You might say the best way to lead is to have many styles from which to choose. This article lists 19 different leadership styles.
With each style is a short and sweet definition designed to help highlight the essential makeup of each leadership style you can use.
“The best way to have a good idea, is to have a lot of ideas.” Dr. Linus Pauling (Two times winner of the Nobel Prize)
A critical element of leader effectiveness is choosing the right type of style, at the right time, in the right situation. Unfortunately, that's not what most people do-they have a default style used in most situations.
It's like having one suit or a single dress, that's worn everywhere: morning, noon and night. Of course, all of us would agree that having only one set of clothes is ridiculous. But then, so is having only one leadership style.
The Importance of Choosing the Right Leadership Style
By Murray Johannsen, Feel free to connect with the author on Linkedin or by email
"A
groom used
to spend whole days in currycombing and rubbing down his
Horse, but at the same time stole his oats and sold them
for his own profit. “Alas!” said the Horse, “if
you really wish me to be in good condition, you should
groom me less, and feed me more.” — Aesop's Fables
Moral of the Story: Looking good is never good enough.
When developing your leadership skills,
one must soon confront an important practical question, "What leadership
styles work best for me and my organization?" To
answer this question, it's best to understand that there
are many from which to choose and as part of your leadership development effort, you should consider developing as many leadership styles as possible.
This page focuses on an aspect of leadership we commonly don't think much about—style. But it is also about leadership. Many think is all about fashion. In fact, choosing the right style, at the right time in the right situation is a key element of leader effectiveness. That's not what most people do—they have one style used in all situations. It's like having only one suit or one dress, something you wear everywhere. Of course, all of us would agree that having only one set of clothes is ridiculous. So to is having only one leadership style.
19 Major Leadership Styles
"Our
knowledge can only be finite, while our ignorance must necessarily
be infinite." — Karl
Popper, Austrian philosopher
Some styles overlap (i.e. charisma and transformational); some can be used together (facilitative and team building); others we used less frequently (strategic and cross-cultural); and some are polar opposites (autocratic & participative). Below is a detailed description of all these styles.
The Autocratic Leadership Style
One leadership style dimension
has to do with control and one's
perception of how much control one should give to
people. For example, the laissez faire style implies low control,
the autocratic
style is high in control while the participative one lies somewhere
in between.
Kurt Lewin called these styles: authoritative, participative (democratic) or delegative (Laissez Faire).
The autocratic style has its advocates, but it is falling out of favor
in
many countries. Some people have argued that the style
is popular with today's CEO's,
who have much in common with feudal lords in Medieval
Europe.
A basic set of leadership styles have to do with control—how much you are willing to give to others and how much to give to others. Partly, it is a matter of personal choice. For example, despite the best efforts of management theoriest, many CEOs are simply control freaks who want to "firm hand on the helm" and will not tolerate difference of opinions.
“The superior man understands what is right; the inferior man understands what will sell.” - Confucius
This is
a special leadership style commonly often associated with
transformational leadership. While charisma is extremely powerful,
it is difficult to learn and not that easy to define.
The Coaching Style of Leadership
A great coach
is definitely a leader who also possess a unique gifts
ability to teach and train.
Cross-Cultural Leadership
Not
all individuals can adapt to the leadership styles expected
in a different
culture whether that culture is organizational or
national. In fact, there is some evidence that American and Asian Leadership Styles are very different, primarily due to cultural factors.
Emergent Leadership
Contrary to the belief of many, groups
don't automatically accept a new "boss" as
leader. Emergent leadership is what you must do when one taking over a new
group.
The Exchange Style
Sometimes known as leader-member exchange, the style involves the exchange of favors between two individuals. An exchange can be hierarchical between the boss and subordinate or occur between two individuals of equal status. For this leadership style to work, you need to know how to develop, maintain and repair relationships.
The Laissez Faire Leadership
Style
The
style is largely a "hands off" view that
tends to minimize the amount of direction and face
time required. Works well if you have highly trained, highly motivated direct reports.
