I recently spoke with Megumi Miki, a thought leader in quiet leadership, about this type of leadership style. In the interview, I shared my journey into leadership and my experiences as a leader. I talked about my purpose and core values and who has influenced me on the leadership path. It was also an opportunity to reflect on what sort of leader I believe myself to be.
The concept of quiet leadership resonates with me. I value humility in leadership and I tend to quietly get on with things. One of my favourite sayings is by Lao Tzu:
A leader is best when people barely know they exist… When their work is done, their aim fulfilled, they say ‘we did it ourselves’
As a leader, I focus on the people around me and I have a strong desire to serve – I think this is the case with many quiet leaders.
Often, quiet leaders are introverts, like me. They learn to stretch themselves to take on extrovert-type activities like presenting and networking, but they also need to find ways to re-charge their batteries so they can be their best self in those situations.
It was a great pleasure to be interviewed by Megumi on quiet leadership styles. You can listen to the interview here
2018
Update: Interview snippet and information about Megumi’s book