There are different leadership styles, and they all exhibit quite different characteristics. If put simply, leadership positively influences other people to follow you and believe in your vision. It is to motivate them to work towards a common goal.
Besides this, leadership is also the art of effectively conveying your recommendation, ideas or goal to the people and motivating them to take up responsibilities. A successful leader not only creates followers but inspires them to grow personally and be a leader in the future.
If you are looking forward to being a successful and inspirational leader soon, you must possess critical thinking skills, which can benefit the organization’s growth.
What are the Different Leadership Styles?
All the leaders in the past or at present have their different leadership styles, and they all can be considerably different. Let’s skin through the various kinds of leadership.
Democratic Leadership
As the name suggests, this leadership style takes or democratically makes decisions. Democratic leadership is the most effective style of leadership. In addition, in this leadership style, all the employees or members have a voice and every opinion matters.
Some distinctive characteristics of the democratic leadership style are:
- The leaders show the direction of the members and guide them throughout the process of achieving the common goals.
- Moreover, the leader also welcomes input from the members; thus, they feel engaged and important, which fosters their commitment to the common goals.
This style may lead to a very creative and committed team. However, there may be lesser productivity by the followers in some cases.
Autocratic Leadership
This style is the exact contrast to the democratic leadership style. These leaders expect all the members to follow their decisions. Consequently, the opinions of the members or employers are not of importance.
Some distinctive characteristics of the autocratic leadership style are:
- The leader tells clear expectations about what needs to be done and how and when they should do it.
- This style of leadership firmly adheres to command and control patterns.
- Moreover, there is a clear division between the followers and the leader.
Autocratic leadership exhibits bossy, dictatorial independent decision-making; hence it is not a sustainable approach in the longer run.
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Laissez-faire Leadership
The word Laissez-faire means “let them do”. The leaders of this offer little guidance to the employees or followers and leave the decision-making to them.
Some distinctive characteristics of the Laissez-faire leadership style are:
- Laissez-faire leadership style is beneficial when highly qualified experts are involved. However, this style leads to a lack of motivation and the roles and responsibilities are poorly defined.
- This style leads to a team which offers minor cooperation and refuses to accept their responsibilities.
- The group or the employees lack direction, show less progress and cannot work independently.
While this style gives a free hand to the members, it may also hinder their developmental and professional skills.
Strategic Leadership
A strategic leadership style is a bridge between the authorities and the employees or followers. Leaders of this style ensure that the decision-making conditions serve the best interest of the team and the hierarchy.
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Transformational Leadership
Transformational leadership revolves around the transformation and improvement of team members. Leaders adopting this style may urge their employees to push their boundaries and perform the assigned tasks as per schedule. Several growth-minded companies favor this leadership style.
Transactional Leadership
The transactional leadership style is based on the action-and-reward theory. Besides, it is the most common style of leadership nowadays. For example, an employee will receive a bonus or an incentive for achieving a specific target set by the organization.
Coach-Style Leadership
Coach-style leadership is quite similar to democratic and strategic leadership styles. However, it puts considerably more focus on the growth of an individual. This style encourages the team members to focus on their talent and strengths, along with working for the development of the organization at large.
Bureaucratic Leadership
Bureaucratic leadership style leads by the books. Even so, these style leaders listen to the opinions of their team but can nullify or reject them if it’s in contrast with the policies.
Conclusion
We all acquire different leadership styles along our path to success or in our daily lives. As each individual is different, so every style is different too. All you need to look for is which style suits you and serves the best interest of your team and organization at large. The leadership style which brings the best out of you and your followers or team should prevail.