Sit back, close your eyes, and think about the leaders around you. I am sure as you do this, each one of them will come to you associated with a label that is reflective of their leadership style. Your label may not be scientific. Maybe your label is simply "Good" or "Bad" relative to your own experience.
Now, sit back, close your eyes, and think about yourself. How would you label your own leadership style? Or which style would you like others to attribute to you?
There are plenty of variations and labels:
- Democratic Leadership: Involves group participation in decision-making, applicable across various organizations.
- Autocratic Leadership: Dictates policies, goals, and controls activities with minimal subordinate input.
- Laissez-Faire Leadership: Hands-off approach, allowing group members to make decisions, but often associated with lower productivity.
- Strategic Leadership: Influences decisions for long-term organizational success while maintaining short-term stability.
- Transformational Leadership: Causes positive change in individuals and systems, aiming to develop followers into leaders.
- Transactional Leadership: Values order and structure, suitable for environments requiring strict rules and regulations.
- Coaching Leadership: Engages and understands individual motivations, offering insights into organizational challenges.
- Bureaucratic Leadership: Follows specific rules and lines of authority, emphasizing adherence to regulations.
- Pace-Setter Leadership: Sets pace and structure, motivating with clear expectations of quality and strict deadlines.
- Servant Leadership: Focuses on the well-being of people and communities, sharing power, and prioritizing others' needs.
- Charismatic Leadership: Derives authority from the leader's charisma, distinct from legal and traditional authority.
- Chameleon Leadership: Welcomes change and blends into chaos and crisis situations while they continue to use their strengths to guide their followers, with tenure as their primary goal.
Do you get to pick your own leadership style?
Books have been written on this subject; it would be too much to recite in this short article. Maybe a different approach to answering the question is what common rules apply in your selection? Here is my shortlist:
- A leader has to be themselves. If your personality lacks charisma, do not try that style. You will fail.
- A leader in a situational setting (not an academic differentiation like the list above) will always display more than one style: e.g., you can be a servant leader as your foundation, and when the situation calls for it, you apply transformational leadership qualities.
And the best leaders do two things: they can knowingly and intently apply different styles based on what the situation calls for while staying true to themselves and reliable to those around them.
