Leadership styles

Leadership Styles

What is leadership? Simply put, a leader is someone who can manage and harness the strength of a team, master their communication with that team, maximize its effectiveness, know themselves and understand their aspirations, live their aspirations, and acquire the right mindset, etc.

They must be able to demonstrate certain emotional, personal, and rational qualities. Generally, there are several models of leadership. Not all leaders have the same leadership styles. Through this article, we will share with you some of these types of leadership.

The Different Types of Leadership

When you become aware of these different leadership styles, it is good to know that the best leaders do not function solely in one type of leadership, but rather alternate between all types depending on the situation and the challenges they face. They first opt for the type of leadership that will be most effective in solving the problem.

Authoritarian Leadership

Authoritarian leadership could be summarized by this phrase: “do what I say.” It is a directive leadership style focused on authority for the immediate execution of the assigned task. It is less about the overall vision of an organization and human relations.

Authoritarian leadership offers certain advantages, such as time efficiency, clear objectives that are easy to achieve, and alleviating pressure. Compared to alkaloid leadership, it is used during crises, with certain disruptive collaborators, and also when quick and concerted results are desired.

It is a leadership style that cannot be used long-term in managing an organization because it leads to poor morale, mediocre performance, lack of connection with collaborators, lack of creativity, and will have negative effects on the results of that organization.

Participative Leadership

This is a democratic type of leadership, which operates with collective intelligence. It therefore calls for the opinions of team members to contribute to the proper functioning of the organization. Everyone expresses themselves, brings their creativity, their innovation. It allows for a variety of solutions to a posed problem.

Democratic leadership always seeks the agreement of the majority and is open to their opinions. We then have staff who feel valued and give all their energy for the smooth running of the organization. It is therefore a type of leadership based on the collaboration of all. However, it finds its limits when it comes to making quick decisions for urgent problem-solving.

Visionary Leadership

Gathering around a common vision, it is characterized by charismatic leadership. Visionary leadership shows the path where the organization and the team collectively want to orient themselves. It is a communicating leader, who delivers a “why” and gives meaning to the work to be done.

Different from directive leadership, this one gives freedom to its collaborators the reins and the means to achieve the accomplishment of the vision of the organization that they share with them. The leader communicates with their team, pushing them towards motivation and inspiration.

Laissez-faire Leader

Characterized by lax management, this is a leadership style that avoids any difficult situations, i.e., confrontations, conflicts, etc. Furthermore, it avoids taking a position on the subjects for which they are responsible. Laissez-faire leadership is indifferent to the results obtained by their team as well as their well-being.

A proponent of minimal effort, the laissez-faire leader does the bare minimum to retain their position. With laissez-faire leadership, the manager or leader actually evaluates the abilities and competencies of each of their members.

They test their degree of autonomy, mastery of their position, and the organization’s activity. Consequently, there is a chronic dysfunction within the organization and a permanent challenge from collaborators.

Agile Leadership

More attentive to the broader context in which their stakeholders operate, agile leadership is strong in the agility of context. It is a type of leadership that pays more attention to managing work relationships within their team and also to the organizational culture that governs these relationships.

Agile leadership works with a strategic orientation and a strong interest in achieving long-term results. It is a leader who excels in personal leadership, characterized by a more assertive attitude towards themselves.

Agile leadership is also a more creative thinker. They develop a vision that has personal meaning for them and for all their collaborators.

Autocratic Leadership

Contrary to collaborative leadership, it is a type of leadership where only the leader makes decisions unilaterally, without the consent of their subordinates. This type of leadership is advantageous when the decisions made are good and contribute to the improvement of the organization.

However, autocratic leadership creates a gap between the leader and the subordinates. It will therefore be difficult for employees wanting to provide their viewpoints in solving a problem and also desiring more authority to accept it.

Not too pleasant for subordinates, but also effective when time is limited for decision-making. Autocratic leadership thus gives orders and expects results. Focused on threats and punishments, it can lead to dissatisfaction among subordinates, resulting in their resignation.

Feminine Leadership

Feminine leadership is based on qualities of empathy, listening, which helps to gain the team’s trust, kindness, etc. Based on the pursuit of harmony, which consists of betting on exchange and sharing for perfect federation among team members, feminine leadership allows for creativity that invites the exploration of new avenues.

Having an influence derived from psychological, social, or political origins, feminine leadership begins to establish new management practices in various departments. It is also a source of inspiration for transformational leadership.

