Leadership Styles Under the Microscope

In this piece, I'll be breaking down a number of the most popular leadership styles that are exercised across organisations, big and small around the world. Regardless of the complexity of your operations, your internal headcount or your personal preferences as to how you run the business, there are a number of benefits when it comes to adapting your leadership style, particularly in turbulent times.?

"Without concessions, or some form of adaptation, your leadership style can isolate some staff and hinder your infinite potential for success."

A leadership style is defined as the manner in which the leader, or the leadership team, collaborates with staff, suppliers and relevant stakeholders and guides the organisation as a whole. Depending on the leadership style, individual goals, key performance indicators and deadlines are both set and monitored by the leadership team. These decisions apply across all areas of the business, from the smallest of staff delegations- known as the micro aspects of an organisation- to the overall purpose, vision and direction of the business- the macro view.

The problem remaining, however, is that all the essential cogs that work to keep your operations moving along, namely, your staff, work and respond to instructions differently. Leaders are forced to navigate a delicate tightrope. They juggle the duties of managing staff, stakeholders and the overall organisation, attempting to keep each in check. There are a number of potential missed opportunities if the leader of a business fails to adapt their leadership style, so today we’ll be unpacking a number of the most prominent leadership styles objectively, while analysing the pros and cons of each style.?

While it’s true that staff look to the leader for purpose, motivation and direction, in the 21st century, they’ll jump ship if they don’t believe in the organisation, or how it’s being run. With that in mind, let’s unpack some leadership styles and look to how you can adapt your own management techniques to create a more inspirational, collaborative organisation that draws upon the success of every staff member, not just the leadership team, to provide value.?

Autocratic Leadership?

In much the same way as an autocratic country, autocratic leadership in business is commonly found in larger institutional organisations to essentially keep their staff in check. As an organisation grows, so too does the complexity of day-to-day operations, and without a singular purpose being communicated throughout the organisation, it becomes difficult to manage so many moving pieces. This is why it’s common to see a cut-and-dry culture of autocratic leadership in large organisations that cannot afford to veer away from their core purpose; more often than not, delivering shareholder value.

During times of crisis, autocratic leadership can, and has in the past, proved the difference between an organisation staying alive in turbulent market conditions. This, however, remains subject to the leadership skills of that CEO, as well as their ability to make the right decisions in a short period of time. One of the most significant risks of an autocratic leadership style is that it’s dependent on the quality of the leadership team. At times, and despite best intentions, a small group of decision-makers can act to sabotage the organisation’s best chances of navigating a problem.?

Advantages?

• Speedy decision making with streamlined
• Ordered, disciplined approach to business
• Control over key decisions & targets
• Quick responses in the face of emergencies or times of crisis?

Disadvantages?

• Relies heavily on the competence of the leader/leadership team
• Can breed resentment from staff toward the leader
• Discourages creativity and new problem-solving techniques?

An autocratic leadership sets the tone, direction and purpose of the organisation, and communicates primarily through a one-way stream of messaging. This singular form of communication is no doubt one of the most expedient ways of conveying a message to your staff, but it doesn’t come without its downsides.

A one-way communication stream is, without doubt, one of the major disadvantages of an autocratic leadership style, whereby employees are not encouraged to propose their own solutions, innovations or ideas to the leadership team. The divergence from offering staff the ability to offer up their own ideas can create a culture that dissociates an employee from their duties, and can destroy an organisation's morale and sense of team belonging.

Autocratic leadership is, thankfully, departing from the management teams of even the largest institutional organisations. With a younger generation entering the workforce, leaders are beginning to recognise the importance of their human capital, and are wary of the long-term impact of treating their staff like numbers, rather than humans.?

“A one-way communication stream is, without doubt, one of the major disadvantages of an autocratic leadership style"?

Democratic Leadership?

In the context of nation states, democracy enables the citizens of a country to express either their approval or disapproval of a sitting government every few years when an election takes place. In much the same way, democratic leadership of an organisation is constantly asking its most valuable stakeholders - employees and customers - for their input on how the organisation is tracking, and what improvements could be made.

Democratic leadership consistently includes team members, often regardless of their position in the hierarchy, for their input on proposed strategies, new- found opportunities, as well as sizable risks for the company. This can inspire staff to be more engaged in the organisation, as they recognise that the leader of the company is willing to hear their ideas. This effectively breaks down the hierarchy inside a company, which can provide invaluable support to the morale of employees that feel their input is just as valuable as their managers.

This style of leadership can be transformational to an organisation’s longevity, as management teams often receive feedback from low-level staff that might not have otherwise been introduced at a management review or quarterly meeting. For example, under democratic leadership, an employee that works in the customer service department for a large company may have the opportunity to present something they know is problematic for returning customers directly to the CEO.

Advantages

• Crowd-sourced ideas for new innovations, problem-solving
• Improves staff morale, trust, productivity and participation rates
• Added emphasis on customer-facing aspects of your operations?

Disadvantages

• Time-consuming
• Can blur lines of authority, particularly in decision-making times
• Organisational structure and relationships can fray with internal politics?

Transformational Leadership?

