What I Learned From 3 Styles of Great Leadership

Executive coach Marshall Goldsmith says, “What got you here won’t get you there”. If you are an aspiring leader today, what will take it for you to become a great leader tomorrow?

I’ve played leadership roles all my life; from grade school to as a startup founder and then as a Product Manager at Google. Learning in the trenches is fantastic; but that makes you vulnerable to confirmation bias. It’s easy to keep doing the things that worked in the past, and miss-out on a world of growth outside.

So when I recently decided to take a year off to focus on personal development, I was determined to explore the following questions:

• What leadership styles stand out among great leaders?
• What is there to learn from those leadership styles?
• As an aspiring leader, how can I embody those learnings?

1. What leadership styles stand out among great leaders?

Looking beyond their often romanticized eccentricities — Steve Jobs dropping LSD and Richard Branson ballooning around the world, for example — there are three styles of leadership that stand out:

The Visionary

Every revolution starts with an idea. Visionaries generate ideas and express those ideas with great conviction. Steve Jobs and Elon Musk are visionaries. Apple, Tesla, and SpaceX — the companies led by these individuals — are lauded for vision and innovation.

The Charismatic

Every revolution is made of people. Charismatic leaders connect with a wide variety of people and convince them to work together. Bill Clinton and Richard Branson are known for their charisma; the Clinton Foundation is legendary for winning donors, and the Virgin Group companies are well-known for excellent customer service.

The Executor

Behind the excitement, revolutions are tough and long. Executors stay focused, weather out the troughs, and are prolific over a long period of time. Jeff Bezos and Jack Welch are famous for their execution skills. Both Amazon and GE are praised for building enormous and efficient inventory and production systems.

2. What is there to learn from those leadership styles?

Each of these styles embody a trait that an individual can develop: vision, charisma and persistent execution. Importantly, while most leaders are known for their mastery of one of these traits, none of them are inept at the other two. While he was primarily a visionary, Jobs was charismatic to the point that his audience often lost track of reality. Musk is famous for dreaming of reaching Mars, but also labors eight hours every day at each of his two companies. Bezos may be an executor, but he has a vision for Amazon for many decades to come.

Can one fall short at once of these areas and still become great? I believe that’s much harder. Haven’t we all met “visionaries” with no support or execution? The charming “charismatic” without vision or execution may go a bit father. But their followers are often led to disarray. Perhaps the “executor” goes the farthest even without great vision or charisma. Most executors, however, end up in middle-management jobs — often working for a visionary.

Weakness at one of these traits is likely to cripple a leader and their organization in critical areas. I’ve seen startup founders struggle to come up with an inspiring long-term vision. I’ve witnessed some companies manage to secure the best talent while others run out of hiring options. Then there are teams that are constantly plagued by inconsistent productivity.

3. As an aspiring leader, how can I embody those learnings?

When it comes to cultivating these traits, it’s worth thinking about where you are the strongest and the weakest. That way you know where you can see the biggest gains.

In my case, I chose to focus on charisma: specifically, the ability to build rapport and empathy with a wider variety of people. Since then I’ve learned from studying literature like How to Win Friends and Influence People, taking improv workshops, getting coached on public speaking, and throwing myself at every impossible social situation I can imagine. I even considered taking a sales job for a while!

I also wanted to take my execution skills to the next level. I found the best executor in my network and asked them to mentor me. I’ve added techniques like GTD and Pomodoro to my arsenal. I’ve worked on reshaping my very identity around being an industrious individual — a topic for a future essay.

Vision can be tricky to develop; but as you collect more experiences and spend more time with inspired people, you come up with more ideas. In my case, living in South America, taking acting classes, visiting museums around the world, and debating contemporary issues with learned world-travelers has inspired my mind more than ever.

As a person with leadership aspirations, I hope you think about where you stand with each of these traits. Figure out where you can improve; make the leap from good to great. These are revolutionary times — there is nothing the world needs more than great leadership!