Heidrick & Struggles: What’s Your Leadership Signature?

In order to better understand how leaders lead, Heidrick & Struggles created a survey to measure three aspects of leadership. The survey included 1,006 US-based executives of director level and above at companies with 250 or more employees.

After analyzing the data, Heidrick & Struggles discovered: eight statistically distinct leadership archetypes distributed among respondents. What they found was individuals are likely to have access to every style to some degree. The research suggests that leaders are likely to gravitate to a much smaller set of default styles they find comfortable or familiar.

The eight archetypes of leadership:

• Collaborator: Empathetic, team-building, talent-spotting, coaching oriented
• Energizer: Charismatic, inspiring, connects emotionally, provides meaning
• Pilot: Strategic, visionary, adroit at managing complexity, open to input, team oriented
• Provider: Action oriented, confident in their path or methodology, loyal to colleagues, driven to provide for others
• Harmonizer: Reliable, quality-driven, execution focused, creates positive and stable environments, inspires loyalty
• Forecaster: Learning oriented, deeply knowledgeable, visionary, cautious in decision making
• Producer: Task focused, results oriented, linear thinker, loyal to tradition
• Composer: Independent, creative, problem solving, decisive, self-reliant

The full report is published on Heidrick & Struggles’ website. Read the full report.