3 Types of Leadership

What do you picture when I say leadership?  Be honest.

Most people will picture:

• a man (yes, still in 2017. I wouldn't go on about this except to say "please stop")
• a tall man (here is actual academic research about the tall part.)
• someone standing in a power pose
• the color red will usually be in the picture

For a long time, I thought you had to a motivator to be a good leader.  You had to be a LEADER OF MEN {dun dun dun sound effect here}.   You could be a rah-rah jump around and pump everyone kind of leader.  Or you could be a let's get in the trenches and I'll show you how to do this leader.  There's a million ways to be that kind of leader.

Then, I read this article, Not a People Leader? Here are Two Other Types to Consider from Be Leaderly.  In the article, Jo Miller describes 3 types of leaders: people leaders, thought leaders and process leaders.

People leaders - the leaders of men mentioned earlier.  These people can get a crowd whipped into shape and moving in the right direction.  Military leaders come to mind but it doesn't have to be that overt.  Lots of people are people leaders without being loud.  They know how to connect with people, motivate them and get the most out of them.

Process leaders - these people know how to make things work.  This is the person you call when you need to figure out how to move 200 people through a conference with only 5 rooms.  They can break it down and figure it out.  I find these people are usually very efficient because they can see the workflow - they just know the best way to get things done.

Thought leaders - these are your big idea people.  They understand where your organization needs to go.  Thought leaders are passionate and innovative.  Denise Brosseau (author of a book on thought leadership) says, “Thought leaders are the trusted opinion leaders and go-to people in their fields of expertise,”

Do you see yourself in one of these three types of leadership?  Let me know in the comments or on social media.  Tomorrow I'll tell you what kind of leader I am and we'll talk about how we can all improve our leadership.