Campfire Leadership: What is Your Skillset?

Every successful business relies on different types of leadership. Some leaders are natural innovators who create new ideas, while others excel at scaling growth, maintaining stability, or guiding organisations through periods of change. Understanding your leadership style can help you build stronger teams, make better hiring decisions, and recognise where additional expertise may be needed.

One way to think about leadership is through the idea of a campfire. Every fire needs someone to gather the wood, someone to ignite the spark, someone to help it grow, someone to carefully manage it as conditions change, and someone who knows when it's time to safely transition or close one chapter before the next begins. Businesses follow a similar pattern throughout their lifecycle, with different leadership capabilities becoming more valuable at different stages of growth.

The challenge for many organisations is expecting one person to excel at every stage. In reality, businesses often benefit from combining complementary leadership strengths rather than relying on a single executive to do everything. This is one reason why fractional leadership is becoming increasingly valuable, allowing organisations to bring in experienced leaders with the right expertise for a specific stage, challenge, or opportunity.

Recognising different leadership styles helps founders and executives build more balanced leadership teams while creating organisations that are better equipped to adapt, innovate, and grow.

Read the full LinkedIn article to discover the Campfire Leadership framework and explore which leadership role best reflects your strengths.