Mapping Your Leadership Identity: Discovering Who You Are as a Leader

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In each episode, we will unravel key insights, break down the most relevant books and articles, and provide actionable tips to optimize your approach in developing and retaining top talent. Stay tuned for a deep dive into the art, science, and strategy of unlocking your team's full potential. Let's enter the Manager Lab. Welcome back. This podcast explores the ideas that shape great leaders.

My name is Greg Gillum, and today we're diving into the Harvard Business Review article, Who Are You as a Leader? By Paul Ingram. It was published in the March-April 2025 issue of HBR. We'll unpack the key ideas, and I'll share some practical steps for you to discover and lead as your most authentic self.

Well, in the article, Ingram argues that to reach your full leadership potential, you must first understand the many facets of your identity, your values, your traits, your experiences, and then map them out, literally draw them out. And he calls this tool the identity map, a simple visual to identify, reflect on, and leverage different parts of who we are at work and beyond. Some of the key insights here.

Ingram's research suggests that how we view ourselves significantly shapes how we show up as leaders, how others perceive us as leaders, and even our own personal well-being. By acknowledging the identities we hold, such as parent or artist or mentor or lifelong learner, we tap into richer, more authentic leadership. So crafting an identity map involves listing all meaningful roles and attributes from your personal to your professional and exploring how they connect.

It isn't just self-reflection It's a way to align your leadership style With your authentic identity. The author here emphasizes that we can intentionally curate which aspects of our identity to bring to the forefront depending on the context and depending on the audience. Doing so not only boosts performance and trust, but also enhances our personal well-being. So to quickly kind of summarize the main points of the article, your sense of identity deeply influences your leadership presence.

Using an identity map surfaces and organizes who you are, and then curating these elements strategically will lead to more authentic and effective leadership and management behavior.

So here are the actionable tips that I gleaned from this great article. Number one, build your identity map. So grab a piece of paper, your remarkable or a digital tool, and jot down all of your identities. So maybe you're a coach, maybe you're a volunteer, maybe you're a strategist, maybe you're a problem solver at work. All of your identities, just get them on paper. Then start to connect how they interact and support your leadership.

That's number one. Number two, choose your leadership self. So think about different situations. Think about your staff meetings. Think about your one-on-ones. Think about your planning sessions where you're going through, you know, maybe systems planning or process mapping. Think about crisis management. So then identify which parts of your identity make you strongest in each of those different situations.

Tip number three, use context-aware leadership. So bring forward different strengths depending on the moment. In a brainstorming session, maybe you lean more into your creativity or your collaborator identity, whereas in other situations, maybe where you're providing feedback, let your mentor or your teacher identity guide you best. Tip number four is to reflect and adapt. So after key interactions, ask yourself, which identity did I use in that interaction?

What felt authentic? What did others respond to best? And this isn't just theory, according to the author. Tailored identity surfaces trust and connection and sets leaders apart. It really distinguishes you as a manager and a leader that people want to be around.

When you align leadership with who you truly are, you lead with credibility, clarity, and energy, both for yourself and for your team. So here's a quick exercise you can do right after today's episode. Sketch out your identity map, and in your next meeting, select one identity to highlight. And then afterwards, really spend some time reflecting on, did that help? How did you feel afterwards? Did others respond in a different way than they normally do?

So to wrap up, who are you as a leader encourages us to lead from clarity and lead from intention.

Mapping our identity offers a powerful foundation to lead more authentically, inspire other people, and stay grounded in who you are. Well, I hope this episode resonated. Try building your identity map this week. Let me know what you discover. Message me on social media, on LinkedIn, or leave a comment on the Manager Lab site. So thanks for listening to the Manager Lab. I'm Greg Gillum. Stay true. Lead authentically. And until next time we meet in the Manager Lab, do good work.