By understanding and developing your unique leadership style, you will be more equipped to navigate challenges, make difficult decisions, and guide your startup through various stages of growth while staying true to your business’s core values and principles. An authentic leadership approach inspires team members to fully engage with your venture’s mission and vision.

Conduct a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis of your leadership skills. Reflect on how your values align with how you want to show up as a leader. Identify people with leadership skills you admire and study their approach to adapt to your own. Create a personal development plan focusing on two to three key areas for improvement. 

• Develop leadership skills through conscious effort and practice—they're not innate abilities.
• Study diverse leadership styles and adapt techniques that fit your context, recognizing that there’s not one right way to lead. 
• Empower your team by practicing active listening and empathetic communication, recognizing that you don’t need to have all the answers and that it's okay to not know.
• Look for opportunities to practice leadership in low-stakes situations (e.g., preparing ahead for meetings, giving thoughtful feedback). 
• Be open to constructive feedback, as leaders are often in a position of scrutiny and need to build the muscle of recognizing and responding to meaningful feedback.
• Seek feedback from your team, advisors, and peers for how you can improve your leadership abilities. Use 360-degree feedback tools and anonymous surveys for a comprehensive understanding of your performance.