There always comes a time when you are expected to know your leadership style and be able to verbalize this during not only job interviews but during meetings with employees as well. For beginning career folks once you have gained a little experience leading people and teams it is important to take note of what works and doesn't work for you and be able to form the successes into a leadership strategy. Here is my leadership philosophy as an example:
I foster continuous learning among my staff. I lead by example, but I also force my staff to work outside of their comfort zones and take on projects focused at least one level up from the position they are currently working. All employees have goals, and I like to structure employee tasks and responsibilities around achieving these goals. I push my employees to engage in outside learning opportunities whenever possible. I do not make learning an option. If an employee comes to me with a problem I will ask them for a solution as well and will focus the discussion on their proposed answer. I expect employees to be experts in their field and treat them with that in mind.
Honestly, if I can do it anybody can do it. The above statement took me about 30 seconds to type, if you can't do the same you might want to think about what you have learned from your career and find some defining values to verbalize the way you treat people. The above statement is a living document and will change as I gain experience and, I hope, become more and more refined.
The point is: If you want to get in a position to lead people you better be able to tell people how you will accomplish that goal. By verbalizing a leadership philosophy you are also making a commitment to yourself to live up to the above values. Nobody is perfect, but at least we should be able to define what our definition of perfection is.
I welcome critiques to the above statement...still learning :)
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