What is my leadership style? A modern guide for today's leaders
"What is your leadership style?" It is one of those questions that can stop even the most experienced manager in their tracks.
Every answer feels either hollow or like a textbook recitation, neither of which really captures how you lead. Yet it is one of the most important questions you will ever be asked, whether in a job interview, a performance review, or a quiet moment of self-reflection.
Why knowing your leadership style actually matters
Every good leader knows that leadership is more than having a title. Being a CEO doesn’t command immediate gravitas, or respect from your team. Being a good leader does. When you understand your natural (or learned) approach to leading others, you’re able to stop leading via autopilot and frameworks – and start leading with intention instead.
Research consistently shows that leaders who have high self-awareness outperform those who do not. Teams led by self-aware managers report higher levels of engagement, lower turnover, and better performance outcomes. When leaders know their style, they can leverage their strengths deliberately, catch their blind spots before they become problems
The most recognised traditional leadership styles explained
Before you can identify your style of leadership, you need to understand what traditional leadership styles look like in practise. Below, we’ve rounded up the most commonly referenced styles in organisational psychology and management consultancy.
Transformational leadership
Transformational leaders inspire people toward a compelling vision. They challenge the status quo, communicate with passion, and encourage people to have a mindset that knows meaningful change is possible.
This leadership style is useful in workplace cultures that require cultural change, innovation and motivation towards big, ambitious goals.
The challenge tends to be present where the vision might be too poorly defined or fluffy. Making teams feel overwhelmed without guidance.
2. Servant leadership
A servant leader puts their team first. Instead of leading them from the top down, their main focus is on what the team needs to succeed. Then, start by removing every barrier in the way.
This leadership style builds loyalty and creates safe spaces that encourage people to do their best work. But, may not be the best approach in high-urgency situations where top-down instruction is needed.
3. Collaborative leadership
Collaborative leaders (otherwise known as democratic leaders), tend to involve their teams in decision-making, drawing on collective intelligence before acting.
This leadership style builds strong buy-in and spotlights ideas that top-down leaders often miss. But may create tension if changes in leadership style are suddenly top-down, and add friction when decisions need to be made quickly.
4. Coaching leadership
A coaching leader is more interested in long-term development. They tend to ask the bigger questions, delegate assignments that will create growth opportunities, and invest deeply into helping individuals grow.
This leadership style tends to require time to nurture potential. Something that not every business has capacity for, and may choose to blend this leadership style with another.
5. Laissez-Faire leadership
Laissez-faire leaders tend to give their team maximum autonomy. Trusting them to manage their own work with minimal interference. Removing micro-managing tends to motivate a lot of self-motivated professionals and senior ICs.
This leadership style is best when paired with safe spaces where team members can flag any challenges they face.
6. Autocratic leadership
Autocratic leaders tend to make decisions quickly, and expect team members to follow. In workplaces that require strict compliance, this style of leadership is helpful. But outside of this context, this leadership style can create low morale, and suppress creativity – in turn, creating high turnover.
What are the new styles of modern leadership?
Being a leader in today’s modern workplace means that you need to recognise where the gaps are that old frameworks do not acknowledge.
Situational leadership
Coined by Hersey and Blanchard, Situational leaders map out their leadership style against a team member’s development level and aspirations. Paying particular attention to their competence and commitment on a given task.
2. Agile leadership
Agile leadership is arguably the most significant new leadership framework to emerge from the post-pandemic landscape. At its core, agile leadership focuses on adaption, flexibility and reactivity. Citing these as qualities needed following the pandemic and crises that create uncertainty and rapid change.
In other words, this leadership style describes a cluster of behaviours and mindsets including responsiveness, iterative decision-making, distributed authority and comfort with experimentation. Something that is seen more and more in tech, particularly.
3. Inclusive leadership
Inclusive leaders realise the positive outcomes of belonging, and being valued for uniqueness. Three forces have converged to push this framework to the top of leadership agendas since 2020.
First, the pandemic accelerated hybrid and remote work, creating new risks of exclusion for those not physically present. Second, the social justice movements of 2020 placed diversity, equity and inclusion under intense scrutiny at board level. Third, multigenerational and globally distributed teams have made cultural fluency a core leadership competency rather than a nice to have.
Research consistently identifies four practical dimensions of inclusive leadership behaviour: fostering each employee's uniqueness and promoting diversity; strengthening a sense of belonging within the team; showing genuine appreciation by recognising individual contributions; and actively supporting the organisation's broader inclusion efforts. Together these operate at multiple levels simultaneously: employee, team, and organisational, making inclusive leadership both an interpersonal and a strategic competency.
