A company cannot function without competent leaders who enforce effective organizational change, boost commitment, and improve the team’s overall performance. In every situation, both positive and negative, the leader always steps in and brings order to things while inspiring constant improvement. Knowing what you strengths and weaknesses are and directing them towards effectiveness can distinguish your from the crowds significantly and help your team be more successful.
What’s a leadership style?
A leadership style depicts the behavioral approach that leaders use to motivate and guide their followers. The said style determines how leaders come up with strategies to implement plans with the help of the process that would be beneficial for all stakeholders involved, the team itself, and the company as a whole. Each person is different and, therefore, employs his or her authentic leadership style.
5 leadership style
While everyone is unique in the ways they perform their leadership duties, they all usually fall under 5 main leadership styles.
1. Transformational
Emphasizing the importance of change and transformation, transformational leaders inspire progress, create a powerful shared vision, take control, and develop meaningful bonds. Companies that strive for major change need transformative leaders to carry out all the necessary adaptions and motivate their followers to move towards successful future.
2. Participative
Participative leaders rely on effective communication, inclusivity, and shared responsibility. They like to involve employees in the decision-making process and significantly contribute to building trust with their followers. By encouraging active collaboration, these leaders make everyone feel like they belong and play an important role on the team.
3. Delegative
This leadership style puts emphasis on delegating tasks to team members. As the least intrusive style, also referred to as “laissez-faire,” it helps avoid micromanaging and gives employees freedom to take care of their own tasks in their own ways. In a highly stressful environment, delegative leaders can help avoid conflict and division on the team, but this leadership style should always be kept on track as it can sometimes lead to inefficiency.
4. Authoritative
Authoritative leaders set the course of actions and expect their followers to move according to the pre-defined path. These leaders deem it highly important to get to know each team member closely to provide more uniquely tailored feedback and guidance. With this leadership style though, it’s crucial to avoid micromanaging others which could establish a negative tone in the company.
5. Transactional
Relying on rewards and punishments, transactional leaders set out straightforward goals for their team and make criteria for both rewards and punishments highly clear. As the name of this leadership style speaks for itself, it solely focuses on giving and taking. In other words, there is a pre-established routine that team member are expected to follow to reach certain goals and, in return, they get rewarded for their achievements.
Most leaders often combine multiple leadership styles, as it’s almost impossible to stick to just one generic way of doing things, especially leading people. However, the 5 styles described depict the most common ways used by people who’re in charge of inspiring people to move forward.
