The question every leader should ask themselves

Recently, my daughter was asked what she thought of her two parents and our unique parenting styles. Her answer was both surprising and hilarious—watch the video to find out what she said!

But what if your team was asked a similar question: what do they think of you and your leadership style? How would they respond?

Dive into this video to discover a simple yet profound exercise that will help you align your leadership style with the qualities you aspire to embody. It's a quick check-in that could make all the difference in how you connect with and lead your team.

• Read the video transcript

  Recently we were out to dinner with my parents and somehow the conversation of different parenting styles came up and somebody asked my younger daughter, "Well, which parent is the better parent?"

  And I know that sounds bad now. It was really, it was a joke. It wasn't a serious question, but she actually answered and she said, "Well, one isn't better than the other. They're just different." Great answer!

  And so then of course the probing question came, and that was, "Well, how are they different? What's different about their parenting styles?"

  She thought for a moment and she responded with this: "Well, Dad is the more fun one and Mom is the more mature one." Well, you can imagine that gave us a good laugh.

  I will clarify that, yes, Dad is the more fun parent. If they want to go out to ice cream or watch a movie they know to go ask Dad. In fact, sometimes the girls will come up and say, "Hey Mom, do you know where Dad is? I have a question for him," just 'cause they want to go to him instead of me. But to be clear, I am not more mature than my husband. We just have different styles.

  But it reminded me of one of my favorite questions to ask my clients, those who are in a leadership position and I ask them: what words would your employees use to describe you right now? How would they describe you as a leader? And when you think about the adjectives they might respond with, are those actually the words that you want connected to your name and to your leadership style?

  It's a great quick self-awareness exercise to just have that gut check of, am I actually leading and showing up with my team in the way that I want to? Would they describe me as the leader that I desire to be?

  And so I challenge you to do that exercise right now. You can also be bold enough to actually go ask them what words they would use to describe you, but sometimes they may not give that full answer.

  So really take an honest look at how you are showing up as a leader right now. What words would they use to describe you? And what changes might you need to make in your leadership style in order to be the leader that you know they deserve and to be the leader that you want to be for them.