Inclusive leadership provides belonging for all. Including LGBTQIA+ leaders.
4. Psychological safety leadership
Coined by Amy Edmondson in the late 1990s, psychological safety in the workplace has been brought back to the top of leadership agendas by Harvard Business Impact’s annual partners meeting.
Sceptical? Don’t be. Google’s Project Aristotle in 2012, initially a research project undertaken by Google to understand what increases performance and makes teams successful. Showed that out of 180 teams assessed, the highest performing were also where team members felt comfortable expressing their thoughts and ideas openly. In other words, the team with the greatest psychological safety.
In practical terms, a team that is comfortable being themselves, will be able to ask for help, be accountable for mistakes, raise concerns, and challenge ideas without fear. Leaders who build psychological safety do three things consistently: they frame work as a learning opportunity, actively invite participation, and respond to feedback in ways that make people want to speak up again. Psychological safety is not a policy you can write into a handbook.
Leaders create it through every interaction, every day, and when they do, it becomes the foundation from which innovation, quality, resilience, and transformation grow. And with all the unprecedented challenges of todays world? We need this more than ever.
How to define what type of leader you are
The most revealing questions are not "what leadership style do I use?" but the ones that expose your instincts under pressure:
When a project goes wrong, what is your first move? Fix it yourself, find the cause together, or empower someone to own the solution?
When someone disagrees with you publicly, how do you actually feel? Threatened, curious, or energised?
When your team is underperforming, do you raise the bar, offer more support, or change how you are showing up?
When you have to make a fast decision without consensus, how comfortable are you, and how does your team feel about it?
Your honest answers will reveal more about your leadership style than any framework will.
Leadership style versus leadership aspirations
Knowing your current leadership style is only half the work. The other half is being honest about the leader you want to become, and understanding that those two things are rarely the same person.
Most leaders, when asked to describe their ideal leadership style, will reach for the qualities they admire in others. Visionary. Empowering. Calm under pressure. Decisive but consultative. The kind of leader people talk about years after they have moved on. But when the same leaders are asked to describe how they actually show up on a Tuesday afternoon when the quarter is behind target and three people are off sick, the picture looks quite different.
That gap between who you are and who you are trying to become is not a flaw. It is the most honest and productive space in leadership development. The leaders who grow fastest are not the ones who pretend the gap does not exist. They are the ones who name it, examine it, and work deliberately to close it.
Here is a simple way to surface that gap for yourself.
Write down three words that describe how you currently lead. Then write down three words that describe the leader you aspire to be. If the two lists are identical, you are either already exceptional, or you are not being honest enough with yourself.
The distance between your two lists is not something to be ashamed of. It is your development agenda. And the good news is that leadership style, unlike personality, is not fixed. It is built. Deliberately, iteratively, and when done well, with the right support behind you.
Ready to find your leadership style? Let us help.
At The L Factor, we work with leaders at every level who know they are capable of more. Whether you are stepping into your first senior role, leading through a period of significant change, or simply ready to lead with greater intention and impact, we are here to help you do it.
We do not hand you a framework and send you on your way. We work alongside you to understand how you lead today, where you want to go, and what is standing between the two. Because the best leaders are not born fully formed. They are developed, challenged, supported, and stretched over time.
If this blog has made you think differently about how you lead, or sparked a question you have not been able to answer yet, that is a good place to start. Get in touch with us today and take the first step toward becoming the leader your team deserves.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the 4 main leadership styles?
While there are many leadership frameworks, the four most commonly referenced styles are Transformational, Democratic, Servant, and Directive (Autocratic). Each has strengths and weaknesses depending on the context. Most experts today agree that effective leaders blend elements of all four.
Can your leadership style change over time?
Absolutely, and it should. As you gain experience, develop your self-awareness, and encounter new challenges, your leadership style naturally evolves. Intentional development through coaching, feedback, and reflection accelerates this process considerably.
Is there a "best" leadership style?
Research suggests that leaders who combine high challenge with high support (what we describe as the Liberating quadrant) tend to produce the best long-term outcomes. However, the most effective leaders are those who can adapt their approach to what each situation and individual requires. There is no single style that works in every context.
How do I find my leadership style quickly?
Start by reflecting on the moments in your career when you felt most effective, and most challenged as a leader. Ask someone who reports to you how they would describe your approach. Then explore the frameworks in this article and see which resonates most closely with your instincts. For a deeper, more structured exploration, a leadership diagnostic or coaching conversation with The L Factor can give you precise, personalised insight.