LEADERSHIP CATEGORIES & STYLES

What is leadership style?

A leadership style refers to a leader's characteristic behaviors when directing, motivating,
guiding, and managing groups of people.
Great leaders can inspire political movements and social change. They can also motivate
others to perform, create, and innovate.
As you start to consider some of the people who you think of as great leaders, you can
immediately see that there are often vast differences in how each person leads.
Fortunately, researchers have developed different theories and frameworks that allow us to
better identify and understand these different leadership styles.
Leadership Styles and Frameworks You Should Know
LEWIN’S LEADERSHIP STYLE
 AUTHORITARIAN - provide clear expectations
 PARTICIPATIVE - participate in the group, offer guidance
 DELEGATIVE - offer little or no guidance
13 Different Types of Leadership Styles
According to Research by asaecenter, leadership style is the way a person uses power to lead
other people.
1. Autocratic Leadership
 Autocratic leadership style is centered on the boss. In this leadership the leader holds
all authority and responsibility. In this leadership, leaders make decisions on their own
without consulting subordinates. They reach decisions, communicate them to
subordinates and expect prompt implementation. Autocratic work environment does
normally have little or no flexibility.
 guidelines, procedures and policies are all natural additions of an autocratic leader.
Statistically, there are very few situations that can actually support autocratic leadership.
 best applied to situations where there is little time for group decision-making or where
the leader is the most knowledgeable member of the group. The autocratic approach
can be a good one when the situation calls for rapid decisions and decisive actions.
2. Democratic Leadership
 subordinates are involved in making decisions. Unlike autocratic, this headship is
centered on subordinates’ contributions. The democratic leader holds final
responsibility, but he or she is known to delegate authority to other people, who
determine work projects.
 The most unique feature of this leadership is that communication is active upward
and downward. With respect to statistics, democratic leadership is one of the most
preferred leadership, and it entails the following: fairness, competence, creativity,
courage, intelligence and honesty.
Upward communication refers to that form of communication that flows from bottom to top.
On the other extreme, downward communication is the communication, which moves from top to
bottom. Communication is the spine of an organization because without it superior-subordinate
relationship cannot thrive and the organization will not be able to function effectively, to achieve the
objectives. It pertains to the meaningful and effective interaction between two or more people.
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3. Strategic Leadership Style
 involves a leader who is essentially the head of an organization. The strategic leader is
not limited to those at the top of the organization. It is geared to a wider audience at all
levels who want to create a high performance life, team or organization.
 fills the gap between the need for new possibility and the need for practicality by
providing a prescriptive set of habits. An effective strategic leadership delivers the
goods in terms of what an organization naturally expects from its leadership in times of
change. 55% of this leadership normally involves strategic thinking.
5 Leadership Strategies Proven To Improve Performance on Your Team
1. Define & Communicate Vision
The eye looks, but it is the mind that sees.
~ proverb
Your vision is a vivid, aspirational leadership strategy that paints a picture of the future of
your organization. It is long term and it is measurable. Hopefully, you already have a vision for
yourself and your organization; a purpose that drives you to do what you do every day. But are
you able to share that vision with others and put it into action to drive results?
2. Encourage Recognition
Employees want to feel appreciated. They want to feel valued. It instills a sense of
commitment and engagement.
When individuals and teams work above and beyond expectations to achieve great results,
celebration and recognition are how you encourage continued commitment to the organization’s
vision, mission, and goals. It is how excellence is encouraged over time, and how it stays strong
even in times of high production volume and stress.
3. Speak from the Heart
Do you speak about your organization from your heart or from your budget?

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 Many people mistakenly believe that leadership is something that some people are born
with and others are not. The truth is that leadership is a choice. It is a choice that only you can
make; leadership can not be given or forced upon you.
When you communicate with your team, they know whether or not you are passionately
engaged in being the leader by how you speak about your company’s vision, mission, and
goals. They can sense in your daily interactions if your commitment to their growth and
development is as important to you as your own.
4. Delegate & Empower
Perhaps the best leadership strategy to engage your team is to empower them by
delegating greater responsibility. It can be exciting to be entrusted with a position of
responsibility, so if something makes you feel a sense of self-worth, give that self-worth to others
on your team. Find areas where you can give people the responsibility and, importantly, the
authority to get things done.
5. Commit to Continued Education
Leadership is a journey with no real destination. Great leaders commit to continued
growth and refinement through continued education, practical application of skills, and
networking both internally and externally. You are never done growing as a leader.
This includes sharing your knowledge and experiences with others. They say you never
learn as much as when you are teaching, and we are truly fulfilling ourselves as leaders when
we are in the role of the coach and mentor.
4. Transformational Leadership
 is all about initiating change in organizations, groups, oneself and others.
 motivate others to do more than they originally intended and often even more than they
thought possible. They set more challenging expectations and typically achieve higher
performance.
 have more committed and satisfied followers. This is mainly so because transformational
leaders empower followers.
 key characteristics of his style of leadership are the abilities to motivate and inspire followers
and to direct positive changes in groups.
 tend to be emotionally intelligent, energetic, and passionate. They are not only committed to
helping the organization achieve its goals, but also to helping group members fulfill their
potential.
 resulted in higher performance and more improved group satisfaction than other leadership
styles
 led to improved well-being among group members.
5. Team Leadership
 involves the creation of a vivid picture of its future, where it is heading and what it will stand
for. The vision inspires and provides a strong sense of purpose and direction.
 about working with the hearts and minds of all those involved . It also recognizes that
teamwork may not always involve trusting cooperative relationships. The most challenging
aspect of this leadership is whether or not it will succeed. According to Harvard Business
Review, team leadership may fail because of poor leadership qualities.
6. Cross-Cultural Leadership

