Different Styles of Leadership

Transformational leaders don’t start by denying the world around them. Instead, they describe a future they’d like to create.

—–Seth Godin

Also known as democratic leadership, participatory leadership is the most common form of leadership practiced in the corporate world and the political scene. The participatory leadership model favors group decision-making. In this model, the leader consults his team and seeks his opinion, making the decision later. Compared to the autocratic leadership model, this model allows team members’ views to be heard and encourages team members to participate, hence its name. It is worth noting that in this leadership style, the decision is still made by the leader, only it is based on opinions and perspectives from the team as a whole.

Participatory leadership is thriving as a leadership style that allows for complete decision-making. Allows a team to make a decision together. Often, a leader would seek the teams opinion and encourage discussion and debate to stimulate the team’s thinking process. In this way, each team member would feel that their views are being listened to and, even if their opinions are not accepted, I know that it was for a reason and not just overlooked or ignored. This, according to Patrick Lencioni in his book “Five Dysfunctions of a Team”, is essential in making the buy-in, the failure of which would lead to a dysfunction of a team.

The decision-making process of a participatory leader is known as the consult and decide method. In his book, “The First 90 Days”, Michael Watkins explained that the way of consultation and decision is essentially the group’s brainstorming and the decision to be made by the leader. This is the opposite of both the search for ideas and the decision to be made by the leader. The team also has a role in directing the decision by participating in discussions.

However, participatory leadership can fail if the team is relatively inexperienced. For example, if a team that decides on the appearance of a physical product sold is a company made up mostly of freshers, the quality of discussions and debates about the final decision would be superficial and possibly even irrelevant, so deciding how the product should be will not be well thought out. A prerequisite for effective participatory leadership is to have a sufficiently experienced and competent team at work.

Participatory leadership is vital in the corporate world, as decisions often have consequences at many levels and would require the input and expertise of different professionals. Also, the pace of events often does not allow for a free leadership style in which the leader enables the team to reach a consensus with a luxury of time.

Which is the Best Style of Leadership?

Leadership style varies from leader to leader. It is difficult to predict the kind of the next leader. Leaders’ sorts are decided not only based on the person’s personality but also the situation and the type of followers. Leadership styles are generally classified into three categories.

1. Authoritarian: The leader decides everything without consulting anyone.

2. Participatory (democratic): The leader decides everything after consulting the people responsible for the implementation of the decision.

3. Delegate (Laissez-Faire): The leader delegates his power to another person who decides everything on behalf of the leader.

A good leader uses all three types of styles to give leadership to his people. However, some classes are more suitable at a specific time and situation.

Authoritarian styles are best suited in war situations when there is a matter of life and death. You cannot afford to waste time in discussions and consultations. The leader must accept the call based on intuition and the best judgment. There is very little information available because it is difficult to know everything about the enemy. However, even in such a situation, if the leader tries to force his decision, the followers can withdraw if they do not have much faith in the leadership. This can lead to the collapse of the administration and the defeat of the group. However, if the leader is the most competent person in the group and the followers trust his ability, the authoritarian style can produce the best result in such a situation.

The participatory leadership style is best suited to achieving the long-term goals of the organization. It is said that two minds are better than one. Therefore, if the decision is made after the participation of many brilliant minds, the future strategy may be a sign of failure. Brainstorming can be constructive in solving complex problems and finding a lasting solution. However, the selection of participants is essential in such decisions. Even a single negative or pessimistic thinker can indeed sabotage the efforts of many brilliant minds. This leadership works best when the leader and participants have similar intelligence and expertise and respect each other.

Delegated leadership style is best suited for larger organizations where talented people are available at lower ranks. The leader, instead of being an expert in any field, must be an expert of experts. He must have the ability to choose the best man on his team and assign the task that can be done by his people better than the leader.

The delegated work’s nature should be essential but routine, and no central creativity by the commissioned leader should be required. There must be absolute trust between the leader and the team members. The leader’s delegative style makes the leader focus on more critical issues and focus his energy on achieving its vision. Is it hard to say which is the best style? A good leader must use all three leadership styles to lead his people. Every good organization has all three types of work, all three types of situations, and all three people. A leader must know how to make the best use of everyone to achieve the organization’s vision.

Leadership Tips and Techniques –

Earning Trust and Respect: Influential leaders can continually study leadership tips and techniques, but becoming an excellent leader always comes down to gaining your team’s trust and respect. Any method you could learn about an effective team leader cannot be accomplished without having a cohesive unit. The most important part of leading a conflict-free team is to have that confidence and respect before implementing any other training techniques.

Be authentic: Anyone can notice a fake leader. You know those employers or managers who come to work and do an act for others. He may do this to hide personal problems, or he may need to have a particular reputation. However, as a leader, it is essential to show your team your true self. Be the person you are and be truly authentic.

