What are the Different Types of Leadership Styles?

 Humans possess different types of leadership skills, and here we have discussed 8 most common leadership styles. Learn about the 8 types of leadership styles and the traits that they carry.

What are the Different Types of Leadership Styles?

Leadership Skills: 8 Different Types of Leadership Styles

What is Leadership?

Leadership is the ability of an individual, group or organization to motivate or guide other individual to set and achieve challenging goals, take fast and decisive action when needed.

A leader is someone who knows how to motivate better than anyone else and can see how things can be improved.

Leadership is a positive activity carried out by a person with a formal decision who has leadership traits and characteristics to achieve clear goals by means of influencing.

Leadership can also be defined as "the art of influencing men." It can be said that effective leadership is the outcome of the interaction between the leader and his subordinates in different organizational situations.

 

The 8 Most Common Types of Leadership Styles

There are different types of leadership styles and here we will talk about 8 most common leadership styles as follows:

1. Autocratic Leadership Style

Autocratic leadership is a leadership style characterized by individual control of all decisions and little input from group members. Autocratic leadership derives his powers vested in him from the official authority under law and order.

In this type, authority is limited to leaders only and they have the freedom to make decisions, draw plans and policies of the organization without giving subordinates any importance or their participation in that.

Autocratic leaders usually make choices based on their ideas and judgments and rarely accept advice from their followers.

Autocratic leader works on issuing directives and orders, and this type lacks the leader's confidence in subordinates and their ability to make the right decision, so this leadership is described as authoritarian, and all focus of this type is only on achieving the desired goals while neglecting workers' problems.

Among the disadvantages of this leadership is that the quantity of production is less in the absence of the leader. 

Disadvantages of Autocratic Leadership may include:

• Autocratic leadership often leads to micromanagement. 
• It creates a work culture based on the leader.
• It does not offer a sense of professional ownership.
• It creates a lack of trust.
• It creates a system of dependence.

 

2. Authoritative Leadership Style

Authoritative leadership is a management style where the leader is in complete control, he determines the processes, decides what goals are to be achieved, and oversees all steps it takes to reach those goals, without any meaningful participation by the subordinates.

An Authoritative leader, (also known as a visionary leader), tends to approach leadership like a mentor guiding a mentee. He guides his team by example and inspires progression toward a common goal.

If you want to become an effective authoritative leader, you must demonstrate some competencies of emotional intelligence, such as:

Self-confidence, to develop a vision and inspire others to follow it.

Ability, to identify barriers and remove barriers that may be required to change to achieve success.

Empathy, to understand and anticipate the emotions that team members feel at key junctures during the project.

 

3. Democratic Leadership Style

Democratic leadership is the exact opposite of the autocratic leadership style, and this type depends on the extent to which the subordinates accept the authority of the democratic leader, and the leader takes into consideration during his authority the development of human relations based on mutual respect between himself and his subordinates.

And he also believes in the importance of supporting work groups and motivating them to work in a team spirit.

The most important methods that a democratic leader follows is persuading subordinates, citing facts, as well as attaching importance to their feelings, giving their dignity great importance and preserving it, and making every effort to provide the necessary instructions, so that he has an effective role in developing innovation and achieving cooperation, exploding their potential energies and stimulating the spirit of achievement.

 

4. Laissez-Faire Leadership Style

Laissez-faire leadership is a type of leadership style in which leaders do not interfere and allow their employees to make few decisions and choose appropriate solutions in the workplace.

A laissez-faire leadership style can be a very effective way of leading a team consisting of highly skilled and highly specialized individuals.

Laissez-Faire Leadership style creates an environment that facilitates growth and development. Leaders are so hands-off in their approach, employees have a chance to be hands-on, so Laissez-Faire Leadership encourages personal growth,  creativity and innovation and allows for faster decision-making. 

Laissez-faire leadership is characterized by the following:

Decisions are left to employees.

Hands-off approach.

Leaders provide all training and support.

Accountability falls to the leader.

Comfortable with mistakes.

5. Transactional Leadership Style

Transactional leadership is a type of leadership style that focuses on supervision, organization, or performance.

Transactional leadership is ideal to carry out projects that need to be done in a systematic and structured manner.

Transactional leadership focuses on outcomes, aligns with the existing structure of the organization and measures success according to that organization's reward and sanction system.

A Transactional leader has formal authority and positions of responsibility in the organization.

Some important Characteristics of transactional leadership style may include:

• Practicality is one of the most defining characteristics of a transactional leadership style.
• The goal of a transactional leader is to be externally motivated and remove the desired performance from the team.
• The transaction leader discourages employees to behave creatively or think for themselves.
• He is pleased to work within the current regulations and constraints and will work from within boundaries to achieve the organization's goals.
• He does not seek to change things, he tends to be very resistant to change.
• He monitors the performance of all employees based on specific goals and objectives that have been set for them.

6. Transformational Leadership Style

Transformational leadership is one of the most inspiring leadership styles that bring positive change to those who follow.

A transformational leader encourages, motivates, and motivates employees to innovate and creates a vision to guide the change that will help the company's future success grow and shape.

There are four different components of transformational leadership: intellectual stimulation, individualized consideration, inspirational motivation, and idealized influence. Each of these components is positively related to individual and organizational performance.

Some of the basic characteristics of transformational leadership style are:

• A transformational leader wants to know what has to change and 
• works to change the system step-by-step.
• He inspires workers to find better ways of achieving a goal.
• He mobilizes people into groups that can get work done.
• He raises the well-being and motivation level of a group through excellent rapport.
• He starts solving challenges by fitting experiences to a known pattern and by finding experiences that show that old patterns do not fit or work.
• He wants to minimize the variation of the organization and maximize the teams' capability and capacity.

If you want to become a transformational leader, create an inspiring vision of the future, motivate people to buy into and deliver the vision, manage the delivery of the vision and build ever-stronger, trust-based relationships with people.

7. Affiliative Leadership Style

Affiliative Leadership is considered to be one of the emotional leadership styles that promote positivity, a harmonious workplace, and team-building.

An affiliative leader cares for and supports the emotional needs of team members and focuses on resolving conflicts and creating personal connections between team members and their managers to build a sense of community and trust.

An affiliative leader greatly praises his workers so that it makes workers feel appreciated, and realize that they can get away with adverse behavior.

Affiliative leaders have dedicated knowledge about the feelings and wellbeing of others. They are usually brought in to unite teams after a stressful or traumatic workplace event that affected an entire workforce. Therefore, they must be prepared to deal with the team's emotional ups and downs as they regroup.

 They should promote freedom of creativity and innovation and allow flexibility of culture and work arrangements to please employees and build trust.

8. Coaching Leadership Style

The coaching leadership style is a relatively new leadership style that  is characterized by partnership and collaboration.

The basis of the coaching leadership style is the dynamic interaction between the leader and the employee to facilitate their participation, understanding and empathising with the specific and individual motivations. This leads to valuable insights and the achieved results are discussed and analyzed.

There are four basic elements of a coaching leadership style:

1. Customizing to the individual being coached.

2. Focusing on specific instances of individual performance.

3. Describing the employee's performance honestly and clearly.

4. Developing concrete next steps.

The coaching leader provides his employees with enough space and freedom to brainstorm about the tasks to be performed and encourages a sense of responsibility and commitment in the employees.

A coaching leader motivates others and helps them develop their skills, become stronger and work together more successfully. So, good communication skills are valuable in every leadership style, including coaching leadership style.

Coaching leaders adopt a special attitude, behavior, and tone. They have a way of talking that is both demanding and supportive, both authoritative and sympathetic, both disciplined and patient.