Scott McLeod has, once again, called for a day of posts related to leadership – Leadership Day 2010. While Leadership Day was yesterday, I’m hoping I can extend it to "Leadership Weekend."

For me, leadership is intensely personal. The simple answer to finding your leadership style is this — imagine the best version of yourself… the version of yourself that deepens your best traits and mitigates your worst ones… and then try every day to be that person. You’ll fail a lot. Most days, you’re not going to be that person, because that person doesn’t exist. You’re chasing a ghost that doesn’t exist. But the effort to be that person will bring you closer to them. And in doing so, you’ll realize that person is a moving target, because you’re changing, and that best version of you will change. That’s a good thing.

Here’s another way to look at it… try every day to be the person the all the people in your charge need you to be. It is the essence of servant leadership. That’s a tricky thing, though, because you will lead many people, and people’s needs will be different. That’s the difference between "all the people" and "each of the people." Worse, you’re going to have to figure out what people need from you personally and professionally, and those two things are always in play, and they don’t always work in concert. You have to be the person they need you to be professionally, and that means deeply taking into consideration their humanity (and yours), but it means that there are times when what they need from you on a personal level, and what you need to do on a professional level both for the person in front of you and for the organization as a whole are in conflict. Those are soul-searching moments, but the ability to be a good person who can care deeply about the person in front of you while still acting in the best interest of the whole organization is one of the great challenges of leadership.

Robert Pirsig once wrote, "Want to paint a perfect picture? Be perfect and paint what you know." The best advice about leadership I can imagine is "Be a truly good person and lead from there." You’ll fall short of being that best version of yourself a lot, but for me, it’s the only path to follow.