Make it exciting – Keeping any project interesting will help supervisors and managers keep those they lead interested in continuing when things can collapse around them. Creativity and a reward system of a particular type will always motivate employees to follow their leaders.

Reward effort – A reasonable solid effort should not go unnoticed, despite the actions taken. While you did, don’t want to give the impression that a job worth doing isn’t a job worth doing well; you also don’t want to discourage your team from moving on after a failure or setback. A reward can be as simple as a few positive words to support and motivate them to try harder next time.

Take the blame: Leadership is not about dictatorship and leadership over others. While certain management styles will require this apparent break between boss and subordinate, leaders must appear to be part of the team. Therefore, when failures occur, supervisors and leading managers should not blame the rest of the group.

When looking for the latest business leadership tips and techniques, keep in mind that you must first have a team willing to follow you before you can lead them to a vision of any kind. By being yourself and keeping it real, you show those you lead that you are honest and trustworthy. Keep your team motivated by your optimistic example. Show them that you are worthy of their respect, rewarding their efforts and accepting responsibility as a team for the challenges that arise.

Practical Leadership Training Is A Must

Effective leadership is the source of any manager who wants to succeed in his career. Several companies have accepted the truth that leadership is not just pure instinct. Still, practical organization training in leadership skills can be an excellent technique for every executive to develop leadership traits.

Over the years, leadership styles have changed dramatically and are often in a short space of time. Therefore, the development of a person’s leadership skills is essential; by training them, a company will receive a manager with all the latest techniques to supervise an effective team and be a worthy leader of a group. So, what are the significant factors that the leadership development training program achieves for managers? First, any corporation that spends time and money on leadership training programs is looking forward to new skills that need to be acquired, and one imperative is motivational skills.

The training will prepare a manager to inspire his employees to achieve their goals as quickly and competently as possible and teach them to ensure that the person reaches their individual goals within the corporation. Essential for any manager who wants to be a successful leader.

The leadership training program can also educate a manager on how to unite a team. In the administrative center, it is the manager’s duty to bring people together and divert them into a well-prepared competent team to achieve its objectives through unique methods trained in leadership training. A manager can study how to achieve the cooperation of an individual and achieve admiration, which is a critical skill for any manager to acquire.

Perhaps the most significant skill that can be improved by training in leadership organization development is high-quality people’s skills. High-quality people’s skills are critical if you want to guide a team of employees, and communicate with them is necessary for any team that works fully. Leadership training will educate someone to prove themselves to be a better manager and leave them with an understanding of what makes a good manager.

Today there are two categories of managers. One that motivates and then guides those who supervise, through training in leadership development, a manager will be exposed to executing both practices to achieve unique goals. Management is not easy; it requires a specific type of person who has certain leadership qualities and an abundance of ambition.

However, no one is a definite article. Through leadership training, an excellent manager can become more than someone who sees their social group process and can become true leaders who bring a vast domino effect to a company. Therefore, each company needs to work on their employees’ practical training to achieve all their objectives in a shorter period with achievements.

How to Stay One Step Ahead as a Leader

There have been many written books, lectures, and seminars attended by the definition of leadership or how you can become a more effective leader. However, you can boil all these different courses into three main types of leadership styles:

The first is the laissez-faire leadership style. Here you take a “hands-off”” approach that minimizes the amount of guidance you give to those you manage. This is effective as long as you have highly trained and motivated staff or project team working with you. These are the type of people who can operate with low direction and supervision and consistently get positive results.

Another standard leadership style is the autocratic leadership style. This type of leadership is often characterized by its almost dictatorial feeling of control over others. Some of the larger organizations, their CEOs, and those who run these companies fall into this category. This works well for those who need direct supervisory control over them and a clearly defined set of tasks and activities to perform.

And then, there is the participatory leadership style. Here you bring those you manage in the decision-making process to participate in sharing these decisions. This leadership style is great for smaller, closely related teams heading towards the same endpoint.

Several other styles, including situational leadership, emerging leadership, transactional leadership, transformational leadership, visionary leadership, strategic leadership, facilitator leadership, and the list, goes on and on with all the different styles. However, I think leadership can be summed up in six simple words. You have to be one step ahead of the leader. You can do this in a few ways:

You need to look far enough ahead to see the next goal. You are in front. Others will follow from behind you.

You need to remove obstacles so that others can easily reach this goal. This can be done by applying more resources or training for skills or any other actions required to advance.

Although there are several different leaderships and driving styles, stay one step ahead. If you are in this position, you will be much more effective as a leader. Your team will appreciate that you are clearing your way, which will allow them to stay focused on completing the work they need to complete the project.

Good books have been written on “Styles of Leadership”. Some of them include: –