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  Normally exists where there are various cultures in the society. This leadership has also
industrialized as a way to recognize front runners who work in the contemporary globalized
market.
 Organizations, particularly international ones require leaders who can effectively adjust their
leadership to work in different environs. Most of the leaderships observed in the United
States are cross-cultural because of the different cultures that live and work there.
7. Facilitative Leadership
 too dependent on measurements and outcomes – not a skill, although it takes much skill to
master. The effectiveness of a group is directly related to the efficacy of its process. If the
group is high functioning, the facilitative leader uses a light hand on the process.
 On the other hand, if the group is low functioning, the facilitative leader will be more
directives in helping the group run its process. An effective facilitative leadership involves
monitoring of group dynamics, offering process suggestions and interventions to help the
group stay on track.
8. Laissez-faire Leadership
 gives authority to employees. According to azcentral, departments or subordinates are
allowed to work as they choose with minimal or no interference. According to research, this
kind of leadership has been consistently found to be the least satisfying and least effective
management style.
 Delegative leaders offer little or no guidance to group members and leave decision-making
up to group members. While this style can be useful in situations involving highly qualified
experts, it often leads to poorly defined roles and a lack of motivation.
 Lewin noted that laissez-faire leadership tended to result in groups that lacked direction
where members blamed each other for mistakes, refused to accept personal responsibility,
and produced a lack of progress and work.
9. Transactional Leadership
 This is a leadership that maintains or continues the status quo. It is also the leadership
that involves an exchange process, whereby followers get immediate, tangible rewards for
carrying out the leader’s orders. Transactional leadership can sound rather basic, with its
focus on exchange.
 Being clear, focusing on expectations, giving feedback are all important leadership
skills. According to Boundless.com, transactional leadership behaviors can include:
clarifying what is expected of followers’ performance; explaining how to meet such
expectations; and allocating rewards that are contingent on meeting objectives.
 Views the leader-follower relationship as a transaction. By accepting a position as a
member of the group, the individual has agreed to obey the leader. In most situations, this
involves the employer-employee relationship, and the transaction focuses on the follower
completing required tasks in exchange for monetary compensation.
 Main advantages of this leadership style is that it creates clearly defined roles. People know
what they are required to do and what they will be receiving in exchange for completing
these tasks. It also allows leaders to offer a great deal of supervision and direction if it's
needed. Group members may also be motivated to perform well to receive rewards. One of
the biggest downsides is that the transactional style tends to stifle creativity and out-of-the-
box thinking.

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 10. Coaching Leadership
 Involves teaching and supervising followers. A coaching leader is highly operational in
setting where results/ performance require improvement. Basically, in this kind of
leadership, followers are helped to improve their skills.
 Coaching leadership does the following: motivates followers, inspires followers and
encourages followers.
11. Charismatic Leadership
 In this leadership, the charismatic leader manifests his or her revolutionary power. Charisma
does not mean sheer behavioral change. It actually involves a transformation of followers’
values and beliefs.
 Distinguishes a charismatic leader from a simply populist leader who may affect attitudes
towards specific objects, but who is not prepared as the charismatic leader is, to transform
the underlying normative orientation that structures specific attitudes.
12. Visionary Leadership
 Involves leaders who recognize that the methods, steps and processes of leadership are all
obtained with and through people. Most great and successful leaders have the aspects of
vision in them.
 However, those who are highly visionary are the ones considered to be exhibiting visionary
leadership. Outstanding leaders will always transform their visions into realities.
13. Situational Leadership Styles
 Stress the significant influence of the environment and the situation on leadership. Two of
these theories include:
• Hersey and Blanchard's leadership styles:
Hersey and Blanchard's model is one of the best-known situational theories. First published in 1969,
this model describes four primary styles of leadership, including:
1. The telling style is characterized by telling people what to do.
2. The selling style involves leaders convincing followers to buy into their ideas and messages.
3. The participating style is marked by allowing group members to take a more active role in the
decision-making process.
4. The delegating style involves taking a hands-off approach to leadership and allowing group
members to make the majority of decisions.
Blanchard's SLII leadership styles:
Later, Blanchard expanded upon the original Hersey and Blanchard model to emphasize how the
developmental and skill level of learners influences the style that should be used by leaders. Blanchard
also described four different learning styles, including:
 The directing style involves giving orders and expecting obedience but offers little in the
way of guidance and assistance.
 The coaching style means giving lots of orders, but leaders also give lots of support.
 The supporting style is an approach that offers plenty of help, but very little direction.
 The delegating style is low in both direction and support.