Types of Leadership Styles

Democratic Leadership

Autocratic Leadership

Laissez-Faire Leadership

Strategic Leadership

Transformational Leadership

Transactional Leadership

Coach-Style Leadership

Bureaucratic Leadership

Then, I'll show you a leadership style assessment based on this post's opening sentence to help you
figure out which leader you are.

1. Democratic Leadership

Commonly Effective

Democratic leadership is exactly what it sounds like -- the leader makes decisions based on the input of
each team member. Although he or she makes the final call, each employee has an equal say on a
project's direction.

Democratic leadership is one of the most effective leadership styles because it allows lower-level
employees to exercise authority they'll need to use wisely in future positions they might hold. It also
resembles how decisions can be made in company board meetings.

For example, in a company board meeting, a democratic leader might give the team a few decision-
related options. They could then open a discussion about each option. After a discussion, this leader
might take the board's thoughts and feedback into consideration, or they might open this decision up to
a vote.

2. Autocratic Leadership
Rarely Effective

Autocratic leadership is the inverse of democratic leadership. In this leadership style, the leader makes
decisions without taking input from anyone who reports to them. Employees are neither considered nor
consulted prior to a direction, and are expected to adhere to the decision at a time and pace stipulated
by the leader.

An example of this could be when a manager changes the hours of work shifts for multiple employees
without consulting anyone -- especially the effected employees.

Frankly, this leadership style stinks. Most organizations today can't sustain such a hegemonic culture
without losing employees. It's best to keep leadership more open to the intellect and perspective of the
rest of the team.

3. Laissez-Faire Leadership

Sometimes Effective

If you remember your high-school French, you'll accurately assume that laissez-faire leadership is the
least intrusive form of leadership. The French term "laissez faire" literally translates to "let them do,"
and leaders who embrace it afford nearly all authority to their employees.

In a young startup, for example, you might see a laissez-faire company founder who makes no major
office policies around work hours or deadlines. They might put full trust into their employees while they
focus on the overall workings of running the company.

Although laissez-faire leadership can empower employees by trusting them to work however they'd like,
it can limit their development and overlook critical company growth opportunities. Therefore, it's
important that this leadership style is kept in check.

4. Strategic Leadership

Commonly Effective
Strategic leaders sit at the intersection between a company's main operations and its growth
opportunities. He or she accepts the burden of executive interests while ensuring that current working
conditions remain stable for everyone else.

This is a desirable leadership style in many companies because strategic thinking supports multiple types
of employees at once. However, leaders who operate this way can set a dangerous precedent with
respect to how many people they can support at once, and what the best direction for the company
really is if everyone is getting their way at all times.

5. Transformational Leadership

Sometimes Effective

Transformational leadership is always "transforming" and improving upon the company's conventions.
Employees might have a basic set of tasks and goals that they complete every week or month, but the
leader is constantly pushing them outside of their comfort zone.

When starting a job with this type of leader, all employees might get a list of goals to reach, as well as
deadlines for reaching them. While the goals might seem simple at first, this manager might pick up the
pace of deadlines or give you more and more challenging goals as you grow with the company.

This is a highly encouraged form of leadership among growth-minded companies because it motivates
employees to see what they're capable of. But transformational leaders can risk losing sight of
everyone's individual learning curves if direct reports don't receive the right coaching to guide them
through new responsibilities.

6. Transactional Leadership

Sometimes Effective

Transactional leaders are fairly common today. These managers reward their employees for precisely
the work they do. A marketing team that receives a scheduled bonus for helping generate a certain
number of leads by the end of the quarter is a common example of transactional leadership.
Transactional leadership helps establish roles and responsibilities for each employee, but it can also
encourage bare-minimum work if employees know how much their effort is worth all the time. This
leadership style can use incentive programs to motivate employees, but they should be consistent with
the company's goals and used in addition to unscheduled gestures of appreciation.

7. Coach-Style Leadership

Commonly Effective

Similarly to a sports team's coach, this leader focuses on identifying and nurturing the individual
strengths of each member on his or her team. They also focus on strategies that will enable their team
work better together. This style offers strong similarities to strategic and democratic leadership, but puts
more emphasis on the growth and success of individual employees.

Rather than forcing all employees to focus on similar skills and goals, this leader might build a team
where each employee has an expertise or skillset in something different. In the longrun, this leader
focuses on creating strong teams that can communicate well and embrace each other's unique skillsets
in order to get work done.

