Level Up Your Career With A Leadership Model

Introduction

A leadership model is a set of guidelines for how to lead that can be customized to your individual needs. Using this model will help you develop as a leader and better understand yourself as one. In this article, we’ll explain what leadership models are, why they’re useful, and how to create one of your own that best fits your personality. This was an exercise I did during my graduate program and would like to share with you.

Creating Your Own Model Based On Values 

These are subject to change through life changes, increased responsibility, and personal choices.

My leadership model consists of three characteristics which I strive for:

• Symbolic
• Humble
• Pragmatic

Upon initial conversations, it’s typically the best time for asking genuine questions and being curious about the journey of how peers got to where they are, allow a deeper trust which can later be transformed to a long-term connection. Wait too long, and the connection might not be as genuine. Humility is a term that wasn’t in the Greek vocabulary as it wasn’t considered a virtue yet lack of it results in arrogance which has been the demise of great leaders. A pragmatic approach is necessary in every context of dealing with humans, computers, and laws of physics. In the context of leadership, being self-aware will allow a leader to make choices that positively affect their followers. The model I’ve created to move forward with at this stage of my life reconciles a bit to Plato’s in the aspect that through being humble and showing high levels of intellect, it can inevitably lead to being placed in leadership positions.

Establishing Long Term Impact

The qualities that I must develop to achieve greatness in my career are devotion, legacy, and ruthlessness which may provide value to others in the tech community. These are slightly different from the ones my group presented on in the residential area at Brown University as my model is entirely focused on the best way to deliver the vision to my target audience. The current qualities I possess require thinking about about long term value beyond the enterprise I’m working for. The feedback I’ve received from others in the past is that I’m able to achieve much due to the way I speak yet I feel like I’ve only spoken about topics in a contained room. My goal is to work on tasks that have a large impact and require influencing thousands of people such as creating a product within the blockchain space. 

Leadership Style

Leadership styles don’t make a person successful. What a leadership style does is help the individual express themselves in the way that they’d wish to narrate themselves in a particular situation. The style I must adopt is a combination of building compassion as the foundation of my relationship with my followers then slowly introducing ruthlessness to implement a particular vision. This can be tricky as it requests finding a balance between two completely different perceived emotions. 

Through the years that I’ve been working with others I’ve come to realize how important it is to build a character that is inline with the values we keep close to our hearts. I grew up in a family that is heavily focused on the truth and keeping integrity alive through what is written in the Bible. This has influenced my personality as I’m always seeking to find the absolute truth in any given situation whether it’s a complex human relationship or a computational function. My identity is focused on understanding that the ideal man can become a monster and keeping that in control what propels our society forward.

Conclusion

Achieving mastery in any given domain is a lifelong process which never stops. Technology introduces complexity unlike any other tool where what is published today is more than likely obsolete in a few weeks. My plan to keep track of my effectiveness is to write down my ideas, goals, and how much of that was accomplished. Writing is an effective way to become better at piecing arguments together once it’s practiced enough. Receiving feedback from peers that have nothing to gain from me is also an insightful way to hear an unbiased opinion. As I continue to grow, a pragmatic way to determine my success will be around how effectively I can use my network to solve problems.

—Christian Galvan