In my first post in this series on leadership in the corporate world, I introduced you to the notion that there are roles that leaders must fulfill to be successful: person, performer, team builder, decision maker, and change agent. This post will explore what I believe lies at the heart of leadership: leader-as-person, who you are is how you lead. As I alluded to in my first post, I take a contrarian view of leadership: I don’t believe in leadership styles. Despite the many books written about leadership styles, I would argue that we are not capable of leading in ways that conflict with who we are. In other words, we can’t be someone we are not. Certainly, it is possible to expand the range of your leadership capabilities around the anchor of who you are; a great leader is always looking for ways to improve their leadership skills. For example, if you are an intense and emotional leader, you can learn to moderate your emotional reactions during a crisis to some degree. At the same time, it’s not likely you will ever be a Zen-type leader. Within notion of leader-as-person, the key for you is to fully understand who you are and, given who you are, maximize your effectiveness as a leader. With this information, you can then identify the strengths and weaknesses you have as a leader and can work to build your strengths and mitigate your weaknesses, thus allowing who you are to emerge as a more effective leader.