8. Bureaucratic Leadership

Rarely Effective

Bureaucratic leaders go by the books. This style of leadership might listen and consider the input of
employees -- unlike autocratic leadership -- but the leader tends to reject an employee's input if it
conflicts with company policy or past practices.

Leadership?

Leadership is an influence relationship among leaders and followers who intend real changes and reflect
their mutual purpose.

With this definition, we accept the following attributes of ‘LEADERSHIP’

Leadership is not an act or set of acts, it is a process.

Leadership is not just influence, yet it involves influencing others through the leadership. While between
the leader and followers, the influence is mutual, together, they influence the environment around
them in some way.

Leadership goes beyond goals. There is a purpose a cause which a broad enough to create a vision that
connects followers who might have different individual goal.

The concept of leadership has been quite visible in areas such as military operations, politics, and
management. Within work organization, leadership is no longer exclusively spontaneous or emergent.
Leadership can be assigned as a part of the requirement of exclusive jobs of individuals, teams or it can
be part of the expectations that members of a role set have from individual teams. Leadership as a
managerial function is no longer limited to the top officers. To become a great leader, check out this
business speaker.

Leadership Ahead

There are the different types of leadership styles that exist in work environments and advantages and
disadvantages exist in each leadership style. Some companies offer same leadership style while others
follow different leadership styles depending upon what task to perform. Its only the culture and goals of
an organization that determines which type of leadership suits to the firm.

Types of Leadership

Authentic Leadership

The recent authentic Leadership approach seems to have evolved in the light of major scams and
scandals, a blind race for profits and personal gains and short term prospective, involving the CEO’s of
top organizations. It focuses on the charter of the leader as the driver of positive interrelationships.
Authenticity is about being genuine and not attempting to play a role; not acting in a manipulative way.

Autocratic Leadership
Autocratic leadership allows autocratic leader to take the ultimate control of taking decisions without
consulting others. An autocratic leader possess high level of power and authority and imposes its will on
its employees. This type of leadership proves to be useful where close level of supervision is required.
Creative employees morale goes down because their output is not given importance and is often detest
by employees. Since they are unable to take any part in decision making, this results in job satisfaction
and staff turnover.

Laissez-Faire Leadership

Under this type of leadership, a laissez-faire leader do not exercise control on its employees directly.
Since employees are highly experienced and need little supervision, a laissez-faire leader fails to provide
continuous feedback to employees under his or her supervision. This

type of leadership is also associated with leaders that do not supervise their team members, failed to
provide continuous feedback resulting in high costs, bad service, failure to meet deadlines, lack of
control and poor production.

Transnational Leadership

The Informational leadership highlights a leader as a facilitator of change occurring, when one or more
persons engage with others in such a way that leaders and followers raise one another to higher levels
of motivation and morality. The process of transformational leadership aims at influencing changes in
attitudes and assumptions held by organizational members and building commitment for organizational
goals and objectives. High level of communication exits between managers and employees and it is
under the guidance of leaders that employees meet their goals and enhance productivity and efficiency.

Transnational Leadership

Transnational Leadership contrast, involves management –by- exception, intervention, and punishing
those who made errors. This can lead to negative emotions and performance on the part of the
subordinates. This approach would also require close monitoring of the subordinates, who would surely
not like it, and if they felt constrained, their performance might not be best.
Additionally, some of their voluntary behaviors, like citizenship behaviors would be reduced. A manger
lead a group of highly motivated individuals who follow his leadership and achieve their goals.
Employees are trained or rewarded such as bonuses depending upon their performance.

Bureaucratic Leadership

Under bureaucratic leadership, a leader believes in structured procedures and ensure that his or her
employees follow procedures exactly. This type of leadership leaves no space to explore new ways to
solve issues and in fact work by book. This type of leadership is normally followed in hospitals,
universities, banks (where large amount of money is involved) and government organizations to reduce
corruption and increase security. Self motivated individuals who are highly energetic often feel
frustrated due to because of organization inability to adapt to changing environment.

Charismatic Leadership

The charismatic leader is visionary and works by infusing high amount of energy and enthusiasm in his
team. He sets as role model for his team and drive others to show high level of performance. This type
of leader is committed to the organization and believes more in him rather than his team. The presence
of charismatic leader works as a boost for rest of the employees and therefore such type of leader
should be committed to the organization for the long run.

