How to Describe your CEO Leadership Style on your CEO Resume

Whether you are a seasoned CEO or just embarking on your executive-level career, you have certain innate traits that combine into your unique leadership style. Humans are dynamic creatures, and chances are you will adopt and adapt different styles in different situations, environments, and for different individuals.

There are many books and articles available to read about how to discern one leadership style from another. Learning about the leadership styles and identifying the ones you tend to employ is easy. The hard part is communicating your style to potential employers and business prospects through your career marketing documents. In this article, we will focus on words and ideas you can use to describe and demonstrate the different leadership styles on your CEO resume.

Servant Leadership

  • Top Values: collective decision-making, collaboration, trust, relationships, community
  • Top Skills: empathy, active listening, facilitation, authenticity
  • Describe: team empowerment and growth, shared success, purpose-driven initiatives

Autocratic Leadership

  • Top Values: compliance, precision, consistency, predictability, efficiency, structure
  • Top Skills: confident and independent decision-making, direct communication, planning
  • Describe: results-oriented KPIs and metrics, results vs. targets, business growth, forward momentum

Participative Leadership

  • Top Values: commitment, consensus, employee buy-in and engagement, trust
  • Top Skills: decisiveness, encouraging open communication, problem-solving
  • Describe: collaborative company culture, employee engagement, creativity, and innovation

Authoritative Leadership

  • Top Values: clear direction, conviction, task-based accuracy, perfection
  • Top Skills: strategic planning, defining expectations, explaining, leading by example
  • Describe: long-term direction, foresight, vision casting, inspiring action

Transformational Leadership

  • Top Values: intellectual inspiration, team morale, shared vision, curiosity
  • Top Skills: big-picture thinking, communication, change management, motivating and inspiring employees
  • Describe: before and after, innovation and change initiatives, risk management

To find out how we can help you infuse your CEO resume with your CEO leadership style, book a complimentary and confidential call with us here.

Mary Elizabeth Bradford is the Founder and Executive Director of CEOresumewriter.com and Maryelizabethbradford.com and a past executive recruiter. A thought leader in the career services industry for over 20 years, she holds 5 distinct advanced certifications for senior-level resume writing, online branding and executive-level job search coaching (CERM, CMRW, CARW, MCD, NCOPE). She has been seen and heard in major media including Forbes, Time, WSJ, Newsweek and NBC affiliate stations. She holds 2 CDI TORI awards and is a top tier judge for the elite CDI TORI awards for four consecutive years. Mary Elizabeth Bradford’s elite team of award-winning, certified, top executive resume writers, former top executive recruiters, and global HR executives help many of the world’s premier C-suite, board members and thought leaders secure the transitions and compensation packages they want. She works with clients all over the globe.

If you are a Director, VP, CxO, or Board Member interested in an executive resume package or working directly with Mary Elizabeth, click to schedule a complimentary 15-minute call.