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LEADERSHIP STYLES
Leadership is a process of motivating others to work together collaboratively to accomplish great things. A manager uses different techniques and methods to achieve organization’s objectives while engaging employees who report to him. These different approaches of providing direction, executing plans, and motivating people are known as leadership styles.
The most effective leaders are self-aware. They are able to understand their strengths and weaknesses and proactively learn and practice the leadership style that best suits them and their organization.
There are 13 most common leadership styles given below
Autocratic, Authoritarian, Coercive, or Commanding
Autocratic leaders make decisions without seeking input from anyone who reports to them, or anyone at all, usually. Team members are not consulted prior to direction and are expected to fall in line with the leader’s expectations. Also known as Authoritarian, Coercive, or Commanding, this leadership style is rarely effective and can lead to low job satisfaction and poor morale. However, autocratic leadership can be effective in crisis situations when quick decisions need to be made.
Affiliative
Affiliative leaders strive to create emotional bonds with their team members and direct reports. Leaders who utilize this style put people before profit and believe the team always comes first. This style is focused on building trust within the team and fostering a sense of belonging to the organization. Particularly effective during times of heightened stress, affiliative leaders are effective at boosting low morale, improving communication, and creating a harmonious working environment.
The downside of this leadership style is that constant praise and nurturing can cause performance issues to be overlooked and unaddressed.
Bureaucratic
Bureaucratic leaders tend to follow a textbook template as to how a leader should act, and are generally risk averse. While they may differ from autocratic leaders by seeking input from others, they are biased toward upholding company policy or past practices.
Bureaucratic leaders are typically found in large, established organizations or highly regulated environments where adherence to strict rules is important. New ideas can be rejected because the organization is successful with the current processes in place. Implementing something new and different could waste time or resources if it doesn't work. This leadership style stifles innovation among employees and struggles to respond effectively to change.
Coaching
A coaching leader is one who spends a great deal of time and energy on identifying and nurturing the individual strengths of each member of their team. They will take the time to cultivate deep connections with direct reports to gain a thorough understanding of each team member’s hopes, beliefs, dreams and values. The coaching leadership style is similar to democratic and affiliative leadership, but coaching leaders place more emphasis on the growth and success of individual employees.
Coaching leaders typically foster a positive environment where encouragement and communication can flow freely. However, in many cases employees feel like they’re being micromanaged. It’s important for coaching leaders to periodically take a step back and let their team breathe.
Democratic, Facilitative, or Participative
Similar to the affiliative leadership style, a leader who employs the democratic leadership style places a high value on the knowledge, skills, and diversity of their team. They are consensus-builders and are constantly asking for input from their direct reports and peers. Democratic leaders are excellent listeners, and they develop confidence in their leadership by utilizing the collective wisdom their team has to offer. They are leader-breeders; by empowering lower-level employees to exercise authority, they are effectively preparing them for more senior positions.
In stressful or emergency situations, democratic leaders can falter as their decision- making style can be too time-consuming.
Laissez-Faire or Delegative
The French term "laissez faire" translated to English is "let them do." In other words, a laissez-faire leader trusts their employees to do what they’re supposed to do and offers minimal interference – and direction.
The laissez-faire leader is most commonly found in entrepreneurial start-ups, where the founder puts full trust in their team so they may focus on executing the company’s overall strategy.
Laissez-faire leadership is the least intrusive leadership style. It can result in an empowered group of employees, but can also limit their development. At times some employees may need a course-correction, but they won’t get it from a laissez-faire leader. This can result in missed growth opportunities and inefficiencies.
Laissez-faire leadership can develop into the most subtly destructive leadership style: absentee leadership. Absentee leaders are "people in leadership roles who are psychologically absent from them. They were promoted into management, and enjoy the privileges and rewards of a leadership role, but avoid meaningful involvement with their teams." Absentee leaders take value out of an organization without putting value in.
Emergent
strategic leader has the unenviable task of maintaining current equitable working conditions while catering to executive interests and executing organizational change. Strategic leaders work in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous environment and are influenced by factors and organizations external to their own.
The main objective of strategic leadership is productivity. To achieve this objective, a strategic leader must develop an environment in which their employees are able to forecast the organization’s needs within the context of their own responsibilities. Rewards and incentive programs are popular tools employed by strategic leaders to encourage employees to consistently perform at a high level.
The ideal strategic leader must create a vision, clearly communicate that vision, and effectively drive that vision into reality.
Transactional
Transactional leaders are only concerned with the work their employees do. Common among sales teams, a transactional leader will often set a sales target and reward the individuals who reach it with a bonus.
When working for a transactional leader, your role and responsibilities are clearly defined – there is no ambiguity. However, the transactional leadership style can be demotivating. Employees may do the bare minimum at work if they know how much their effort is worth all the time. In these situations, a transactional leader may use unscheduled gestures of appreciation to try to keep employees engaged and motivated.
Transformational
Transformational leaders are focused on continuous improvement. They constantly push their team outside of their comfort zone and implement stretch goals. This style is often associated with charismatic leadership, a leadership style rooted in the charm and persuasiveness of the leader. The most effective transformational leaders are charismatic because they are skilled communicators, verbally eloquent, but also able to communicate to employees on a deep, emotional level.
High-growth organizations embrace the transformational leadership style because it motivates employees to achieve beyond what they consider themselves capable of. Yet transformational leaders can risk burning out direct reports if they don’t receive the right coaching and direction to guide them through challenging new responsibilities.
Visionary
Organizations that want to build a culture of innovation are best served by tapping the talents of visionary leadership. Visionary leaders are natural born problem solvers and rely on abstract thinking to visualize possibilities that most are unable to see. These “big picture” thinkers can not only see what’s possible, but they can also effectively articulate it to their team. Steve Jobs is an example of a visionary leader:
passionate, open-minded, and creative, he was most effective at inspiring forward momentum and creating a culture of innovation during his two stints at Apple.
It’s important for visionary leaders to be complemented with a team composed of diverse talents and skillsets. Visionary leaders prefer not to involve themselves with details or implementation. Instead, they lean heavily on others to execute their vision.
