Guided Reading Activity 9-3 Styles of Leadership

ten Common Leadership Styles (Plus How To Find Your Own)

Past Indeed Editorial Team

Dec 8, 2021

At some bespeak in your career, you may take on a leadership role. Whether you're leading a coming together, a project, a squad or an entire department, you might consider identifying with or adopting a defined leadership style.

Most professionals develop their own way of leadership based on factors like feel and personality, also as the unique needs of their visitor and its organizational culture. While every leader is different, there are 10 leadership styles commonly used in the workplace.

In this article, nosotros will comprehend the ten most common leadership styles and provide examples and common characteristics of each to aid you determine which leadership mode yous virtually identify with.

Related video: Top 8 Leadership Styles: Definitions and Examples

The importance of developing a leadership style

In an Indeed survey, 55% of employers cited asking almost leadership skills in an interview as the most accurate evaluation of a candidate'southward ability to succeed in a part.¹ As yous develop leadership skills, you'll likely utilize different processes and methods to achieve your employer's objectives and meet the needs of the employees who written report to you. To be effective as a manager, you lot might use several different leadership styles at whatever given time.

By taking the time to familiarize yourself with each of these types of leadership, you lot might recognize certain areas to improve upon or aggrandize your own leadership style. You can also identify other ways to lead that might improve serve your current goals and empathize how to work with managers who follow a different style than your own.

Leadership Styles

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Mutual leadership styles:

Coach (motivational)
Visionary (progress-focused and inspirational)
Servant (humble and protective)
Autocratic (authoritarian and result-focused)
Laissez-faire or hands-off (autocratic and delegatory)
Democratic (supportive and innovative)
Pacesetter (helpful and motivational)
Transformational (challenging and chatty)
Transactional (functioning-focused)
Bureaucratic (hierarchical and duty-focused)

Types of leadership styles

Here are 10 of the virtually mutual leadership styles:

Coaching style
Visionary manner
Servant style
Autocratic style
Laissez-faire manner
Democratic style
Pacesetter mode
Transformational style
Transactional style
Bureaucratic style

In the next section, nosotros'll look at each leadership style in detail in including benefits, challenges and examples of each.

1. Coaching leadership style

A coaching leader is someone who tin quickly recognize their team members' strengths, weaknesses and motivations to assistance each individual improve. This blazon of leader often assists team members in setting smart goals and then provides regular feedback with challenging projects to promote growth. They're skilled in setting articulate expectations and creating a positive, motivating environs.

The charabanc leadership style is 1 of the most advantageous for employers besides as the employees they manage. Unfortunately, it'south often also one of the nigh underused styles—largely because information technology can be more time-intensive than other types of leadership.

You may be a coaching leader if you:

Are supportive
Offer guidance instead of giving commands
Value learning as a fashion of growing
Inquire guided questions
Balance relaying knowledge and helping others detect it themselves
Are self-aware

Benefits: Coaching leadership is positive in nature and it promotes the development of new skills, free-thinking, empowerment, revisits company objectives and fosters a confident company civilisation. Leaders who coach are often seen equally valuable mentors.

Challenges: While this fashion has many advantages, it can be more time consuming every bit information technology requires one-on-one time with employees which tin can be difficult to obtain in a deadline-driven surroundings.

Case: A sales manager gathers their team of business relationship executives for a meeting to discuss learnings from the previous quarter. They start the coming together by completing an assessment of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats regarding the team's performance.

The manager then recognizes specific team members for exceptional performance and goes over the goals achieved by the team. Finally, the manager closes the meeting by announcing a competition to start the next quarter, motivating the salespeople to reach their goals.

Read more than: Coaching Leadership: How To Go a Coaching Leader and When To Use This Style

2. Visionary leadership style

Visionary leaders accept a powerful ability to bulldoze progress and usher in periods of change by inspiring employees and earning trust for new ideas. A visionary leader is also able to establish a strong organizational bond. They strive to foster confidence among directly reports and colleagues akin.

Visionary way is especially helpful for modest, fast-growing organizations, or larger organizations experiencing transformations or corporate restructuring.

You may be a visionary leader if you are:

Persistent and bold
Strategic
Risk-taking
Inspirational
Optimistic
Innovative
Magnetic

Benefits: Visionary leadership can assistance companies grow, unite teams and the overall company and meliorate outdated technologies or practices.