Transformational leaders are on a constant hunt for ways in which they can bring out the best in people. They’re well aware of the fact that the success of the organisation is tied to, and the result of, the abilities of its staff. As a result, transformational leaders are hell-bent on doing exactly what the name would suggest: doing anything in their?power to transform the people that work for them, so they can produce even better results in the future. Transformational leaders are not fearful of investing time and resources into the training and professional development of their staff, and they recognise that complacency works antithetical to the speed and volatility of the modern business environment. These leaders are more empathetic than your archetypal CEO, and will often hold themselves to the same standard of accountability as they would their employees.

This is a growth-focussed style of leadership that is very much at the heart of organisations that aren’t afraid - and have the resources - of investing in their staff, often pressing pause on certain projects in order to further the development of their staff. As a result, it’s a leadership style that can become time and resource intensive, and at times, doesn’t offer the return on investment that some management teams would come to expect. It is, however, one of the most fundamental leadership styles to spark innovation and creativity in your organisation, and can eventuate in your team creating a product or service that is radically different from the competition. It allows your company to become more agile in the face of disruptive market forces, as your team is empowered to implement new ways of problem solving, rather than sticking to the by- the-book approach.?

"Transformational leaders are not fearful of investing time and resources into the training and professional development of their staff."

Advantages

• High staff morale, technical abilities
• Innovation & productivity increases
• Low staff turnover?

Disadvantages?

• Can slow down operating speeds
• Resource and time intensive
• Can lead to staff burnout, if leader pushes too hard?

Free-Rein Leadership?

Free-rein leadership, otherwise known as laissez-faire leadership is effectively a hands-off approach to leading a business. Its French name stems from the term “let it be,” and represents what is essentially the polar opposite of an autocratic leadership style. This, no doubt, will come more naturally to some leaders than others; particularly ones with trust issues! The science behind this approach to leadership, or perhaps, the absence of leadership is that staff members that feel empowered in their positions can produce exceptional results. In reality, management teams would likely benefit from exercising a hands-off approach when it comes to certain projects. Intense management styles and micro-management can often backfire in terms of worker productivity and morale, with workers feeling as though there is added pressure with each and every action they take.?

There are different scales when it comes to this free-rein approach; meaning you don’t have to effectively leave control of the organisation to your staff. Just because a leader has opted for a free-rein approach to leading the business, doesn’t mean there is a lack of accountability. With this style, leaders will often delegate responsibilities that they themself might have undertaken, asking a lower-level staff member to keep their colleagues honest and accountable. The extent to which you can take your hands off the steering wheel remains largely dependent on the trustworthiness of your staff, as well as the processes and systems you have in place. High-level business management systems can help alleviate stress for leaders in this sense, and ensure that your staff still have a map pointing them in the right direction.?

Advantages

• Empowered, productive staff
• Builds leadership skills and initiative
• Can be the catalyst for innovation and great customer service?

Disadvantages

• Relies heavily on the trustworthiness of employees
• Staff can take advantage of their new-found independence
• Can create more problems than it solves, if executed wrong?

Bureaucratic Leadership?

A bureaucratic leadership style is one that dares not to step away from the tried-and-tested, methodically process-driven and, at times, uninspiring leadership strategy that sticks to how things are done by the book. Each and every decision is made in a systematic way that ensures the organisation does not veer too far from?‘business-as-usual,’ even in the face of a volatile market, impending crisis or necessity to adapt to a new market situation.

For all its lack of spice and creativity, the systematic, bureaucratic approach to managing a business can actually be one of the most effective means to retain customer confidence in your organisation. Implementing high-level processes in your operations help to secure the long-term vision of an organisation, and can help you achieve large goals with a step-by-step approach.

The problem with the bureaucratic leadership style, however, becomes apparent when a sudden and dramatic disruption presents itself - and the organisation is left to think on its feet. By nature, crises are difficult to anticipate, and even more problematic to plan for. Take the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, for example. This left a number of organisations that were operating with a bureaucratic style of leadership floundering in turbulent waters, because there were few ‘by-the- books’ options for companies operating all around the globe. This could have been countered with a bureaucratic and risk-based thinking approach to crisis management stemming from a global pandemic, but the reality for 99% of businesses is that there was none available in the early stages of 2020.

In short, a bureaucratic leadership style is extremely effective at keeping your staff on-task and productive toward your organisation’s goals, but remains vulnerable to being undermined by unexpected circumstances.?

Advantages

• Reliability and customer-driven policies
• Data-driven monitoring and measurement of KPIs
• Added confidence when implementing new operations?

Disadvantages?

• Too many rules can inhibit creativity and innovation
• Key decision making can be slowed down by bureaucracy
• Staff morale can run low?

Servant Leadership?

Servant leadership is an interesting one, and it does not come naturally to the more traditional, old-school operators. In essence, the leader believes that their staff members play a more important role than they do themselves. They acknowledge that the business would not function without their staff. The leader reciprocates this with a different set of management priorities.

These priorities focus on empowering staff members, believing that their role in the business represents an opportunity to serve their staff, who will in turn, produce exceptional results for the business. A servant leader listens rather than dictates to their staff, and acts to measure the success of the organisation as a whole by looking at the professional and personal development of their staff with the same importance of quarterly KPIs.?

