit down, before you open that drawer, file folder, or Google doc, write down the reflections you remember from the brainstorm – unprompted – what stuck with you?
After that, read through your brainstorm to see if there were any interesting points that you missed in those reflections.
Next, give yourself a little break here. Paste your distillation into an AI tool like ChatGPT, Copilot, or Claude and ask for three or four one-sentence summaries for you to consider. None of them will feel exactly right, but they will give you a solid starting place for your first draft.
You might get something like this:
“I balance strategic vision with decisive action, ensuring clarity and momentum in achieving organizational goals.”
It describes you, I’m sure, but could use a dash of personalization.
“My values of community service and equity are my foundation as I work to balance strategic vision with decisive action to ensure clarity in working toward organizational goals”
Once you have refined those AI options into one or two versions you feel at least pretty good about, you’re ready for the next step in the process …
CALLING ON YOUR NETWORK
Now, let’s turn to gathering external input.
To land on how you want to be described ultimately, it helps to understand how you would be described right now. If you can update a formal 360 review like the Leadership Circle Profile, that is a bonus.
Whether you have access to that or not, you should connect with close colleagues from your network one-on-one. What you are on the lookout for are the differences between your self-perception and the perception of those who respect and care about you.
These should be people who:
See/have seen your leadership in action, whether at external events, in the boardroom, in communities, or in the office.
Trust that feedback will be received in a spirit of openness – that you are providing a safe space.
Bring humor to your relationship (leadership is hard enough without getting all morose about it).
Ask these people a few questions. A strong opening question often leads to a natural, flowing conversation, so don’t be worried if you do not cover everything.
In what situations do you think my leadership has been its best? Why?
Are there moments you think I could have showed up more effectively? How so?
Are there moments you considered to be out of character for me? What made them feel that way?
What adjectives must be in a description of my leadership? Why?
Now, whip out your description of your ideal leadership style and ask:
In what ways do you see this being like your experience of my leadership?
Where does this not make sense, or does it not resonate with you?
What do you see as being different about how I describe myself and how I am in practice?
Does this statement seem ambitious enough to you?
Am I setting a standard that is too high or is it not high enough? Why?
Doing this exercise over the course of several weeks and catch-up meals, coffee, and drinks with colleagues that you trust can refocus your leadership (not to mention ground you in that special way only good colleagues can do).
After these meetings, commit to a draft – your one sentence – your vision for your ideal leadership style for at least the next six months.
I am a big fan of Friday Reflection, a look back on the previous week to reflect on when our leadership was strong, where we observed it as maybe needing just a little improvement, and setting intention for next week.
You can find some reflection questions in my blog on this topic: Your Leadership Goals - and Getting There Day by Day (which I humbly admit bypassed this important part of the process).
If you’re ready to refine your leadership vision and align it with your daily actions, let’s connect. Feel free to reach out by email at gary@garybagley.com or connect with me on LinkedIn.
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