Challenges: Visionary leaders may miss important details or other opportunities because they're and so focused on the big film. They may also sacrifice the resolution of present-day bug because they are more future-oriented, which could exit their team feeling unheard.

Example: A teacher starts a group at work for colleagues who want to aid resolve anxieties and issues students are having outside of school. The goal is to help students accept better focus and succeed in schoolhouse. He has developed testing methods so they can observe meaningful means to help students in a quick, efficient way.

Read more: 14 Traits of Visionary Leaders

3. Servant leadership style

Retainer leaders live by a people-get-go mindset and believe that when team members experience personally and professionally fulfilled, they're more effective and more than likely to regularly produce great work. Because of their accent on employee satisfaction and collaboration, they tend to achieve college levels of respect.

Servant style is an excellent leadership style for organizations of whatever industry and size only is especially prevalent within nonprofits. These types of leaders are exceptionally skilled in building employee morale and helping people re-engage with their work.

You may be a servant leader if you:

Motivate your squad
Have excellent communication skills
Personally intendance about your team
Encourage collaboration and engagement
Commit to growing your squad professionally

Benefits: Servant leaders have the capacity to boost employee loyalty and productivity, improve employee development and decision-making, cultivate trust and create future leaders.

Challenges: Servant leaders can go burnt-out every bit they oftentimes put the needs of their team in a higher place their own They may have a hard fourth dimension being authoritative when they need to be.

Example: A production manager hosts monthly 1-on-i coffee meetings with everyone that has concerns, questions or thoughts about improving or using the product. This fourth dimension is meant for her to accost the needs of and help those who are using the product in any capacity.

Read more than: Retainer Leadership: Definition, Tips and Examples

four. Autocratic leadership fashion

Also called the "authoritarian style of leadership," this type of leader is someone who is focused primarily on results and efficiency. They often make decisions solitary or with a small, trusted group and expect employees to practice exactly what they're asked. It tin exist helpful to recollect of these types of leaders as armed services commanders.

Autocratic mode can exist useful in organizations with strict guidelines or compliance-heavy industries. It can also be beneficial when used with employees who need a neat deal of supervision—such as those with little to no experience. However, this leadership fashion can stifle creativity and make employees feel confined.

You may be an autocratic leader if you:

Have self-conviction
Are cocky-motivated
Communicate clearly and consistently
Follow the rules
Are dependable
Value highly structured environments
Believe in supervised work environments

Benefits: Autocratic leaders tin can promote productivity through delegation, provide clear and direct communication, reduce employee stress by making decisions quickly on their own.

Challenges: Autocratic leaders are often decumbent to loftier levels of stress considering they experience responsible for everything. Since they lack flexibility and often do not want to hear others' ideas, these leaders are frequently resented past the team.

Example: Before an operation, the surgeon carefully recounts the rules and processes of the operation room with every team member who will be helping during the surgery. She wants to ensure everyone is articulate on the expectations and follows each procedure carefully and exactly and then the surgery goes as smoothly equally possible.

Read more: What Is Autocratic Leadership?

5. Laissez-faire or hands-off leadership style

Laissez-faire mode is the opposite of the autocratic leadership type, focusing generally on delegating many tasks to squad members and providing little to no supervision. Considering a laissez-faire leader does non spend their time intensely managing employees, they oftentimes take more time to dedicate to other projects.

Managers may prefer this leadership style when all team members are highly experienced, well-trained and require little oversight. However, it can likewise cause a dip in productivity if employees are confused about their leader's expectations, or if some team members need consistent motivation and boundaries to piece of work well.

You may be a laissez-faire leader if you:

Finer delegate
Believe in freedom of selection
Provide sufficient resources and tools
Volition take command if needed
Offering constructive criticism
Foster leadership qualities in your squad
Promote an autonomous work surroundings

Benefits: This style encourages accountability, creativity and a relaxed work environment which often leads to college employee retention rates.

Challenges: Laissez-faire leadership style does not piece of work well for new employees, equally they demand guidance and easily-on support in the starting time. This method can also lead to a lack of structure, leadership confusion and employees not feeling properly supported.

