Styles of Leadership

What is leadership?

The ability to influence a group together towards the achievement of goals, In management terms it is the use of the authority which is inherent in the designated formal rank to obtain compliance from organizational members. Team leaders or managers help their team members to enhance their professional development. They assign each member of the team tasks. Their leadership style can improve the performance of the team which is beneficial for the company. Good leaders are very important in building a successful organization.

What is leadership style?

We all have our own style: how we like to dress, the type of movies we enjoy, the type of car we prefer even our communication style, or how we communicate. We often refer to different ways people communicate when they lead groups as their leadership.

The style's perspective on leadership, specifically the view proposed by Kurt Lewin in 1939. Lewin has been referred to by some as the father of modern psychology. After the trait leadership respective fell out of the favor(that was the belief that leaders are born, not made, and share some common traits. ), Lewin suggested an alternative approach. Instead of focusing on traits of leaders, he advised looking at leadership styles. He came to this conclusion after running experiments with children to see how they responded to different behaviors. Lewin identified three leadership styles and he said there are three types of leaders:

• Authoritarian leader
• Democratic leader
• Laissez-faire leader

Leadership style is necessary because effective leadership style offers the following key points:

• Better outcomes
• Increased efficiency
• Better ideas
• Mutual support
• Increased competency
• Sense of accomplishment

Why leadership style is important?

A good leader is responsible for developing a big vision the goals and the direction for the team and the company to move towards every company and every team's needs, goals. It gives people direction, helps people understand what are the day-to-day activities that they need to perform without goals people just wander around without any purpose. Leadership skills move people towards a common goal. As a leader, you have to respond to make people work for a common goal. This is why leaders and their leadership styles are valuable to companies.

Theories of leadership

• Charismatic leadership
• Trait theory
• Behavioral theory
• Situational theory

Anyone can be a leader. Whether at work or in your daily lives. When you order pizza or teach your kids how to read. You are displaying leadership qualities. It is all about leadership styles and types of people.

What are styles of leadership?

Before we start, you should clarify that the leadership styles we are going to talk about are the approaches a leader would use to guide or influence their followers towards a particular goal or objective and to be a better leader. These five types of leadership styles are different from the six emotional leadership styles that affect people's emotions and team atmosphere.

Types of leaderships

There are different leadership styles. Some common leadership styles are:

• Democratic leadership
• Autocratic leadership
• Transformational leadership
• Bureaucratic leadership
• Delegative leadership
• Participative leadership
• Transactional leadership
• Laisses-fair leadership
• task-oriented leadership
• Coaching style leadership

Different styles are discussed with the detail:

Democratic leadership

This is a type of leadership style in which members of the group are involved in the decision-making process. An example of this is allowing individual employees to vote on decisions that are being made.

Strengths

There are many advantages of democratic leadership, such as:

• Employees are better prepared for a promotion because they already have to make harder decisions. It gives them self-motivation and deep understanding of their abilities.
• Employees are more able to accept changes within the organization as they are aware of why changes are being made due to being involved in the decision-making process.

Weaknesses

Some of the disadvantages of democratic leadership include issues such as:

The time may take for a decision to be made or that democratic leaders are often needed to discuss between staff members so that there is clear communication of ideas.

Autocratic leadership

Autocratic leadership is also known as authoritarian leadership which is a leadership style where one person has control over all decisions and where there is little input from group members. Autocratic leaders typically make choices based on their ideas and judgments and rarely accept advice from employees in the workplace. Most people hold negative views of an autocratic leader, often describing them as "bossy".

Advantages

Some advantages of autocratic leadership are:

• The decisions can be made quickly due to managers making all the decisions.
• Employees have clear instructions on what needs to be done and the requirements needed, which can improve efficiency within the business.

Disadvantages

Some of the disadvantages are:

• Employees creativity and ideas being ignored
• Employees may feel demotivated because they are not getting to share their ideas and feedbacks or take on any responsibility.

Transactional leadership

Like the name suggests, transactional leadership is" I give you this and you give me that". A transactional leader would give instruction and it is expected that the team members perform the task accordingly. Managers are famous for using this type of leadership. This leadership is also called exceptional leadership because it is exceptional ones that are rewarded or punished repeatedly. If you do well then you will be rewarded. If you do poorly, you will be punished or not rewarded. An example of this would be telling your friends to order a pizza. If they succeed in ordering a pizza, the reward is that you all have to get the dinner. If not the punishment is that you and your friends go hungry.

The leader may seem impersonal as this style is very direct. But the benefit of this leadership style is that the instructions are clear therefore there are fewer chances of misunderstanding or confusion . However they may find it hard to gain the trust of their followers and may limit their followers' creativity.

Transformational leadership

This type of leadership focuses on transforming the people they lead. The leaders see the potential in people, and they want to bring out those potentials for their own benefits and for the company and the organization. They often allow the people to have more freedom, and they encourage more creativity and innovation. This approach focuses on personal strengths and weaknesses and deals with them accordingly. Transformational leaders also lead by example. As a result, a kind of leader is often considered to be inspiring or empowering. An example of this is a music teacher who thinks you are better on piano compared to on the guitar and wants you to find your strengths to make yourself shine.