A charismatic leadership may pose as a risk to the company if he decided to leave to explore new
opportunities and it might take lot of time and hard work by the company to win the confidence of its
employees.

Participative Leadership

Also known as democratic leadership style, participative leadership consults employees and seriously
considers their ideas when making decisions. When a company makes changes within the organization,
the participative leadership style helps employees accept changes easily because they had given a big
role in the process. Participative Leadership may be required for tasks that are non routine or
unstructured, where relationships are non-authoritarian and the subordinate‘s locus of control is
internal.

Directive Leadership

Directive Leadership provides guidance about what should be done and how to do it, scheduling work,
and maintaining standards of performance. Thus, it may be inferred that directive leadership is effective
as the subordinators has an external locus of Control, lacks experience, has a high need for clarity or a
low need of achievement. Also, when the task is unstructured, or there is conflict between work groups,
a more directive style would be useful.

Supportive Leadership

Supportive Leadership show concern for the needs of the employees, leader is friendly and
approachable. Supportive Leadership would be more suitable for highly structured tasks, under
bureaucratic and formal authority relationship. In supportive Leadership, leader support to their
subordinates officially and some time personally also. Leader always try to fulfill their requirements, it
boost employees moral also.

Achievement Oriented Leadership

Achievement oriented Leadership encourage employees to perform at their highest level by setting
challenging goals, emphasizing excellence and demonstrating confidence in employees abilities.
Achievement Oriented Leadership is largely suitable for unstructured tasks, where the subordinate need
for achievement is high.

Concepts of Leadership

I used to think that running an organization was equivalent to conducting a symphony orchestra. But I
don't think that's quite it; it's more like jazz. There is more improvisation. — Warren Bennis
Good leaders are made, not born. If you have the desire and willpower, you can become an effective
leader. Good leaders develop through a never ending process of self-study, education, training, and
experience (Jago, 1982). This guide will help you through the journey.

To inspire your workers into higher levels of teamwork, there are certain things you must be, know, and,
do. These do not often come naturally, but are acquired through continual work and study. Good
leaders are continually working and studying to improve their leadership skills; they are NOT resting on
their past laurels.

Definitions of Leadership

“The meaning of a message is the change which it produces in the image.” — Kenneth Boulding in
The Image: Knowledge in Life and Society

Leadership is a process by which a person influences others to accomplish an objective and directs the
organization in a way that makes it more cohesive and coherent.

Some other popular definitions of Leadership are:

A process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal (Northouse,
2007, p3).

The U.S. military has studied leadership in depth. One of their definitions is a process by which a person
influences others to accomplish a mission (U.S. Army, 1983).

Leadership is inspiring others to pursue your vision within the parameters you set, to the extent that it
becomes a shared effort, a shared vision, and a shared success (Zeitchik, 2012).

Leadership is a process of social influence, which maximizes the efforts of others, towards the
achievement of a goal (Kruse, 2013).
Note that all the definitions have a couple of processes in common:

A person influences others through social influence, not power, to get something accomplished (bosses
use power to get things done).

Leadership requires others, who are not necessarily direct-reports, to get something accomplished.

There is a need to accomplish something.

Leaders carry out this process by applying their leadership knowledge and skills. This is called Process
Leadership (Jago, 1982). However, we know that we have traits that can influence our actions. This is
called Trait Leadership (Jago, 1982), in that it was once common to believe that leaders were born
rather than made. These two leadership types are shown in the chart below (Northouse, 2007, p5):

Trait and Process Leadership Model

While leadership is learned, a leader's skills and knowledge can be influenced by his or hers attributes or
traits, such as beliefs, values, ethics, and character. Knowledge and skills contribute directly to the
process of leadership, while the other attributes give the leader certain characteristics that make him or
her unique.

For example, a leader might have learned the skills in counseling others, but her traits will often play a
great role in determining how she counsels. A person who has empathy will make a better counselor
than a person who thinks the employees are simply there do accomplish her biddings.

Factors of Leadership

There are four primary factors of leadership (U.S. Army, 1983):

Leader

You must have an honest understanding of who you are, what you know, and what you can do. Also,
note that it is the followers, not the leader or someone else who determines if the leader is successful. If
they do not trust or lack confidence in their leader, then they will be uninspired. To be successful you
have to convince your followers, not yourself or your superiors, that you are worthy of being followed.

