How you interact with and influence your team or organization can be the catalyst for success or a detriment to productivity. Different leadership styles can be effective in different situations. In fact, effective leaders often know how to adapt their style to fit the needs of their people. This article shares some common leadership styles and their identifying traits to help you determine your areas of leadership strength and learn how to change when needed.
What is a leadership style?
A leadership style is the way you show up to motivate and engage your team. Of the many leadership styles in organizations, no particular one is the best. This article will discuss eight of the main styles in more detail, including:
Coaching:You focus on developing and empowering team members through guidance, support, and feedback.
Delegative or laissez-faire:You give your team the freedom to make decisions and complete tasks without much direction or oversight.
Transactional:You’re a leader who rewards or punishes your team based on their performance and adherence to rules.
Visionary:You lead with a strong vision for the future that helps inspire and motivate others.
Autocratic:You make all decisions without consulting your team or considering their input.
Bureaucratic:Your leadership style is focused on rules, procedures, and hierarchical structures.
Democratic:You involve your team in decision-making and encourage collaboration.
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Why is it important to understand leadership styles?
Knowing your leadership style is important to develop your leadership skills and become a more effective leader. This self-awareness can help you identify your strengths and areas that must be developed as a leader. You’ll also be better able to make adjustments and improve your style.
When you know your leadership style and can identify which style will work best for your team, you can better impact team dynamics. You might adapt your approach to suit an individual’s needs or work to learn more about another style to drive success differently.
Understanding leadership styles and theories can also help you communicate more effectively. For instance, if you tend to be an autocratic leader, you may need to be more aware of the need to slow down and ensure everyone on your team feels heard and valued.
You may also handle conflict differently depending on your leadership style. By being aware of leadership styles, you may be able to resolve conflict more efficiently. You’ll know more about where your style could contribute to that conflict, or you can better align your strategies for conflict resolution with your leadership style.
8 leadership styles
Each different leadership style has its own merits. Understanding the traits generally associated with each leadership style can help you identify your own approach and new styles you might want to embrace.
Coaching
Coaching leaders support and empower team members to achieve their full potential. You’ll prioritize team member development and use coaching techniques to facilitate their growth and progress.
This style works best when you can individualize attention and work with employees willing to accept challenges and address limitations.
Coaching leaders are focused on developing their people’s skills and abilities. This type of leader typically:
Promotes a positive environment
Builds trust through attentive listening
Shows empathy for others, trying to understand their experiences, feelings, and motivations
Offers constructive feedback
Works collaboratively with team members
Consults often with team members to build trust
Takes a personalized approach
Delegative or laissez-faire
Laissez-faire translates to “allow to do,” and this delegative leadership style leaves decision-making and task completion to team members. This leadership style offers little guidance and lets the group resolve any issues on their own.
This is a successful leadership style with experienced, well-trained team members you can trust to do their work with little oversight.
As a delegative leader, you will be hands-off regarding task completion and decision-making. At the same time, you’re likely to:
Trust team members to make sound decisions on their own
Give people a high degree of autonomy and independence
Provide limited direction but necessary resources
Intervene only when necessary
Transactional
Transactional leaders focus on give and take. This style is instruction-based, with leaders using praise and punishments to motivate the team. Guesswork is eliminated, which can be useful. But, this approach can also stifle creativity.
Transactional leaders tend to closely monitor team member progress. If you use the transactional style, you’ll probably also:
Clearly define roles
Focus on short-term goals
Correct or discipline those who don’t meet expectations
Have systems in place to maintain order
Value efficiency over creativity
Rely on incentive programs or other types of rewards
Servant
As a servant leader, you focus on serving the needs of others, such as team members or the community, rather than on achieving personal goals or objectives. Servant leaders often garner respect from their employees for their collaborative and communicative approach.
Empathy for others
Self-awareness
Listening
Taking care of people and resources
Community building
Influencing others
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Visionary
If you’re a visionary leader, you have a clear, strong idea about the future or the value of a big change. You can inspire others to share in your vision and motivate your team members to follow you down the path you persuasively outline. You can also call a visionary leader a transformational leader. This is because they often see the world differently.
You’ll have your eye on the end goal. As a visionary leader, you are also likely to:
Demonstrate a strong commitment to organizational purpose and big-picture goals
Encourage individuals to move outside their comfort zones
Foster confidence among your direct reports
Be open to taking risks
Look for creative, innovative approaches
Show passion and enthusiasm that inspires others
Make tough decisions
Autocratic
An autocratic leader makes all the decisions and holds tight to control. You’ll have a lot of responsibility and power. You’ll also be the one to dictate to others what they should do and how to do it. It’s not always popular with people.
Autocratic leaders often rely on fear. At the very least, they expect people to respect the authority of their role. Other common traits of autocrats include:
Make decisions quickly
Have a commanding presence
Expect people to follow orders without question
Use threats and punishment to retain control
Offer little room for collaboration
Focus on results
Bureaucratic
The bureaucratic leadership style relies on rules, procedures, and hierarchical structures. Collaboration and creativity take second place to efficiency and effectiveness. This style can work well in highly-regulated industries and task-driven fields where attention to detail is appreciated.
Focuses on process
Likes defined roles and specializations
Prioritizes efficiency
Communicates formally
Democratic
Democratic leaders are supportive and communicative. You’ll work to help team members grow and develop, and you’re willing to delegate responsibilities to make that happen. You seek input and feedback to strengthen your team and work better together.
You’re probably a democratic leader if you prioritize collaboration, participation, and shared decision-making. Other attributes that could indicate this is your leadership style include:
Willingness to share decision-making
Readiness to encourage participation and involvement
Honest, transparent communication style
Desire to coach and guide team members
Comfort with individual autonomy
Adaptive
Next steps
Each leader brings personality and experience to their style as a leader. Plus, your leadership style can evolve. If you want to become a different type of leader, you can.
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This content has been made available for informational purposes only. Learners are advised to conduct additional research to ensure that courses and other credentials pursued meet their personal, professional, and financial goals.
