By Max Leone
11 Business Leadership Styles: Which One Are You?
The Oxford Dictionary defines Leadership as:
“The action of leading a group of people or an organization.”
This topic is complex and so immense that volumes could be written about it. In fact, Amazon literally offers 57,136 books with the word “leadership” in the title! However, I simply wanted to narrow this subject down to 11 leadership styles that would describe most business leaders that we may have all encountered in our business career. Hopefully this will give you some pause for reflection in your own leadership style and the effect it may have on your organization.
The business leader, whether a solopreneur or the head of a very large workforce, is primarily responsible for leading the company to ultimate success. Business leaders are different for every company, but all have the same goal of making a profitable and sustainable business thrive and driving the organization's purpose, vison and mission.
There are many qualities that make a good leader, but at the core of it all are strong communication and decision-making skills. The job is best suited for someone who is confident in their ability to lead and can make key decisions that may in many cases, be very difficult. The role requires a good sense of the company's long-term goals and carries with it a high number of responsibilities overall.
Business leadership is about taking calculated risks, challenging the status quo, motivating others and constantly measuring success by the evaluation of knowledge, learning and achievements.
Also, in general and as a point of contrast, business management is about delegating responsibilities and getting people to follow the rules to reduce risk and deliver predictable outcomes. A business manager is responsible for completing four critical functions that include: planning, organizing, leading, and controlling.
Managers traditionally do not challenge the status quo. Instead, they strive to measure it and maintain it. They evaluate success by continually monitoring if the team has achieved what was expected.
Our 26th President Teddy Roosevelt made a thought provoking quote on the topic of leadership…
“People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader leads, and the boss drives.”
Are you a Leader or a Boss? The answer might be paradoxical as you may be both. My personal answer and perspective to this question will be at the conclusion of this summary.
11 Leadership Styles
This outline will go through some popular leadership styles, from authoritarian to democratic and everything in between. Which leadership style is best? It varies depending on the situation, personality, experience and the preferences of the individual.
Authoritarian Leadership:
Authoritarian leadership, also called "autocratic leadership” use their power as a formal way to control and direct others. They rely on policies and directives rather than persuasion and consensus building. The goals are long-term stability, obedience and immediate compliance with existing rules or procedures. These types of leaders are up to the mark when there is strict hierarchy in place but can possibly undermine morale when employees feel stifled by all the rules they have to follow.
Democratic Leadership:
Democratic leadership, also called “participative leadership” is the type of leadership style that promotes teamwork, creativity, input from every member on the team, and identifying root causes of problems in order to find solutions.
Democratic leaders give employees an equal say in decision making while allocating resources fairly among them. This might be considered as a participative leadership style that gives more power to the team itself rather than just one person at the top. For example, this style of leadership would give an equal say to all employees during a meeting and would allow everyone to have input on their own ideas.
Laissez-faire Leadership:
Laissez-faire leadership also called “delegative leadership” involves the manager delegateing goals, decisions and tasks to their subordinates. This style is often used with an employee or team who has a lot of knowledge, experience, skills and abilities. While delegating tasks and responsibilities to employees or subordinates, a delegative leadership style still maintains control over the outcome. Although they may provide input on the process, they do not have to approve or oversee every decision made. Some employees thrive on this less structured work environment while others may need more guidance. Unless there are truly focused and motivated team members, the laissez-faire leadership style may possibly lead to reduced personal and productivity responsibility.
Transactional Leadership:
The transactional leader is someone who wants to gain control or give employees something they want in exchange for getting something they want. The transactional leadership style usually does not work towards building relationships with the employees. They are often not interested in satisfying the needs of others but only to receive something that has been targeted in return. This style of leadership wants to gain power from their employees and just focus on getting things done with traits similar to a command of military operations.
Transformational Leadership:
Transformational leadership is a style that aims to create a vision and inspire their employees. They want to connect with their employees and look out for their needs now and in the foreseeable future. This style of leadership is good for someone who wants to build relationships with others while providing direction and support. A transformational leader is someone who motivates their team by modeling and encouraging the desired behavior. They connect with people on an emotional level and regularly come up with new and innovative ideas. They do not worry about status quo, but instead work to change it for the betterment of their followers and their organization.
