It takes a freedom-centered leadership style to lead a democratic company. However, most of the leadership models we’re taught are based on control, ego and domination — not how to create an environment that allows people to express their full potential.

Command-and-control, top-down, hierarchical leadership is increasingly ineffective in a networked world. After all, what leader has the energy, time or even resources to know what’s going on in their organization every moment or each day? The Leader-Knows-All model is proving to be just plain exhausting – not to mention humanly impossible.

A freedom-centered leader is someone who cultivates an environment that inspires, enhances and develops leadership abilities in others at every level of an organization.

Freedom-centered leadership is grounded in a fundamentally new understanding of how the world works and how to lead living, dynamic, and self-organizing systems. Freedom-centered leaders work with the principles of democracy on three levels: personally, in their own daily practice; interpersonally, with others; and organizationally, designing environments in which individuals are free to uncover and express their unique leadership capabilities.

Are you a Freedom-Centered Leader?

Take a look at the questions below to determine if you are a freedom-centered leader:

1 :: Do you work to cultivate an environment that grows leaders at every level of your organization?

2 :: Do you always strive to be inclusive, rather than exclusive?

3 :: Do you find that you make decisions based on rational, emotional, and intuitive thinking rather than just the “facts”?

4 :: Are you guided by principles, rather than personality?

5 :: Do you try to be ego-less rather than ego-driven?

6 :: Do you engage in dialogue rather than monologue?

7 :: Are you authentic and open, as opposed to calculating and secretive?

8 :: Do you understand that achieving consensus and going “slow” is often the quickest way to go “fast?”

9 :: Do you hold yourself, rather than others, accountable for your actions?

10 :: Do you interact with others as people, not objects?

11 :: Are you comfortable with not having all the answers?

12 :: Do you celebrate and learn from your failures rather than just your successes?

13 :: Do you recognize the distinction between genuine authority, which is earned, and ”positional” power, which is bestowed?

14 :: Do you lead from a sense of freedom and possibility – not fear and control?

15 :: Would you call yourself a leader – not a boss?

If you answered yes to all of these questions, congratulations! You are most likely a freedom-centered leader, and you are a great candidate for running an organization democratically, if you aren’t already.

If you did not answer yes to all of them, these are the standards of behavior and thought to which freedom-centered leaders hold themselves. If you decide to work towards them you may soon find that you have become a freedom-centered leader yourself.