TYPES OF LEADERSHIP STYLES

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The best way to have a good idea, is to have a lot of ideas. Dr. Linus Pauling (Two times
winner of the Nobel Prize).

by Murray Johannsen. (March 9, 2014). Feel free to connect with the

author by Linkedin, Google+ or by email.
This article lists 20 different leadership styles. With each style is a short
definition designed to highlight the essential makeup of each leadership style.
Styles Overview
When developing your leadership skills, you must soon ask yourself, What
leadership style work best for me and my organization? To answer this question, its
best to understand that there are many from which to choose and as part of

your leadership development effort, you should consider developing as many

leadership styles as possible.
In fact, choosing the right style, at the right time in the right situation is a key element
of leader effectiveness. Thats not what most people dothey have one style used in
many situations. Its like having only one suit or one dress, something you wear
everywhere. Of course, all of us would agree that having only one set of clothes is
ridiculous. But then, so is having only one leadership style.
Some styles overlap (i.e. charisma and transformational); some can be used
together (facilitative and team leadership); others are used less frequently (strategic
and cross-cultural); and some are polar opposites (autocratic & participative). Below
is a detailed description of all these styles.

Twenty Leadership Styles

1. The Autocratic Leadership Style

David and Ingres, before 1815: Portraits of Napoleon I. Notice the symbols of
authority in each portrait.
One leadership style dimension has to do with control and ones perception of how
much control one should give to others. For example, the laissez faire style implies
low control, the autocratic style requires high control while the participative one lies
somewhere in between. Kurt Lewin (1939) called these styles:authoritative,
participative (democratic) or delegative (Laissez Faire).
Take an on-line Quiz on these Leadership Styles
Partly, your style choice on the control dimension is a matter of personal choice. The
style has its advocates, but it is falling out of favor due to the many weaknesses of
autocratic leadership. Some people have argued that the style is popular with
todays CEOs, who have much in common with the feudal lords of Medieval Europe.
2. Bureaucratic Leadership

An autocrat doesnt require a bureaucracy, but the autocrat and the bureaucracy
goes together like a hand and glove. One reason has be do with obedience to
authority. In fact, one can make an argument that in large groups such as the
multinational corporations and government agencies authority is the most common
type of influence used.
3. The Coaching Style
A groom used to spend whole days in currycombing and rubbing down
his Horse, but at the same time stole his oats and sold them for his own
profit. Alas! said the Horse, if you really wish me to be in good
condition, you should groom me less, and feed me more. Aesops Fables.
A great coach is definitely a leader who also possess a unique gifts ability
to teach and train.They groom people to improve both knowledge and
skill.
4. Cross-Cultural Leadership
Not all individuals can adapt to the leadership styles expected in a different culture
whether that culture is organizational or national. In fact, there is some evidence
that American and Asian Leadership Styles are very different, primarily due
to cultural factors.
5. Emergent Leadership
The superior man understands what is right; the inferior man understands what will
sell. Confucius
Contrary to the belief of many, groups dont automatically accept a new boss as
leader. Emergent leadership is what you must do when one taking over a new
group.
6. The Leader Exchange Style
Sometimes known as leader-member exchange, the style involves the exchange of
favors between two individuals. An exchange can be hierarchical between the boss
and subordinate or occur between two individuals of equal status. For this leadership
style to work, you need to know how to develop, maintain and repair relationships.
7. The Laissez Faire Leadership Style
The style is largely a hands off view that tends to minimize the amount of direction
and face time required. Works well if you have highly trained, highly motivated direct
reports.
8. Situational Leadership
In the 1950s, management theorists from Ohio State University and the University of
Michigan published a series of studies to determine whether leaders should be more
task or relationship (people) oriented. The importance of the research cannot be over
estimated since leaders tend to have a dominant style; a leadership style they use in
a wide variety of situations.

Surprisingly, the research discovered that there is no one best style: leaders must
adjust their leadership style to the situation as well as to the people being
led. Hershey and Blanchards Model of Situational Leadership. Going back to the
1970s, the model primarily focuses on the nature of the task as the major variable in
choosing your style. In this model, there are four options: telling, selling, participating
and delegating.
9 Strategic Leadership
This is practiced by the military services such as the US Army, US Air Force, and
many large corporations. It stresses the competitive nature of running an
organization and being able to out fox and out wit the competition.
10. Team Leadership
A few years ago, a large corporation decided that supervisors were no longer
needed and those in charge were suddenly made team leaders. Today, companies
have gotten smarter about how to exert effective team leadership, but it still takes
leadership to transition a group into a team.
11. Facilitative Leadership
This is a special style that anyone who runs a meeting can employ. Rather than
being directive, one using the facilitative leadership style uses a number of
indirect communication patterns to help the group reach consensus.
12. Influence Leadership Styles

