No two team is the same. The leadership styles at which you work with Team A may never work with Team B. While leadership qualities make you effective in leading both teams, knowing which of the types of leadership styles works best for you is also part of being a good leader.
Leadership is a fluid practice; the wise leader knows when to change from one leadership style to another as the situation demands and developing a signature style with the ability to stretch into other styles as the situation warrants will help enhance your leadership effectiveness.
In this post, I’ll list and discuss different types of leadership styles. The purpose of this post on types of leadership styles is not to compare because some may think that some of the leadership styles are better than others; each type of leadership style has its place in a leader’s toolkit. A good leader change from one style to another as the situation demands.
These are the types of leadership styles
- Democratic Leadership
- Autocratic Leadership
- Laissez-Faire Leadership
- Strategic Leadership
- Transactional Leadership
- Coach-Style Leadership
- Bureaucratic Leadership
Democratic Leadership:
Democratic leadership is a participative type of leadership style and very effective because the leader makes decisions based on the input of each team member. Democratic leaders are more likely to ask “What do you think?” They share information with employees about anything that affects their work responsibilities. They also seek employees’ opinions before approving a final decision. This, in turn, promote trust and cooperation.
Autocratic Leadership:
Autocratic leadership is a command-and-control approach type of leadership style where decisions are made without taking input from the team member. Employees are neither considered nor consulted before a direction and are expected to adhere to the decision.
This type of leadership style cannot be ruled out as there are instances where Autocratic leadership comes to play. For example, when you’re dealing with inexperienced and new team members and there’s no time to wait for team members to gain familiarity with their role.
Laissez-Faire Leadership
Laissez-Faire is a French term meaning “Let Them Do”. This type of leadership style gives authority and decision-making power to a team member. It is the complete opposite of the autocratic type of leadership. Nevertheless, this type of leadership can work if you’re leading highly skilled and experienced employees not ignoring regular checkup of team performance feedback.
Coach-Style Leadership
This type of leadership style focuses on identifying and nurturing the individual strengths of each team member. The leader who uses a coach approach seeks to unlock people’s potential and also develop strategies that will enable their teamwork better together.
This type of leadership style help employees improve on their strengths, offering them guidance, or meeting to discuss constructive feedback and this, in turn, create strong teams that can communicate well and embrace each other’s unique skillsets to get work done.
Bureaucratic Leadership
The bureaucratic type of leadership style believes more in very structured procedures and tends to bend over the pre-established measures rather it was successful or not. This type of leadership has no space to explore new ways to solve problems and is usually slow-paced to ensure adherence to the ladders stated by the company.
Employees under this leadership style might not feel as controlled as they would under autocratic leadership, but there is still a lack of freedom in how much people can do in their roles. This can quickly shut down innovation and is not encouraged for companies who are chasing ambitious goals and quick growth
Transactional Leadership
The type of leadership style usually common allows the manager to lead a team who agrees to follow his lead to accomplish a predetermined goal in exchange for something else. This type of 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.
further reading:
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/leadership-styles
https://www.academia.edu/474807/Types_of_Leadership_styles