“The leader believes that their staff members play a more important role than they do themselves.”?

Beyond simply trying to serve, leaders practicing the servant style are attempting to deploy the four main principles of servant leadership. These include encouraging a diversity of ideas and opinions, creating a culture of empathy and understanding, ensuring there are no selfish modus operandi in the organisation and attempting to foster leadership through their staff’s development.

The leader sits at the bottom of the hierarchy, watching from the sidelines like a proud parent at a soccer field. There are, however, disadvantages of watching from the sidelines - particularly if your staff begin to take advantage of your servant leadership style. To ensure that the damage of this is minimised, servant leaders can still deploy this style, but there should still be a bedrock of accountability within the organisation.?

Advantages?

• High morale and staff retention rates
• Empowers innovation
• Ensures staff wellbeing and training?

Disadvantages

• Potential for staff to take advantage of the leader
• Lost resources
• Can be vulnerable to volatile market situations?

“encouraging a diversity of ideas and opinions, creating a culture of empathy and understanding"?

Paternal / Maternal Leadership?

This style of leadership is typical of someone that has created their business from the ground-up, and, as the name would suggest, treats that company as if it were one of their own children. When you consider just how much time, energy and capital are injected into the company, it comes as no surprise that these leaders think of themselves as the mother or father of a newborn baby.

In a number of ways, very few people are in a better position than the founder to make key decisions and set strategy for the future. This is due to the simple fact that very few people have intimate knowledge of the organisation. For weeks, months and years, the founder has potentially worn all the possible hats in the organisation: from strategy to finance, quality assurance, sales, customer service, supplier negotiations and meeting legal and regulatory requirements. As a result, they’re a Swiss army knife of insight and action within the business, with an uncontested commitment to the wider success of that organisation.

The problem here, though, is that more often than not as the business grows, they’re unable to keep wearing all these hats, and they must enlist help. These leaders can often prove to be the most welcoming and supportive leaders of all the different types we’ll talk about in this section, but they can also prove problematic for the longevity of their own company.?

As they hire and train staff members, these leaders often face a raft of challenges. They’re often unable to accept or digest any form of criticism, which can prove fatal to an organisation. They often demand an extremely high level of work from their employees, and can destroy the morale of their employees if their work isn’t up to the same standard that they, themselves, had produced just months before their employees had joined the business. At times, these leaders can be authoritarian with their choices. The decision making process of a maternal or paternal leader can often be clouded with personal bias and a lack of objectivity, too, meaning that in spite of their best intentions, they’re effectively sabotaging their best chances of success as they move their business into the future.?

Advantages

• Thorough management style with attention to detail
• Potential to inspire staff with a high-output management style
• Family-driven company values?

Disadvantages

• Decision making can be clouded by personal bias
• Difficulties accepting criticism
• Can be extremely demanding of staff members?

Transactional Leadership?

Leadership teams that exercise a transactional leadership style often focus on short-term goals and deploy both rewards and punishments within their terms to incentivise productivity. Transactional leaders essentially motivate their employees by incentivising their self-interest, for example, bonuses when each quarterly target is met.?

It’s a style of leadership that is most prominent in large, structured companies that manage a number of simultaneous high-stakes projects. In more than a few ways, it’s the polar opposite of a transformational style of leadership, whereby an employer inspires their employees into action. A transactional leader expects its employees to produce a high level of output in exchange for a reward, most commonly, a cash bonus.

It’s a leadership style that encourages - and rewards - employees that are able to increase their productivity, and punishes those that cannot. High level organisations often deploy this style when a project is reaching the ‘crunch-time’, and extra work is needed to accomplish it on time, to avoid potentially tarnishing the organisation’s reputation.

For all its productivity benefits, transactional leadership is not the ideal candidate if your operations require some form of creativity or innovation. It’s also not advised that you deploy transactional leadership for too long in your own operations, as this form of motivation solely through self-interest is unlikely to work over a prolonged period of time if your staff feel burnt-out.?

"Think of it as dangling a carrot in front of your staff."?

Advantages

• High performance is rewarded
• Productivity often rises with these rewards
• Maintains order and structure, and ability to meet deadlines?

Disadvantages

• Often bogged down in the short-term
• Difficulties maintaining staff morale
• Reactive, rather than proactive?

What’s the Best Leadership Style??

As we put this into practice, we can see that there are no doubt positives and negatives about each leadership style. Ideally, the leadership team of any given organisation is able to adapt and incorporate different leadership styles into their decision making and management behaviour.

Effective leadership teams will adopt one style of leadership, knowing that this will need to be adapted in the future as circumstances change. Depending on your situation, great leaders will analyse their options and?pick-and-choose certain styles to execute on the most immediate goal. This doesn’t mean that they’ll stick with that style, though.

The best leaders recognise the need to adapt, in the wake of a crisis, or upon receiving feedback from their staff, and deploy differentiating styles of leadership within the context of that situation, and the organisation’s ability and resources to deal with it.?

Originally published in our Best Practice Infinite Magazine.

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