Case: When welcoming new employees, Keisha explains that her engineers tin set and maintain their own work schedules equally long as they are tracking and striking goals they ready together as a team. They are also free to acquire virtually and participate in projects outside of their squad.

Read more than: Laissez-Faire Leadership: Definition, Tips and Examples

6. Democratic or participative leadership style

The democratic fashion (also chosen the "participative manner") is a combination of the autocratic and laissez-faire types of leaders. A democratic leader is someone who asks for input and considers feedback from their squad before making a decision. Because team members feel their voice is heard and their contributions thing, a democratic leadership way is often credited with fostering higher levels of employee appointment and workplace satisfaction.

Because this type of leadership drives word and participation, it's an excellent style for organizations focused on creativity and innovation—such as the technology industry.

You may be a autonomous/participative leader if you:

Value group discussions
Provide all data to the team when making decisions
Promote a work environment where everyone shares their ideas
Are rational
Are flexible
Are proficient at mediation

Benefits: Nether this leadership style employees can experience empowered, valued and unified. It has the power to boost memory and morale. Information technology also requires less managerial oversight, as employees are typically function of decision-making processes and know what they need to practice.

Challenges: This leadership style has the potential to be inefficient and plush as it takes a long time to organize large group discussions, obtain ideas and feedback, hash out possible outcomes and communicate decisions. It also tin add social force per unit area to members of the squad who don't like sharing ideas in grouping settings.

Case: As a store manager, Jack has hired many brilliant and focused team members he trusts. When deciding on storefronts and floor design, Jack acts only as the final moderator for his squad to movement forward with their ideas. He is there to answer questions and nowadays possible improvements for his team to consider.

Read more: What Is Participative Leadership?

7. Pacesetter leadership style

The pacesetting style is one of the most effective for achieving fast results. Pacesetter leaders are primarily focused on performance, often prepare loftier standards and concord their team members accountable for achieving their goals.

While the pacesetting leadership style is motivational and helpful in fast-paced environments where squad members need to be energized, it's non always the best selection for squad members who need mentorship and feedback.

You lot may be a pacesetter leader if you:

Set a high bar
Focus on goals
Are tiresome to praise
Will jump in to hit goals if needed
Are highly competent
Value functioning over soft skills

Benefits: Pacesetting leadership pushes employees to hit goals and accomplish business objectives. Information technology promotes high-free energy and dynamic work environments.

Challenges: Pacesetting leadership can also pb to stressed-out employees as they are always pushing towards a goal or deadline. The fast-paced work environs tin also create miscommunications or a lack of clear instructions.

Example: The leader of a weekly coming together recognized that an hour out of anybody'southward schedule one time a week did not justify the purpose of the coming together. To increment efficiency, she changed the coming together to a fifteen-minute standup with only those with condition updates.

Related: How To Demonstrate Leadership Skills at Work

8. Transformational leadership mode

The transformational style is similar to the coach style in that information technology focuses on clear advice, goal-setting and employee motivation. Still, instead of placing the majority of the energy into each employee's individual goals, the transformational leader is driven by a commitment to organizational objectives.

Because transformational leaders spend much of their fourth dimension on overarching goals, this style of leading is best for teams that can handle many delegated tasks without abiding supervision.

Yous may be a transformational leader if you:

Have mutual respect with your team
Provide encouragement
Inspires others to achieve their goals
Think of the big flick
Places value on intellectually challenging your team
Are creative
Take a adept agreement of organizational needs

Benefits: Transformational leadership values personal connections with their teams, which tin can boost visitor morale and retention. It also values the ethics of the company and team instead of being entirely goal-oriented.

Challenges: Since transformational leaders look at individuals, information technology tin can cause team or visitor wins to go unnoticed. These leaders can likewise overlook details.

Example: Reyna is hired to lead a marketing department. The CEO asks her to ready new goals and organize teams to reach those objectives. She spends the outset months in her new part getting to know the company and marketing employees. She gains a strong understanding of electric current trends and organizational strengths. Subsequently three months, she has set clear targets for each of the teams that report to her and asked individuals to set goals for themselves that marshal with those.

Related: What Does Leadership Hateful?

