A leadership style is a way of providing direction, implementing plans, and motivating people. The most appropriate leadership style depends on the function of the leader, the followers, and the situation. Some leaders lack the ability or the desire to assume responsibility.
Others must handle problems that
require immediate solutions without consulting upper management. The leader's
intellectual capacity helps to imagine solutions to complete the challenge. Below are twelve different
leadership styles. Which one do you work best with (or wished you worked with)?
1.
Autocratic Leadership
This style is centered on the boss. The leader holds all authority,
responsibility, and makes decisions by themself without consulting anyone else.
They reach decisions, communicate them to subordinates and expect prompt
implementation.
In this kind of
leadership, guidelines, procedures and policies are all natural additions of
the leader. This kind of work
environment normally has little or no flexibility.
2. Charismatic
Leadership In this style, the charismatic
leader manifests his or her revolutionary power. Charisma does not mean sheer
behavioral change. It actually involves a transformation of followers’ values
and beliefs.
Therefore, this distinguishes a
charismatic leader from a simply populist leader who may affect attitudes
towards specific objects, but who is not prepared as the charismatic leader is,
to transform the underlying normative orientation that structures specific
attitudes.
3. Coaching
Leadership This style involves teaching and
supervising followers. A coaching leader is highly operational in setting where
results/ performance require improvement.
Basically, in this kind of
leadership, followers are helped to improve their skills. Coaching leadership
does the following: motivates followers, inspires and encourages followers.
4. Cross-Cultural
Leadership This style exists where there are
various cultures in the society. This leadership has also industrialized as a way
to recognize front runners who work in the contemporary globalized market.
Organizations, particularly
international ones require leaders who can effectively adjust their leadership
to work in different environs. Most of the leaderships observed in the United
States are cross-cultural because of the different cultures that live and work
there.
5. Democratic
Leadership In this style, subordinates are
involved in making decisions. This headship is centered on employee
contributions. The democratic leader holds final responsibility to delegate
authority to other people, who determine work projects. Communication is active
upward and downward.
Democratic leadership is one of the
most preferred leadership, and it entails fairness, competence, creativity, courage,
intelligence and honesty.
6. Facilitative
Leadership This style is too dependent on
measurements and outcomes – not a skill, although it takes much skill to
master. The effectiveness of a group is directly related to the efficacy of its
process. If the group is high functioning, the facilitative leader uses a light
hand on the process.
On the other hand, if the group is
low functioning, the facilitative leader will be more directives in helping the
group run its process. An effective facilitative leadership involves monitoring
of group dynamics, offering process suggestions and interventions to help the
group stay on track.
7. Laissez-faire
Leadership This style gives authority to
employees. Departments or subordinates are allowed to work as they choose with
minimal or no interference. According to research, this kind of leadership has
been consistently found to be the least satisfying and least effective
management style.
8.
Strategic Leadership
This style involves a leader who is essentially the head of an organization.
The strategic leader is not limited to those at the top of the organization. It
is geared to a wider audience at all levels who want to create a high
performance life, team or organization.
The strategic leader fills the gap
between the need for new possibility and practicality by providing a
prescriptive set of habits. An effective strategic leadership delivers
the goods in terms of what an organization naturally expects from its
leadership in times of change. 55% of this leadership normally involves
strategic thinking.
9. Team
Leadership This style involves the creation of
a vivid picture of its future, where it is heading and what it will stand for.
The vision inspires and provides a strong sense of purpose and direction. Team
leadership is about working with the hearts and minds of all those involved.
It also recognizes that teamwork may not
always involve trusting cooperative relationships. The most challenging aspect
of this leadership is whether or not it will succeed. Team leadership can fail
because of poor leadership qualities.
10. Transactional
Leadership This style maintains or continues
the status quo. It is also the leadership that involves an exchange process,
whereby followers get immediate, tangible rewards for carrying out the leader’s
orders. Transactional leadership can sound rather basic, with its focus on
exchange.
Being clear, focusing on
expectations, giving feedback are all important leadership skills. Transactional leadership behaviors can include: clarifying
what is expected of followers’ performance; explaining how to meet such
expectations; and allocating rewards that are contingent on meeting objectives.
11. Transformational
Leadership Unlike other leadership styles,
transformational leadership is all about initiating change in organizations,
groups, oneself and others. Transformational leaders motivate others to do more
than they originally intended and often even more than they thought possible.
They set more challenging
expectations and typically achieve higher performance. Statistically,
transformational leadership tends to have more committed and satisfied
followers. This is mainly so because transformational leaders empower
followers.
12. Visionary
Leadership This style involves leaders who
recognize that the methods, steps and processes of leadership are all obtained
with and through people.
Most great and successful leaders
have the aspects of vision in them. However, those who are highly visionary are
the ones considered to be exhibiting visionary leadership. Outstanding leaders
will always transform their visions into realities.
“The ultimate measure of a
man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he
stands at times of challenge and controversy.” (Martin Luther King, Jr.) [i]
[i] Sources used:
·
“12 Different Types of
Leadership Styles” by Ahmed Raza
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