Briefly explain different leadership styles.

When developing your leadership skills, one must soon confront an important practical question, “What leadership styles work best for me and my organization?” To answer this question, it’s best to understand that there are many from which to choose and as part of your leadership development effort, one should consider developing as many leadership styles as possible. 

Some styles overlap (i.e. charisma and transformational); some can be used together (facilitative and team building); others we used less frequently (strategic and cross-cultural); and some are polar opposites (autocratic & participative). Below is a description of all these styles.

The Autocratic Leadership Style One leadership style dimension has to do with control and one’s perception of how much control one should give to people. For example, the laissez faire style implies low control, the autocratic style is high in control while the participative one lies somewhere in between. Kurt Lewin called these control styles: authoritative, participative (democratic) or delegative (Laissez Faire).

Partly, your style choice on the control demension is a matter of personal choice. The style has its advocates, but it is falling out of favor due to the many Weaknesses of this style. Some people have argued that the style is popular with today’s CEO’s, who have much in common with feudal lords of Medieval Europe. These CEOs are simply control freaks who want a “firm hand on the helm” and will not tolerate difference of opinions.

Emergent Leadership

  “The superior man understands what is right; the inferior man understands what will sell.” – Confucius

Contrary to the belief of many, groups don’t automatically accept a new “boss” as leader.  This style is what you must do when one taking over a new group. 

The Exchange Style Sometimes known as leader-member exchange, the style involves the exchange of favors between two individuals. An exchange can be hierarchical between the boss and subordinate or occur between two individuals of equal status. For this leadership style to work, you need to know how to develop, maintain and repair relationships. 

The Laissez Faire Leadership Style The style is largely a “hands off” view that tends to minimize the amount of direction and face time required. Works well if you have highly trained, highly motivated direct reports. 

Situational Leadership  In the 1950s, management theorists from Ohio State University and the University of Michigan published a series of studies to determine whether leaders should be more task or relationship (people) oriented. The importance of the research cannot be over estimated since leaders tend to have a dominant style; a leadership style they use in a wide variety of situations. Surprisingly, the research discovered that there is no one best style: leaders must adjust their leadership style to the situation as well as to the people being led. 

Strategic Leadership This is practiced by the military services such as the US Army, and many large corporations. It stresses the competitive nature of running an organization and being able to out fox and out with the competition. 

Team Leadership A few years ago, a large corporation decided that supervisors were no longer needed and those in charge were suddenly made “team leaders.” Today, companies have gotten smarter about how to exert effective team leadership, but it still takes leadership to transition a group into a team. 

Facilitative Leadership This is a special style that anyone who runs a meeting can employ. Rather than being directive, one using this style uses a number of indirect communication patterns to help the group reach consensus. 

Leadership Influence Styles Here one looks at the behaviors associated how one exercises influence

 Participative Leadership Style It’s hard to order and demand someone to be creative, perform as a team, solve complex problems, improve quality, and provide outstanding customer service. The participative style presents a happy medium between over controlling (micromanaging) and not being engaged and tends to be seen in organizations that must innovate to prosper. 

Servant Leadership Style

Some leaders have put the needs of their followers first. For example, the motto of the Los Angeles Police Department, “To Protect and Serve.” reflects this philosophy of service. But one suspects that this style are relatively rare in business. It’s hard to imagine a CEO who puts the needs of employees first before the needs of the stockholders and the bankers.

The Transformational Leadership Style The primary focus of the transformational leadership style  is to make change happen in:

·         Our Self,

·         Others,

·         Groups, and

·         Organizations

The transformational style requires a number of different skills and is closely associated with two other leadership styles: charismatic and visionary leadership. 

The Charismatic Style 

 Transformational leaders need a bit of charisma. But if you are in a large bureaucratic organization, you can use your authority and the power associated with the position. Indeed, most people in large organizations lack charisma. They are bland personalities, the person you never remember, who has nothing of interest to focus on. They are the people we forget since they can never get anyone excited about what they are doing