9. Transactional leadership way

A transactional leader is someone who is laser-focused on operation, like to a pacesetter. Under this leadership style, the director establishes predetermined incentives—usually in the grade of monetary reward for success and disciplinary action for failure. Different the pacesetter leadership way, though, transactional leaders are as well focused on mentorship, educational activity and training to attain goals and enjoy the rewards.

While this type of leader is swell for organizations or teams tasked with hit specific goals, such equally sales and revenue, it'south not the best leadership style for driving inventiveness.

You may be a transactional leader if you lot:

Value corporate structure
Micromanage
Don't question authority
Are practical and pragmatic
Value goal-hitting
Are reactionary

Benefits: Transactional leaders facilitate the achievement of goals, through brusk-term goals and a clearly defined structure.

Challenges: Being overly focused on brusk-term goals and non having long-term goals can cause a visitor to struggle with arduousness. This style stifles creativity and is unmotivating to employees who are non incentivized by monetary rewards.

Example: A banking concern branch manager meets with each member of the team bi-weekly to discuss means they tin encounter and exceed monthly company goals to go their bonuses. Each of the tiptop x performers in the district receives a monetary reward.

Read more: What Is Transactional Leadership?

ten. Bureaucratic leadership style

Bureaucratic leaders are like to autocratic leaders in that they expect their squad members to follow the rules and procedures precisely as written.

The bureaucratic mode focuses on fixed duties within a hierarchy where each employee has a gear up list of responsibilities, and there is little need for collaboration and creativity. This leadership style is most effective in highly regulated industries or departments, such equally finance, health care or government.

You may be a bureaucratic leader if you:

Are particular-oriented and task-focused
Value rules and structure
Have a great work ethic
Are stiff-willed
Take a commitment to your arrangement
Are self-disciplined

Benefits: The bureaucratic leadership style can exist efficient in organizations that need to follow strict rules and regulations. Each person in the team/company has a conspicuously defined role which leads to efficiency. These leaders separate work from relationships to avert clouding the team's ability to hitting goals.

Challenges: This style does non promote creativity which can experience restricting to some employees. This leadership manner is also slow to change and does not thrive in an environment that needs to be dynamic.

Example: Managers at a Department of Motor Vehicles office instruct their employees to work within a specific, defined framework. They must take many steps to complete a task with strict society and rules.

How to choose and develop your leadership style

As someone who is interested in the leadership path or looking for more than structure in their leadership approach, it can exist helpful to choose a leadership style that feels authentic to you. Some questions you may ask yourself when trying to determine which mode is right for you include:

What do I value more—goals or relationships?
Practice I believe in structure or liberty of selection?
Would I rather make a decision on my own, or collectively?
Practice I focus on short or long-term goals?
Does motivation come from empowerment or management?
What does a salubrious team dynamic look similar to me?

These are only a few examples of questions to ask yourself while reading through leadership styles to help you determine which style you relate most with. To develop your leadership style consider these strategies:

Experiment. Effort out varied approaches in different circumstances and pay attention to the result. Be flexible in changing out your arroyo.
Seek a mentor. Speaking with a leader with more experience than yourself can offering great insight into how they developed their style and what worked for them.
Ask for feedback. Although sometimes hard to hear, constructive feedback helps you abound into a successful leader. Seek feedback from individuals y'all trust that volition give you an honest answer.
Be authentic. If yous are trying to perfect a leadership mode that is in opposition to your personality or morals, it will come across as inauthentic. Try to cull a leadership style that'due south in alignment with your strengths and work to improve it.

While a sure leadership style may be impactful in a specific chore—for example, autocratic leaders tend to do well in military machine settings—the all-time leadership is using a alloy of these styles. Knowing what style to enforce in workplace situations comes with fourth dimension, exercise and emotional intelligence. Think, most leaders infringe from a multifariousness of styles to attain various goals at unlike times in their careers.

While you may have excelled in a part using i type of leadership, another position may require a different set up of habits to ensure your squad is operating nigh effectively. By understanding each of these leadership types, and the outcomes they're designed to attain, yous can select the right leadership style for your current situation.

Related: 7 Types of Workplace Direction Theories

¹ Indeed employer-based study by US Decipher/Focus Vision (Base: all respondents, N=1,000)

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Source: https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/10-common-leadership-styles