Followers
Different people require different styles of leadership. For example, a new hire requires more
supervision than an experienced employee does. A person who lacks motivation requires a different
approach than one with a high degree of motivation. You must know your people! The fundamental
starting point is having a good understanding of human nature, such as needs, emotions, and
motivation. You must come to know your employees' be, know, and do attributes.

Communication

You lead through two-way communication. Much of it is nonverbal. For instance, when you “set the
example,” that communicates to your people that you would not ask them to perform anything that
you would not be willing to do. What and how you communicate either builds or harms the relationship
between you and your followers.

Situation

All situations are different. What you do in one situation will not always work in another. You must use
your judgment to decide the best course of action and the leadership style needed for each situation.
For example, you may need to confront an employee for inappropriate behavior, but if the
confrontation is too late or too early, too harsh or too weak, then the results may prove ineffective.

The Characteristics & Qualities of a Good Leader

Based on our research, we’ve found that great leaders consistently possess these 10 core leadership
traits:

Honesty

Ability to delegate

Communication

Sense of humor

Confidence

Commitment

Positive attitude

Creativity

Ability to inspire
Intuition

While many powerful and successful leaders haven’t exhibited all of these character traits, and the
definition of a good leader can be quite ambiguous, most good leaders do leverage at least some of
these characteristics.

Our research has also found that other important qualities of a good leader include:

Courage

Caring

Optimism

Self-control

Communication

Courage: There are two kinds of courage: physical and moral. Leadership character requires moral
courage. This means standing up for one’s convictions and values while risking criticism, censure or
ridicule. It can also mean risking loss of power, position, or reputation. Moral courage inspires respect
for several reasons: it is viewed as being a selfless form of behavior; it is seen as a sign of having
overcome fear; and it implies that leaders take responsibility for their own actions.

Caring: Caring means showing sincere interest in and genuine concern for others. It includes
consideration, compassion, empathy, sympathy, and nurturing. Caring does not mean tolerating or
ignoring shoddy performance, violations of company policies, bad attitudes, or dishonesty. What it does
mean is seeing humans as the most important resource in an organization – and the resource with the
most overall potential. Leaders who are caring will likely be rewarded with cooperative and supportive
behavior in return.

Optimism: This is the tendency to take the most hopeful and cheerful view and to expect the best
outcome. Optimists see opportunities, possibilities and silver linings in every situation. They often
contend that, with hard work, focus, resilience and a bit of luck, a positive outcome is possible. People
are naturally drawn to leaders who are positive, upbeat and cheerful – who have a “We can do
this!” type of attitude.
Self-control: Leaders must choose what they will do and not do and then accept the consequences of
their choices. This includes personal discipline in behaviors and lifestyle. Self-control implies that as a
leader you have sufficient drive and initiative, as well as a clear vision and focus. Self-control keeps a
person motivated and focused on goals, and it also contributes to momentum.

Communication: There are, of course, several methods of interpersonal communication – written,

verbal, and nonverbal signs, attitudes and body language, as well as communication through actions and
appearance. Listening is also an important part of communication. A leader’s communication casts a
vision, establishes direction, shapes goals and objectives, reinforces key values and clarifies tasks.
Communication makes the emotional connection that is so critical in effective leadership.

VISION

True leadership involves looking beyond today, to tomorrow and beyond. A leader should have a vision
of where they (and their team) will be in the future. If a leader only plans for the short-term, their team
will be aimless, lacking any real long-term goals. This is why good leaders cultivate the habit of planning
for the times ahead, and make sure to step back and looking at the big picture regularly.

2. OPTIMISM

A true leader must be able to inspire and motivate others. The quality most needed for this effort is an
optimistic, upbeat attitude. Taking an optimistic approach to business life doesn't mean blindly assuming
that everything will work out, or ignoring signs of trouble. Rather, it means focusing on the positive, and
adopting a hopeful attitude to the future. A leader naturally sets a powerful example for their team, so
being personally optimistic is one of the best ways to encourage a good attitude among staff members.

