Even if you don’t think managing others is for you, chances are you’ll be in some leadership position at some point. You may have to lead a project or a team meeting without your knowledge; your job could lead to a leadership position. When these opportunities present themselves, your leadership style will take shape. However, your management style depends on your personality type and beliefs about other people.
Common leadership styles and their strengths:
It is a collection of management concepts that usually relate to your work ethic and style. Knowing the various leadership styles and their benefits will help people stay aware of how they react to others and handle challenges. There is no proper way to lead, and the best strategy generally combines them. It is essential to learn how to cherry-pick the benefits. It helps to build a detail-oriented but interactive, patient but performance-focused style. Furthermore, your approach may change for each new project or team you join. Let’s go over seven common leadership styles and their benefits.
Democratic leadership:
One of the most frequent types of leadership styles is democratic leadership. This method improves team participation and interaction. The key to becoming a democratic leader is to create an environment where staff feels valued and important. Those who use this leadership style can keep team members interested and motivated. They can provide an open environment encouraging discussion and exchanging ideas. Democratic managers and leaders communicate with employees at all levels. Their contributions are essential to the organization’s development. They promote a culture of self-sacrifice in this way.
Strengths:
- It encourages idea-sharing and innovation, and it’s better to make an organization suitable for 1099 independent contractors as they can make their own decisions.
- Facilitates open communication
- Allows staff to problem-solve
- Encourages teamwork
- Promotes mutual respect
- Gives team members an equal opportunity to provide insight regardless of job
- Brings individuals’ talents to light through leadership
- Listens when others speak
- Responds with emotional intelligence
Autocratic management:
The authoritarian leadership style requires complete authority over an organization or group. For example, they rarely include others in decision-making. It’s because of the high degrees of solitary control authoritarian bosses associate with dictators. Although it has a poor reputation, autocratic leadership is necessary.
Strengths:
- Displays a talent for efficiency and decisiveness
- Prefers to dictate procedures, systems, and operations
- Controls decision making
- Separates themselves from employees
Transformational leadership:
Leaders who use the transformational leadership style inspire others with their clear vision. They also grow in effective communication and place great value on creating meaning in both staff and customers. It happens through the words they say and the example they set, they inspire their team to be changemakers. Above all, they are purpose-driven people who believe in maximizing positive results. They are experts at creating excellent team cultures with high levels of job satisfaction. They understand that they can only achieve their goals with their employees.
Strengths:
- Delivers purpose-driven objectives that are targeting the company’s mission
- Creates an atmosphere of creativity at work
- Implements a robust set of organizational values
- Develops work cultures that individuals love
- It helps employees feel confident to experiment, make mistakes, and even fail
- Values growth and development
Transactional leadership:
Transactional leadership is a goal-oriented technique with a different organizational hierarchy. For example, this type of leader views their connection with their staff as a transaction. Individuals that use this leadership style develop precise measurements of success and failure. Individuals that achieve the organization’s aims get recognized for their efforts. If they fail, they are accountable for failing to meet the established standard because they desire to track development and performance. Transactional leadership is more widespread within large-scale organizations.
Strengths:
- Holds an upper-level position
- Develops short-term and long-term performance measures such as KPIs
- Sets goals and delegates tasks
- Communicates with the team about what work needs to be complete
- Monitors goal achievement progress
- Conducts employee reviews to know what they think about organizational policies and HR processes like payroll and paystub management.
- Moreover, it rewards hard work, such as raises, promotions, time off, and bonuses. Holds employees accountable for not meeting projected results
Leadership in laissez-faire:
Laissez-faire leadership is also known as delegation leadership. It is a “hands-off” leadership style. It inspires employees by giving them flexibility and authority over their job. The phrase translates as “let it be.” Employees within the organization make their own decisions with only little input from those in charge. It happens because executives believe in minimal regulation, under laissez-faire leadership, employees may decide they do not need to come in on Fridays as long as they don’t have work. A laissez-faire leader is unlikely to interfere because they prefer little participation. In simple terms, this leadership is the opposite of autocratic.
Strengths:
- Provides employees with a high level of freedom while working
- Instils trust in the team
- Encourages problem-solving and decision making
- Provides any resources or tools required
- Limits input and guidance
- Reduces pressure on work production
- Encourages team to accept responsibility for unsuccessful choices and actions
Visionary:
Visionaries are the ones who lead movements. They’re charming and cheerful. They motivate others to do better and to keep moving forward. These are the folks who create businesses or non-profits. Moreover, they take ample chances with fresh ideas. Visionaries can rally people into a project and keep spirits up. They can also be focused on the big picture and miss out on the small details.
Strengths:
- Innovative thinkers
- Risk-takers
- Role models for others
Coaching:
A more positive leadership style is a coaching leadership style. Coaches encourage team members to use their abilities. They assist people in setting and achieving goals. They provide a great deal of help and direction. They are quick to recognize employees’ best qualities. This style is bright and makes people happy. It involves more one-on-one attention. Following the coaching method only sometimes implies you’re getting group work done.
Strengths:
- Motivating
- Optimistic
- Brings teams together
Final note
However, try to extract the benefits of these techniques. You want to adopt an encouraging mindset from the coaching style. It will help people to feel supported and acknowledged. But you also admire how autocratic leaders can achieve better results. Both options are viable. It shows that the best leaders are the ones who use the top attributes from all the typical leadership styles. Understanding the seven leadership types mentioned above helps business owners. They help executives and managers identify their strengths and limitations. You can achieve this through leadership coaching or personal studies.