Conscious Leadership

Conscious leadership is about having a mind that is sufficiently available and open to making the fairest decisions and also being clear-sighted. Conscious leadership always creates space to breathe. It thus deals with everything around it. Namely, its teams, clients, shareholders, hierarchy, etc.

Conscious leadership is driven by focus, clear vision, creativity, and the spirit of comparison, making the organization a space where interpersonal relationships are based on respect, kindness, compassion, and trust. They realize that other collaborators are like them.

That is to say, they have the same desire to be happy, to succeed, and they also suffer. So, it is good to be more authentic with them. It is thus a very beneficial leadership force for good cohesion within an organization.

Effective Leadership

Effective leadership is characterized by efficiency, competence, and assurance. It is one that can motivate its team to accomplish various tasks in order to achieve the objectives set by a group or organization. It is therefore a leader who is capable of taking risks and managing them, defining a mission for their team, promoting the core values of their team, possessing a spirit of creativity and endurance.

The effective leader always maintains realism and optimizes, setting an example through observable and measurable competence symbols, and works with a clear vision and mobilization around resources.

Capable of managing conflicts within their team in an impartial manner, it is a leader who combines well-done work and relaxation to allow their team to unwind after moments spent working.

Ethical Leadership

Ethical leadership is the type of moral leadership that acts according to its ethical beliefs, values, dignity, and the rights of others. In the course of exercising their work, they do what is right, even if it might hurt. It is an individual who feels concerned about morality and virtuous behaviors.

Ethical leadership is one that defines and aligns its values, recruits collaborators with the same values, and supports open communication and collaboration. For an effective leader, the ethical leader paves the way in which they want others to follow.

Setting an example is the best way to ensure ethical business practices. Adopting such an attitude shows respect and affirms that you truly believe in the members of your team and trust them as well.

However, recruiting collaborators with the same values could be a hindrance to task completion. It would be more important to opt for recruiting individuals with different experiences. This way, everyone can bring more challenges to the development of the organization.

Intercultural Leadership

Intercultural leadership makes an analysis and establishes strategies aimed at managing the cultural differences inherent in intercultural teams. Cultural differences are the representations and values that characterize each culture.

Because culture has effects on our behavior, our values, and our perceptions. Also, this culture shapes our working habits. Thus, intercultural leadership is one that demonstrates a willingness to understand differences and shows a certain flexibility. This type of leadership remains rare among leaders.

Mobilizing Leadership

Mobilizing leadership is a type of leadership that promotes the engagement and federation of employees. This is very advantageous for the functioning of an organization.

We thus see employees who place great importance on the leader’s ability to evolve and question themselves. Working collectively, mobilizing leadership brings together the energies of all team members towards a common goal.

This first gathers their own energies and then mobilizes. When employees face more difficult moments, the mobilizing leader generally finds psychological support from their colleagues and supervisor.

Natural Leadership

Natural leadership is one that spontaneously stands out in a collective and facilitates its progress. It is therefore a leadership style that ensures that others feel confident, make decisions, express their expectations, challenge people to think, lead by example, ensure continuous feedback, appropriately deploy and distribute talent, ask questions and seek advice, avoid procrastination, and cultivate a positive attitude and energy.

Negative Leadership

Negative leadership is opposed to mobilizing leadership. It is therefore a type of toxic, malicious, destructive, or abusive leadership. Negative leadership is recognized by a number of behaviors that it adopts. Some of these include:

Tendency to add their two cents to all discussions or decisions (taking up too much space)

• Tendency to compare, evaluate others, and pass judgment
• Making destructive remarks or using sarcasm to appear interesting
• Starting their responses with a “no” or a “yes, but”
• Listening to respond and not to understand, wanting to prove to others that they are right, discrediting others’ opinions
• Acting on impulse and using emotionality to manage
• Wanting to prove at all costs that it won’t work, or being an eternal dissatisfied
• Refusing to share information to gain an advantage
• Demonstrating an inability to recognize the efforts of others
• Taking credit that they do not deserve
• Blaming past events to explain the present or constantly recounting their past successes
• Treating certain people unfairly or showing favoritism
• Having an excessive need to express themselves on everything (“big ego”)
• Being impatient and acting impulsively without assessing the consequences
• Becoming emotional, sarcastic, or aggressive in the face of the unexpected
• Struggling to cope with changes and failure and refusing to step out of their comfort zone
• Placing too much importance on details and demonstrating a controlling management style
• Focusing on their personal goals more than those of the organization or choosing solutions that highlight them
• Struggling to accept being questioned or criticized
• Bypassing rules to serve their own interests

