You Don’t Need a New Leadership Style—You Need a Smarter Strategy
Leadership Style Bingo from Bingobaker.com
In a lot of chemistry calls and early coaching conversations, I hear some version of this:
“I am suddenly in a new leadership role and and I have no idea what it means to be a leader. What am I supposed to be doing?”
“I need to be more confident in how I show up, but I feel like there’s so much ambiguity right now I can’t get grounded.”
“I’ve just stepped into a bigger role — and I’m not sure who I need to be now.”
These are real, honest reflections. And they usually show up at a moment of change — a new challenge, a bigger team, or a sense that the way you’ve been leading doesn’t quite fit anymore.
Without knowing exactly what needs to shift, many people reach for the idea of leadership style. It feels like a useful anchor — a way to define yourself, clarify your values, and show up more consistently. Style sounds good. It’s tidy. Aspirational. Even a little comforting.
“I’m collaborative.”
“I empower my team.”
“I don’t micromanage.”
“I’m inclusive — that’s how I make decisions.”
But here’s the thing: most leadership styles live in the world of intention, not behaviour. They’re a bit like those beautifully vague company mission statements:
“We empower innovation at scale.”
“We exist to build a more connected world.”
“We believe in authenticity, integrity, and impact.”
They look great on a slide. They might even make it onto the office wall. But they don’t show you how people behave under pressure. They don’t explain why things feel off, even when your “style” says the right things.
This is where the conversation starts to shift — from how you want to lead, to how you’re actually leading. From aspiration to pattern. From style to strategy.
You already have a leadership strategy, you just don’t know it
Leadership strategy is what plays out when things are moving fast, unclear, or emotionally charged. It’s the lived experience of how you show up. It’s the real-time operating model behind your behaviour, whether you’ve consciously designed it or not.
And it shows up in places that are easy to overlook:
How you spend your time and attention
The kinds of problems you take on — or avoid
How you make decisions when things get messy
Who you collaborate with — and who you keep at a distance
How the beliefs you hold - about yourself and the world around you -shape how you show up
Most of us don’t sit down and choose our strategy. It forms gradually, shaped by past managers, workplace cultures, habits that once helped us succeed, and stories we’ve absorbed about what a “good leader” should be.
But even if you didn’t choose the strategy you’re running, you can still reclaim it.
And the first step is simply being able to see it.
This is where intention meets honesty. Not the “ideal” version of your leadership, but the one your team experiences every day. What your calendar, your conversations, and your defaults reveal. It’s where the soft skills — or what I call human skills — show up not as a nice-to-have, but as the backbone of your leadership. For example, emotional agility, relational clarity, decision-making under pressure , it’s the stuff that’s easy to ignore but quietly runs the show.
Start by making it visible with the Leadership Strategy Scan
When it comes to visualizing your Leadership Strategy, you first have to ask the right questions. For example, instead of asking, “What’s my leadership style?”
Start with a more revealing question: What’s my leadership strategy right now — and is it serving me?
To help you visualize and map your Leadership Strategy, I created the Leadership Strategy Scan (LSS) — a simple, reflective tool that maps five core dimensions that tend to show up in coaching when things feel off-track or out of sync.
The scan looks at:
How you spend your time?
What your calendar says about what really mattersWhat you take on (and what you avoid)?
The roles you jump into — and the ones you hold back fromHow you make decisions under pressure?
What drives your choices when things get unclear or intenseWho you show up for?
Where you invest trust and relational energy, and where you avoid riskWhat’s your leadership narrative?
The internal stories that shape how you lead, especially when it counts
You rate yourself across each dimension, reflect on what’s showing up, and begin to piece together the strategy you’ve been living, often without realizing it.
It’s not a personality test or a set of “types.” It’s a mirror. A check-in. A way to bring visibility to what’s been running quietly in the background.
You rate yourself across each dimension, reflect on what’s showing up, and begin to piece together the strategy you’ve been living, often without realising it.
It’s not a personality test or a set of “types.” It’s a mirror. A check-in. A way to bring visibility to what’s been running quietly in the background.
Please note: This version of the scan is still in development. It’s an alpha release, shared with coaching clients and collaborators to test, evolve, and shape into something more robust. I’d love your feedback on how it lands. Here’s a link to try it for yourself — it takes about 15 minutes.
Once you’ve done the scan, there are a few short questions about your experience and an option to book a 10-minute call with me to talk through what came up.
What’s next: Leadership Reset
I’ve got a huge exclusive for you, I’m currently deep in discovery with a broader body of work called the ‘Leadership Reset’. The Leadership Strategy Scan is just the first phase, the overall Leadership Reset will be a set of tools and coaching practices designed for leaders and organisations who are ready to show up with more clarity, alignment, and trust in their own growth.
It’s not about having all the answers. It’s about asking better questions, noticing the patterns that are running the show, and making intentional space for change.
Whether it’s the story that drives your decisions, the way you respond under pressure, or the feedback conversations you’ve been avoiding, this work meets you in the real moments of leadership. And it helps you reset, not by becoming someone else, but by leading with more of who you already are.
I’m invested in this work because I believe that:
Leadership doesn’t just shape your experience — it shapes the system around you.
When you change how you lead, you change how your team operates, how trust is built, and how culture forms.That’s why self-transformation isn’t just personal growth, it’s the foundation of organisational change.
And it starts with something surprisingly simple: Looking closely at how you’re actually leading — day in and day out.
