Introduction According to Goleman (2000), there are six main leadership styles, which are: directive, visionary leadership, democratic, affiliative, pace setting, and coaching. Effective leaders must know what leadership styles to employ at any given time. To do this they must have emotional intelligence, which will help in identifying what leadership needs the group requires and utilize the leadership style that is most suitable for those needs. I have developed insightful knowledge of my leadership styles from the leadership challenge task. This knowledge has been generated from the feedback questionnaires from my leadership challenge members, which reveal that I am an affiliative and participative type of leader. I am most concerned with promoting friendly interactions between group members, trust that the group can develop a direction for them, and listen to all concerns that the group may have. I also seem to show Visionary as well as Democratic leadership styles as I tended to propagate the “Let’s work it out together” mentality throughout. I used the democratic leadership style after the Visionary style and Goleman (2000) helps the organization enhance teamwork. Much of the data for this essay is derived from several appendixes as well as textbook literature. The appendixes are Personal Development Journals (PDJ) I to V: Appendix I; PDJ highlights my affiliative capability while Appendix II; PDJ highlights my democratic leadership behaviors. PDJs III and IV highlight my weekly development pacesetter and visionary leadership behaviors and coaching styles. Appendix V: PDJ highlights my weaknesses in directive behavior. Appendix VI describes my personality traits as developed by the MBIT development chart. Appendix VII shows the key leadership skills necessary for alder to have appendix VIII is the Self Perception Team Role Profile which identifies personality type while appendix IX is the feedback report summary Preferred leadership behaviors Goleman (2000) argues that other than emotional intelligence, an effective leader possesses very good communication skills; active listening being and assertiveness which are the key qualities of an effective leader. Weaver and Farrell (1997) state that active listening is not merely keeping quiet but is also a two-way process. Brownell (1986) states that active listening involves both verbal and non-verbal behaviors while McKay, Davis, and Fanning (2009) state4s the active listening helps to foster understanding of the group. Cortright (2011) argues that assertiveness helps a leader lead the group through perilous times. Cherniss and Goleman (2001) add that a good leader must be visionary enough and groom from within the organizations those who can take over the running of the company when need be. This is attained by utilizing every opportunity to let them lead as well as giving constructive feedback. As seen in Appendix VII: Key leadership skills, these three are the first order of leadership skills and set the platform under which leaders can develop and employ their leadership styles. This is why I choose them. Active listening In evaluating my leadership behavior, affiliative leadership seemed to