What Is Your Leadership Style? Lessons from Brand Writing for Top Hospitals

What Is Your Leadership Style?

I discovered mine during my undergraduate days managing Blackboard Magazine, a student-led publication at Northwestern University, alongside Editor-in-Chief Robert Samuels—staying up late, proofing line by line, debating angles, training younger writers, and laying out the paper.

It was in those long nights and meticulous moments that I realized I’m at my best when helping the entire team excel. Leadership, for me, was about precision, clarity, and mentorship, no matter the assignment. And it still is.

This leadership edge became critical when SSM Health and Mercy Health tapped me to produce brand content for major site renovations.

At SSM Health, a group of writers and I were tasked with writing 300+ pages of stories across multiple service lines. Beyond researching treatments and ensuring every piece was accurate and human, what ensured the project’s success was stepping up my leadership—coaching contributors on style, holding the vision for the final experience, and staying deeply connected to both the team and the work itself.

At Mercy Health, the scale was even larger—over 500 service-line articles in five weeks on a small team. To meet the demand, I helped create a style guide, led daily reviews, and ran quick “alignment huddles” to ensure consistency and quality.

In this context, leadership meant constantly asking:

Is the content anchoring the capabilities and expertise of the hospitals while still connecting with the heart and aspirations of the reader? Is the writing compassionate? Is it helping readers answer questions and guiding them onto a path of empowerment?

Furthermore: How do I co-design and support processes so my team succeeds? How do I maintain high standards while scaling? How do we create real impact for the end user?

After months of collaboration, the impact of this work was tangible: hundreds of thousands of readers accessed content that was accurate, compassionate, and actionable, helping them make informed decisions about their health and care. Teams I co-led delivered high-quality content on tight deadlines, strengthened their writing and collaboration skills, and left the projects feeling confident and empowered.

These experiences reinforced what I had discovered at Blackboard Magazine: my leadership style thrives when I am supporting the team, coaching others, and holding the vision for a project. I lead best by combining precision, mentorship, and strategic foresight, creating systems that allow both individuals and the collective to succeed.

Discovering Your Leadership Style: The Key to Driving Impact

Your leadership style is the engine of your success. It defines how you structure teams, make decisions, and influence outcomes. Understanding it allows you to accentuate your strengths—mentorship, clarity, strategic foresight, for example—while consciously managing gaps. When you know what you excel at, you can delegate effectively, empower others, and design systems that scale, creating both efficiency and impact.

Ready to Define Your Creative Leadership?

As an Artsy-Preneur, I help creative leaders and organizations turn vision into impact—through strategic guidance and hands-on support. In this process, I love identifying and amplifying the leadership traits that will best optimize your systems, helping you scale, empower collaborators, and produce meaningful results.

Explore all Artsy-Preneur.com has to offer, from coaching, workshops, or consulting opportunities and let’s create your next big impact together!

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Malena Amusa is the CEO and Founder of Artsy-Preneur.com, a business and marketing incubator helping your big ideas achieve maximum impact through coaching, workshops, and powerful learning experiences. A pro journalist, educator, comms strategist, serial entrepreneur, and former nationally-touring dancer, Malena has reached millions globally, helping small and mega firms transform their marketing, engagement strategy, and messaging to advance new market share, embolden brand leadership, and fuel sales and growth. Malena is based in St. Louis, Mo., serving the world.