Situational Leadership:
The situational leadership style is flexible. It adapts to the existing work environment and the needs of the people and the organization. Situational leadership is not based on a specific skill but instead, modifies the style of management to best suit the requirements of the organization at any given time.
Situational leadership is the ability to move from one leadership style to another to meet the changing needs of the team, company and employee. Adaptability is imperative with the insight to understand when to change a particular management style and what leadership strategy best fits each new circumstance.
Pacesetting Leadership:
The pacesetting leader is one who sets a defined pace or cadence for their company, organization or team. A person who has a pacesetting leadership style is constantly pushing their team to be the best that they can be. They are constantly striving for progress and improvement and will not stand for complacency.
The pacesetter's leadership style keeps things fresh and dynamic which can inspire innovation in the workplace. A pacesetting leader can make sure that deadlines are met which is an important part of business success. However, a pacesetting leader may neglect the needs of employees if they feel like it will hold back progress or innovation in their company. They may also have difficulty accepting criticism because they always want to be right. If a team member points out flaws in the leader's ideas, it may go unheard because this type of person usually doesn't listen to feedback very well.
Coaching Leadership:
The coaching leadership style is yet another approach to management. Instead of giving orders, the coaching leader uses encouragement, development and support will to increase motivation among employees. This leadership style strives to create an environment where employees are accountable for their own behavior and work. This can be especially valuable in companies where professional development is important.
Affiliative Leadership:
The affiliative style of leadership rules are characterized by cooperative approaches to leadership such as shared decision-making, participatory management and teamwork. The Affiliative leadership model is based in a cooperative approach with the team and organization. This style is more likely to build work relationships and trust between employees and leaders.
However, the affiliative style is unique and not a good fit for all cultures and will not be successful or supported in environments where rigid hierarchies are required. Organizations that have a set of explicit regulations governing conduct and activity within their industries may have imbalance with this style of leadership.
Bureaucratic Leadership:
The bureaucratic leadership style is a very formal and rigid way of leading. It is a somewhat common style that brings order to organizations by following procedures. Bureaucratic leadership is a very inflexible way of leading an organization and team. It usually emphasizes following procedures, with little room for improvisation or innovation. While some people find this unbending format effective in bringing order to an organization and preserving stability, others find that it limits creativity and slows things down for no good reason at all.
The pros of this style are that it makes the company run more efficiently, employees are treated equally; decisions are made quickly and with accurate information. The cons of this style can be a structure that is difficult to innovate, it can lead to micromanaging, the leader may possibly not have the team's best interest at heart and it may have conflicting results with organizational culture.
Charismatic Leadership:
Charismatic leaders in the business world are very often the most successful and well known due to the attention that they garner. Some that fit this mold would be Steve Jobs - Apple, Jack Welch - GE, Safra Catz - Oracle, Elon Musk - SpaceX and Marillyn Hewson - Lockheed to name a few. They possess all the traits of a great leader and inspire those around them to work and follow their direction. They can also be difficult to work with at times with some tendencies and views of hero worship by some and overbearing by others.
The charismatic leadership style is an individual that inspires through a combination of power and humility and is more of a sensation in the group rather than an individual. An imaginary picture can be drawn of a typical charismatic leader as being in control with hand up signaling to move on. They lead through actions and ideas while genuinely appearing to be concerned with the group's well-being more than their own.
Charismatic leaders often will try to consolidate power by gaining the trust and authority that comes with being such an influencing factor thus making the group more cohesive to their direction.
Conclusion:
Obviously, there are not hard, fixed and unalterable boundaries in the various general descriptions of each of these leadership styles. I’m positive that there is somewhat of an amalgamation of many of these traits in every leader.
My personal perspective is that each individual brings with them a tremendous amount of real value and untapped potential value. My view would be to strongly lead and also find unique ways to utilize and tap into each individual's true capability.
Once that capability recourse pool is exposed, I’d find how to channel that to the specific benefit of my operation. The focus on a business alignment structure in any company will certainly help direct all of that human resource capability to the one driving purpose of your organization.
My answer to Leader or Boss? It would seem that a “boss” has a staff of yes men/women but a real “leader” develops a dedicated team of innovators totally aligned to a driving mission!
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