Leadership Styles - The Ultimate Checklist

Sit back, close your eyes and think about yourself. How would you label your own leadership style and which style would you like others to attribute to you? Also, sit back, close your eyes and think about the leaders around you. I'm sure as you do this, each one of them will come to you associated with a label that is reflective of their leadership style. Your label may not be scientific. Maybe the label is simply good or bad relative to your own experience. Let's go through a list of 12 leadership styles, how they are defined and what they stand for. The first one Democratic Leadership Also known as shared leadership Leadership that's a style in which members of a group take a more participative role in the decision making process. Autocratic Leadership Also known as authoritarian leadership. That's exemplified when a leader dictates policies and procedures, decides what goals are to be achieved, and directs and controls all activities without any meaningful participation of others. Laissez Faire leadership, also known as delegative leadership, is a style in which leaders are hands off and allow group members to make the decisions. Number four Strategic Leadership that's the ability to influence others to voluntarily make decisions that enhance the prospects for long term success while maintaining short term financial stability. 5. Transformational leadership that's defined as a leadership approach that causes change in individuals and social systems. It creates valuable and positive change in the followers with the end goal of developing followers into leaders. Number six Transactional Leadership A transactional leader is someone who values order and structure and they are likely in situations that require rules and regulations in order to complete objectives. 7. Coaching leadership A style that involves and facilitates the engagement of people as well as drawing out and understanding and empathizing with their spirit specific and individual motivations. 8. Bureaucratic leadership A system of management whereby employees are made to follow specific rules and lines of authority created by superiors. These leaders function based on official regulation fixed by higher authorities within the organization. 9. Pacesetter A pacesetting leader is someone who ensures pace and structure within the team members and motivates them with clear expectations of quality and strict deadlines. 10. Well known servant Leadership A servant leader focuses primarily on the growth and well being of people. The servant leader shares power but puts the needs of others first and helps people develop and perform as highly as possible. 11. Charismatic leadership it involves a type of leadership in which authority derives from the charisma of the leader. 12. Chameleon leadership A leader in disguised overly involved in career development, considers the team, their extended family and tenure for this leader is a goal in and of itself. These are the most common styles and I'm sure if you research you will come across more maybe overlapping with one of those that I mentioned. A key question though is do you get to pick yours your leadership style? Many books have been written on this subject. It would be too much to recite in this video. Maybe a different approach to answering the question is what common rules apply to your selection. Here's my short list of just two items. A leader has to be him or herself. If your personality lacks charisma, do not try that style. You will fail. And number two, a leader in any situational setting will always display more than one style. For example, you can be a servant leader as your foundation and and when the situation calls for it, you can add transformational leadership qualities. The best leaders do two things. They can knowingly and intently apply different styles based on what the situation calls for while staying true to themselves and reliable to those around them.