Legacees Nine Spheres Model: The Elements of Social Influence

Here one looks at the behaviors associated how one exercises influence. For
example, does the person mostly punish? Do they know how to reward?
13. The Participative Leadership Style

Its hard to order and demand someone to be creative, perform as a team, solve
complex problems, improve quality, and provide outstanding customer service. The
participative style presents a happy medium between over controlling
(micromanaging) and not being engaged and tends to be seen in organizations that
must innovate to prosper.
14. The Servant Leadership Style
The Roots Of Our Problems Are: Wealth Without Work, Pleasure Without Conscience,
Knowledge Without Character, Commerce Without Morality, Science Without Humanity,
Worship Without Sacrifice, Politics Without Principles. Mohandas K. Gandhi
Some leaders have put the needs of their followers first. For example, the motto of
the Los Angeles Police Department, To Protect and Serve. reflects this philosophy
of service. But one suspects servant leadership are relatively rare in business. Its
hard to imagine a CEO who puts the needs of employees first before the needs of
the stockholders and the bankers.
Since transformational leaders to take their followers into the light or into the
darkness, its helpful to have a set of values that uplift, rather than destroy. One such
set of values known as servant leadership. While this leadership style has been
around for thousands of years, the American Robert Greenleaf coined the term
servant leader in 1970 in his book The Servant as Leader.
This style rests on a set of assumptions (Greenleaf, 1983). In this case, it is not the
leader who benefits most, it is the followers. We have leaders not acting selfishly, but
socially. A second aspect to this is an orientation toward service with a primary
orientation toward using moral authority. Finally, the approach emphasizes certain
positive values such as trust, honestly, fairness and so on.
15. The Transformational Leadership Style
Nothing so needs reforming as other peoples habits Mark Twain
The primary focus of the transformational leadership style is to make change
happen in:

Our Self,
Others,
Groups, and
Organizations

The transformational style requires a number of different skills and is closely

associated with two other leadership styles: charismatic and visionary leadership.
16. The Charismatic Style

Throw away those books and cassettes on inspirational leadership. Send those consultants
packing. Know your job, set a good example for the people under you and put results over
politics. Thats all the charisma youll really need to succeed. Dyan Machan.
Do You Need Charisma? So do you need the charismatic leadership style? The
answer is no. One can be a small cog in the great machine. However, it you want to
be a leader, if you want to have followers, if you want to do anything great, you better
have it.Transformational leaders need a bit of charisma. But if you are in a large
bureaucratic organization, you can use your authority and the power associated with
the position. Indeed, most people in large organizations lack charisma.
17. The Visionary Leadership Style

A symbol of
the concept of Manifest Destinya strong held national belief (at the time) that
opportunity lay on the West coastprimarily to California. It become a vision
for many.

Visionary leaders often are able to capture the yearnings of the in statements such
as the example below:
Washington Is Not A Place To Live In. The Rents Are High, The Food Is Bad, The Dust Is
Disgusting And The Morals Are Deplorable. Go West, Young Man, Go West And Grow Up
With The Country. July 1865, Horace Greely Concerning Americas Expansion To The
West.
The vision thing is something all great leaders have. It was seen through
out history in the great ones. For example, Alexander the Great clearly
had a vision of how to make an empire work.Visionary leadership has
many different elements to it.
Its surprising how few leaders really have a clear view of what is
happening socially or economically in their industry, nation or globally. In
one respect, you might say they are blind. Leaders need a vision, but
great leadership turns that vision into reality. So remember:
If the blind shall lead the blind, both with fall into the ditch. The Bible, Matthew 15:14
18. Transactional Leadership
The approach emphasizes getting things done within the umbrella of the
status quo; almost in opposition to the goals of the transformational
leadership. Its considered to be a by the book approach in which the
person works within the rules. As such, its more commonly seen in large,
bureaucratic organizations where political considerations are part of daily
life.
19. Level 5 Leadership

This term was coined by Jim Collins in his book Good to Great: Why Some Companys
Make the Leap and Other Dont. As Collins says in his book, We were surprised,
shocked really, to discover the types of leadership required for turning a good
company into a great one. What he seems to have found is what The
Economist calls, The Cult of the Faceless Boss.
20. Primal Leadership Style
It would seem that just when you have it all sorted out, someone invents a new set of
labels. Golemans model of leadership is a relatively recent addition to the
pantheon of leadership style. In this case, it is Danel Goleman. A psychologist who
can write in more scholar English, he was one of the major people who popularized
Emotional Intelligence and then followed it up with a book called Primal Leadership.
Worth taking a look at. Its based on the application of emotional intelligence to
leadership. The six leadership styles one can use are:

coaching,
pace setting,
democratic,
affinitive,
authoritative and
coercive

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