Situational Leadership
Situational
Leadership. In the 1950s, management
theorists from Ohio State University and the University
of Michigan published a series of studies to determine
whether leaders should be more task or relationship
(people) oriented. The importance of the research
cannot be over estimated since leaders tend to have
a dominant style; a leadership style they use in a
wide variety
of
situations. Surprisingly, the research discovered
that there is no one best style: leaders
must adjust their leadership style to the situation as
well as to
the people
being
led.
Hershey and Blanchard's Model of Situational Leadership. Going back to the 1970s, the model primarily focuses on the nature of the task as the major variable in choosing your style. In this model, there are four options: telling, selling, participating and delegating.
Strategic Leadership
This is
practiced by the military services such as the US Army, US
Air Force, and many large corporations.
It stresses the competitive nature of running an organization
and being able to out fox and out wit the competition.
Team
Leadership
A few years ago, a large corporation
decided that supervisors were no longer needed and those
in charge were suddenly made "team leaders." Today, companies have gotten smarter about
how to exert effective team leadership, but it still takes leadership to transition a
group into a team.
The transformational style requires a number of different skills and is closely associated with two other leadership styles: charismatic and visionary leadership.
Facilitative Leadership
This is a special style that anyone who runs a meeting can employ. Rather than being directive, one using the facilitative leadership style uses a number of indirect communication patterns to help the group reach consensus.
Influence Styles
Here
one looks at the behaviors associated how one exercises
influence. For example, does the person mostly punish?
Do they know how to reward?
The Participative Leadership
Style
It's hard to order
and demand someone to be creative, perform
as a team,
solve
complex
problems,
improve quality, and provide outstanding customer
service. The participative style presents a happy medium between
over controlling (micromanaging) and not being
engaged and tends to be seen in organizations that
must innovate
to prosper.
Servant
Leadership Style
Some leaders have put the needs of
their followers first. For example, the motto of the
Los Angeles Police Department, "To Protect and
Serve." reflects this philosophy of service. One
suspects servant leadership are relatively rare in business.
Visionary
Leadership
"The Roots of our Problems are: Wealth without work, Pleasure without conscience, Knowledge without character, Commerce without morality, Science without humanity, Worship without sacrifice, Politics without principles." - Mohandas k. Gandhi
It's surprising who few leaders really have a clear view of what is happening socially or economically in their industry, nation or globally. The visionary leadership style focuses on how
the leader defines the future for followers and moves
them toward it.
Less Common Styles
Transactional Leadership
The approach emphasizes getting
things done within the umbrella of the status quo; almost
in opposition to the goals of the transformational leadership.
It's considered
to
be a "by the book" approach
in which the person works within the rules. As such, it's
more commonly seen in large, bureaucratic organizations where political considerations are part of daily life.
Level 5 Leadership
This
term was coined by Jim Collins in his book Good
to Great: Why Some Company’s Make the Leap
and Other Don’t. As Collins says in his book, "We
were surprised, shocked really, to discover the types
of leadership required for turning a good company into
a great one." What he seems to have found is what The Economist calls, "The Cult of the Faceless Boss."
Primal Leadership Styles
It would seem that just when you have it all sorted out, someone invents a new set of labels. Goleman's model of leadership is a relatively recent addition to the pantheon of leadership style. In this case, it is Danel Goleman. A psychologist who can write in more scholar English, he was one of the major people who popularized Emotional Intelligence and then followed it up with a book called "Primal Leadership. Worth taking a look at. ts based on the application of emotional intelligence to leadership. The six leadership styles one can use are: coaching, pace setting, democratic, affinitive, authoritative and coercive.
Resources For Learning The Major Leadership Styles
The following table presents the resources available if you wish to learn how to use some of the styles on this page.
Description: Some have said that one only needs good management to run a successful business organization. In what areas do leaders make a difference? This video talks about the importance of leadership using different examples ranging from student organizations to three historical examples: Japan, China and Britain and three leaders who had such an immense impact on those nations: Emperor Meiji, The Dowager Empress Ci Xi and Elisabeth I.
The two men have widely differing leadership styles but have been thrust together by historical chance in dealing with the 2008 Wall Street financial crisis.
"Any one can hold the helm when the sea is calm." -Publilius Syrus.
