What’s Your Leadership Approach?
Randy Wolken, President & CEO

Leaders are all different – we each have our own unique leadership style, and this becomes our leadership approach. It’s vitally important that we as leaders are intentional when we develop our approach.

I’m old enough to remember the debate on whether leaders are born or made. It almost seems silly now that we needed to have that conversation. Leaders are made—and remade—every day. We may have specific natural attributes we tap into but there are others we must develop. Anyone can be a leader. I’m increasingly convinced we must all put more time into developing our leadership approaches.

The best leaders I know were intentional in developing their leadership approach. They remain consistent in their deeply held but lasting values. They have a keen sense of who they are and what they hope to accomplish. Just as important, they never stop learning and growing. For them, leadership isn’t a job or a role they fulfill but rather a way of life. Even though it may appear to come naturally to them, it doesn’t. They work at it – and it shows.

We can learn about leadership from those around us. David Freund, our Chief Leadership Officer at MACNY, is a prime example of a leader I learn from. Over his career, David’s held a variety of positions in the manufacturing sector, and he brings all that experience to his current role. As a leader he’s consistent with his style and approach that he’s fine-tuned over the years. He’s genuine, thoughtful, hard-working, value-drive and results oriented. He’s committed to helping others develop their unique leadership approach. He’s a continuous learner and is always eager to uncover new ideas and tools. It’s a joy to have him on our team here at MACNY and learn from him as a leader. He’s just one example of the many leaders that I’ve had the opportunity to interact with and learn from and I’m sure you have your own leaders you learn from, too.

What’s your leadership approach? Can you summarize it in a few short phrases? Now that you’ve summarized it, what do you need to add? As a leader, you need to be asking yourself these questions. Don’t just rely on your own evaluation, you should ask others what they think your leadership approach is. Is their answer consistent with the approach you’re attempting to emulate? If not, how can you learn and improve? To stay relevant and effective, you need to think about and act upon your leadership approach.