Management Style

The first step to becoming an effective leader is understanding who you are and how you naturally respond to others. Once you know your instincts you can determine your leadership style. Generally, leaders adapt their style depending on the situation they are in and who they are working with. A leadership style refers to a leader’s methods, characteristics, and behaviors when directing, motivating, and managing their teams. A leader’s style is shaped by a variety of factors, including personality, values, skills, and experiences, and can have a significant impact on the effectiveness of their leadership.

Learning Objective

To understand the different types of leadership styles and help identify your current leadership style and how you can adapt to learn and engage with your employees.   

Below is an overview of the 6 most common leadership styles. Reviewing the most common leadership styles will help you understand your current approach and allow you to see what other ways you can lead. Moving forward, you can use this information, as well as the resources provided in the appendix, to expand your leadership skills and understand how to adapt your style to what is needed in each situation.

Finding your Leadership Style

  • Be flexible! Understanding your leadership style can change and adapt to the situation and people you work with.
  • Use your vision and goals to determine what type of leadership style(s) your team needs.
  • Be authentic and know that leaders make mistakes. You will not handle every situation perfectly, but each situation will help you grow and learn the right leadership style for you and your team.

1. Transformational Leadership

  • A focus on the future: Transformational leaders always look ahead and think about what needs to be done to achieve the organization’s goals. They inspire their followers to do the same.
  • A focus on change: Transformational leaders are comfortable with change. They understand that change and change management is necessary for organizational success. They work to ensure their followers are comfortable with change and can adapt to it through change management principles.
  • A focus on people: Transformational leaders see the potential in every one of their followers. They strive to develop their followers’ individual strengths and abilities so that they can reach their full potential.

2. Delegative Leadership

  • Focuses on delegating initiative to team members. This is generally known as one of the least intrusive forms of leadership.
  • Leaders who adopt this style have trust and rely on their employees to do their jobs. They don’t micromanage or get too involved in providing feedback or guidance. Instead, delegative leaders allow employees to utilize their creativity, resources, and experience to help them meet their goals.

3. Authoritative Leadership

  • Referred to as visionary. Leaders who adopt this style consider themselves mentors to their followers.
  • Leaders chart a course and encourage those around them to follow.

4. Transaction Leadership

  • Often referred to as managerial leadership, is a leadership style that relies on rewards and punishments. This leadership style clearly emphasizes structure, assuming individuals may not possess the motivation needed to complete their tasks.
  • Reward-based system, a leader sets clear team goals or tasks. Leaders also clarify how their teams will be rewarded or work through corrective action to improve.

5. Participatory Leadership

  • Encourages leaders to listen to their employees and involve them in the decision-making process.
  • This leadership style requires leaders to be inclusive, utilize good communication skills, and, crucially, be able to share power/responsibility.

6. Servant Leadership

  • Puts the needs of others first. It emphasizes creating strong relationships with those around you and focuses on enabling them to reach their full potential.
  • As a leader, it requires focusing on understanding the people you are working with and developing their abilities, while also setting a good example and understanding their personal goals.

Additional Information & Resources

Articles

Books

  • The Leadership Challenge; The Truth About Leadership – Kouzes, Posner
  • One Minute Manager – Ken Blanchard
  • Dare to Lead – Brene Brown
  • Emotional Intelligence 2.0; Leadership 2.0 – Travis Bradberry and Jean Greaves
  • Ideal Team Player; Five Dysfunctions of a Team; 6 Types of Working Genius – Patrick Lencioni
  • Start with Why; Leaders Eat Last – Simon Sinek
  • Leading Change; That’s not how we do it here – John Kotter

Videos