As a transformational leader, you will often encourage people to step out of their comfort and push their limits. This type of leadership is good when both the leaders and the followers have the same goal.

The disadvantage of being a transformational leader is that conflict may arise as to when changes take place since everyone has a different perspective or an approach to managing those changes.

Servant leadership

instead of leading or inspiring, a servant leader supports and guides the team's efforts. They put the needs of their followers first and their own needs second ]. Servant leaders are very good at listening, they are empathetic, they are committed, good at persuading and building a community. They are highly emotional, they are aware of other people's needs, they are the ones to start a movement or support a good charity or a good cause.

The servant leadership model allows the working culture to be very positive and another trust between all team members to be strong. They always keep in mind the job satisfaction and constructive feedback from their employees. This leadership style is becoming more popular over the years because the best leaders make the followers feel understood.

One disadvantage, however, is that this type of leadership puts a priority on others too much, and sometimes the leader may neglect their own needs.

Laissez-faire Leadership

The term Laissez-faire is the French phrase for "leave it be". Laissez-faire leadership has an approach that is very hands-off. They often leave the team to perform their tasks and let the teams manage themselves. It uses the idea that most people hate to be micromanaged. Where micromanagement is your supervisor hovering and asking for every detail, Laissez-fair leaders do not ask and trust that you will get the work done. This type of leadership is often used in organizations or teams that have very well-established protocols and working systems. This type of leadership style is actually very popular in the IT setting, the supervisors will not be asking to see every single written code as the programmers are experts at what they do. The leaders just want perhaps a weekly update.

An advantage of the laissez-faire leadership style is that trust and independence allow the work to be performed better due to the lack of restrictions and pressure.

However if the protocols and working system are not well established, teams may fall into chaos as a leader is not around to supervise.

Also, laissez-faire leaders often feel absent because they leave the team to be.

Charismatic leadership

A charismatic leader will use eloquent communication skills, one of the crucial steps for an effective leadership style and to inspire their team members to work towards objectives and visions. A charismatic leader will use compelling arguments to attract or charm others into devotion.

They often persuade unity among the team's members by getting everyone excited using a well-described vision and the end goal.

These charismatic leaders can be very inspiring and boost the morale of the team.

On the other hand, they may focus a lot on their charisma and neglect important tasks or expertise.

Many followers may be blinded by the halo effect and follow this type of leader with bias, even with the leader is clearly wrong.

Hallo effect

The hallo effect is also known as halo error is when you have a positive impression of a [person for one area but it is carried over to another area. A simplified example of the halo effect is when you see a good-looking person, you are more likely to think that person is also a nice person or a kind person. This is a type of cognitive bias

Bureaucratic leadership

The bureaucratic leaders use a system of rules for management and decision-making. Whether these rules are established by the leader himself or by the corporation or organization they work for. All tasks are assigned to groups with clear lines of authority, responsibility, and accountability. These leaders are generally very task focussed, hardworking, and detailed oriented. A bureaucratic leader has an eye on every single detail.

Advantages

Some advantages of bureaucratic leadership style are:

This leadership style is very efficient. Everyone under you in the groups knows exactly what you expect. It is very predictable. You know exactly what your boss is expecting at all times.

If there are several businesses and different shops if you have worked at one you know exactly what they expected from others.

Disadvantages

Some disadvantages are:

• Lack of flexibility
• loss of control
• very strict
• impersonal

Coach style leadership

Coaching leaders are considered essential advisors, it is one of the effective leadership styles. they guide their team members through difficulties and help them reach their goals. Coaching leadership is different from other leadership styles since it focuses on reaching goals through cooperative partnerships. It is issued by many businesses to increase the satisfaction of their team member and employees and to improve their professional development. The coaching leaders excel at reaching long-term plans and goals due to their interest and capability of helping others.

Advantages

Advantages of coaching leadership style are:

• Cooperation and mutual communication
• aids people grow professionally and personally
• constant leadership
• empowers individual employees
• it is encouraging instead of being judgmental.

Disadvantages

Disadvantages are:

• Very energy and time consuming
• leaders might not have good coaching skills and may be unsuitable. Not the right fit for companies that operate on results and high pressure.
• coaching is about mutual concession
• did not necessarily fetch efficient or speedy results
• smug or reluctant employees
• clash of opinions.

Task-oriented leadership

Task-oriented leadership focuses on achieving goals. These leaders are typically less concerned with building relationships with the employees. This approach tends to be autocratic and the leader places a heavy emphasis on structure plans, and schedules for getting things done.

There are rules and guidelines that everyone's expected to hear and other is no variance from it.

Which style of leadership do employers prefer?

Transformational leaders are more suited or most effective leaders to the business in the modern, 21st century, simply because the pace of change is so important. Don't just rely on one leadership style. It is best to be a combination of two styles that suit the business.

There are no good or bad leadership styles as they all have their benefits and drawbacks. What is important is to know what leadership style to use at the right time and at the right circumstance.