3. ADAPTABILITY

No single leadership style is right for all times and places. A different time or a different team might
require very different things from a leader. The needs and expectations of individuals will also vary. To
be effective, a leader must respond to circumstances as they are. Sticking with the same approach, no
matter the situation, is foolish. A leader must not be afraid to try something new if the current approach
isn't working. A rigid, inflexible leadership style will never be effective in the end.
4. STRONG COMMUNICATION SKILLS

A leader must instruct subordinates on their work, correct their mistakes, provide inspiration, and take
feedback. For all these duties, good communication is required. A leader must be able to translate their
thoughts and ideas into words that anyone can understand. A real leader also understands that
communication is a two-way street. Listening to what others have to say is as important an aspect of
communication as anything else. Being able to speak well isn't enough on its own to make someone a
strong communicator.

5. CONFIDENCE

A leader must be someone people can believe and trust in. And if someone wants others to have
confidence in them, they must have plenty of confidence in themselves to start. Confidence doesn't
mean arrogance, braggadocio, or putting down others. A truly confident person is simply aware of their
abilities, knows they are good at what they do, and is unafraid of responsibility and pressure. In times of
crisis and stress, it is always people like this that are needed. Their confident leadership can impart
strength and assurance to others.

6. DECISIVENESS

Decision-making is at the very heart of what it is to be a leader. A leader is the one who must make the
final call, ultimately determining what course the team will take. While a leader shouldn't be too hasty
to make a determination, they must also not hesitate once a decision has been made. A strong leader
chooses a plan, and then throws their whole weight behind it. Pursuing weak half-measures, or wasting
time waffling back and forth between two options is simply bad leadership.

12. Persuasive and Influential

Communications are at the heart of all transactions. Whether it’s pitching for a sale or resolving a
customer complaint, how you communicate will determine the outcome.
Charismatic leaders such as Richard Branson (Virgin) and Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) are confident and
persuasive communicators. They know how to win over audiences and leave a lasting impressing in
people’s minds.

There’re some common barriers that you’ll have to overcome in order to communicate effectively:

How to learn effective communication? You could join the world-renowned U.S. nonprofit Toastmasters
International. They’ve been training people in the art of public speaking since 1924, and members
have included Napoleon Hill, author of Think and Grow Rich, and Star Trek actor Leonard Nimoy.

ADVERTISING

If you don’t have time to join a club, then practice your communications skills at home. You can do this
in front of a mirror, or even better, video yourself presenting, and then ask some friends and family
members for feedback. You’ll be amazed at what they pick up on.

13. Team Building

If you put a bunch of random people together, you may have a loose definition of a team. In reality, a
real team has purpose, drive – and a leader lighting the way.

If you’ve worked in different teams and with different managers, you’ll no doubt have come to this
conclusion:

Managers who treat their team members like children are unpopular with the team. Conversely,
managers who treat their team members like adults, are respected and well-liked by the team.
The days of disciplinarian managers are passed. Nowadays, successful team leaders know how to inspire
and motivate their team, while keeping a harmonious atmosphere between all team members.

14. Fostering Creativity

Solutions to problems are rarely black and white. Often it takes a leader who can ‘think outside the
box’ to come up with answers. In other words, a leader must be creative, and also help to foster
creativity and innovation throughout their team.

Creativity is not only associated with pursuits such as arts, literature and music, running a team can be
just as creative. There will be times every day when you need to come up with ideas and give guidelines
for your team to come up with theirs to solve problems.

11. Empathy

The best leaders understand the feeling of their team members, customers and associates. They know
when to praise, and when to discuss problems (usually in private).

Without empathy, leaders will be seen as cold, harsh and lacking understanding. They’re also likely to
be regarded as untrustworthy.

10. Ever-Learning

Leaders know that to be successful they need to continually update their skills and knowledge. They
deliberately learn all they can about their profession and industry, so they’ll able to make confident
and assured decisions.

9. Focus

Distractions are everywhere. And it takes major focus to stay committed to tasks and goals. The best
leaders understand this, and therefore, they’re always looking at ways to boost their team’s focus.

7. Passion and Enthusiasm

Expressive. Active. Energetic. These are words best describe a passionate leader.

Great leaders are lively, driven and are possessed with zeal and purpose. It’s this passion that helps
them achieve big results. If you want to emulate their success, then you need to develop passion and
enthusiasm for the work at hand, and the end goals.

2. Self-Motivated

It’s no coincidence that successful leaders have an abundance of self-motivation.

Without a decent level of self-motivation, you’ll struggle to become a strong and respected leader.
However, if you don’t have a lot of self-motivation right now, don’t despair.