Organizational Leadership

Organizational leadership is the style of leadership that places the organization and its imperatives at the center of its actions and communication. It works with targeted objectives, namely:

• Creating an open attitude conducive to achieving profitability, effectiveness, and organizational growth
• Properly aligning organizational elements within an established and coherent system
• Outlining the steps of the engagement process to achieve total buy-in from resources
• Considering the organizational function as a fundamental element of success

Shared Leadership

Shared leadership serves to mobilize collective intelligence. It is a type of leadership where power is shared between the formal leader and their collaborators, with the aim of achieving a common goal. While maintaining the authority link, the team is collectively responsible for efforts and results.

It is therefore a collective and participative leadership, in which employees collectively share certain leadership roles and activities, taking into account each one’s skills to achieve a common mission. It offers several advantages:

• Collaborators feel recognized since they are stakeholders in the decisions, which has a positive effect on mobilization, well-being at work, and emotional engagement.
• The sharing of knowledge, best practices, and ideas is an inexhaustible source of innovation and professional development.
• The effectiveness of teams and their adaptability are increased, even those working remotely.
• This style of leadership allows for differentiation and contributes to attracting high-potential employees.
• Managers can be assisted by competent collaborators to tackle complex challenges they face.

1. Situational Leadership

Situational leadership works with two visions to supervise its activities. It focuses its efforts either on the tasks to be accomplished or on the relational contact with its teammates. When it emphasizes tasks, situational leadership believes that team members need attentive support to accomplish the assigned tasks.

On the other hand, when it believes in relational contact, it is because it considers that team members have the necessary skills and autonomy to accomplish their tasks.

Situational leadership makes use of considerations, expressions of trust, encouragement, and recognition to increase the self-esteem of its collaborators when the work performed is effective.

A perfect understanding of situational leadership allows the team leader to identify the attitude to implement to optimally utilize their teammates.

2. Transactional Leadership

Transactional leadership relies on the use of rewards in the form of recognition or public remuneration to encourage employees and also to impose their place as a leader. It is a style of leadership based on constant exchange and negotiation between the work done and its counterpart.

It is therefore a leadership system that produces stability and efficiency in the pursuit of short-term goals. Transactional leaders are focused on optimizing the business day-to-day, neglecting future development.

With well-distributed tasks among employees, transactional leadership achieves the short-term objectives set. Because each employee knows where they are going and what they need to do. Transactional leadership allows for a perfectly organized and predictable equilibrium system. There is no risk of conflict, as feelings are inhibited between leaders and employees. The transactional leader proves effective in situations where every element is quantifiable but also for managing crisis situations.

With the transactional leadership system, it must be said that employees lose the intrinsic value of work and also the essential reasons for motivation. We thus have employees who are no longer able to go beyond their efforts. They limit themselves to accomplishing their various tasks. This perspective is detrimental to innovation and the development of creativity.

The 5 Leadership Styles

There are several types of leadership, but among them, here are the 5 most recognized and practiced leadership styles:

1. Delegative Leadership (Laissez-faire)

This is an invisible leader, with a type of management whose goal is to distribute the various tasks.

2. Autocratic Leadership

This one is interventionist. The relationship between the autocratic leader and the rest of the team is unidirectional. The leader gives directives and does not pay attention to possible feedback from employees.

3. Democratic Leadership

This one tries to maximize bidirectional communication. Democratic leadership does direct, but does not forget the importance of being sensitive to the feedback that the group provides regarding the decisions they may make. This type of leadership is ideal for a prepared group, but that is not characterized by overflowing motivation.

4. Transactional Leadership

This is a leader who focuses more on objectives. They are the driving force of the group’s motivation. Transactional leadership performs its functions by granting rewards or imposing punishments depending on the situations. This type of leader is good for long and tedious processes where the team should neither find nor can easily find intrinsic motivation for the goal to be achieved.

5. Transformational Leadership

Transformational leadership aims to motivate the team. It works to achieve its objectives while not neglecting other goals. It is more effective when it comes to leading a team that does not present a high degree of knowledge or motivation and within which the pressure to achieve the main objectives is not great.