Six Leadership Styles
At first blush, it seems easy to define leadership as an individual's ability to motivate an individual or group toward a certain goal. However, there is often more disagreement than agreement about the effectiveness of leadership styles. To evaluate leadership approaches, individuals must consider the needs of followers and the situation as well as the abilities of a leader.
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Transformational Leadership
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Bernard Bass defined the transformational leadership style as one of empowerment, vision, values and inspiration. A transformational leader appeals to a follower's higher needs like fulfillment or justice. Under a transformational approach, the leader and follower's drive and enthusiasm are increased leaving both changed for the better. Examples of transformational leaders include Nelson Mandela, Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy. Although a transformational leadership style seem like the gold standard, the approach has its downsides. First, it assumes that followers want to and are able to identify with a leader. Second, it ignores situations that may make transformational leadership impossible such as job instability or social pressures.
Transactional Leadership
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Transactional leadership is an exchange type of style that deals with rewarding followers by meeting immediate needs or doling out punishments. Under a transactional approach, followers are either positively or negatively awarded for their actions. For example, a paycheck is an example of a positive award for an employee to come to work. The threat of failing a test is a type of negative award used to motivate a student to come to class. Exchanging reward for action is a compelling type of leadership which is appropriate in many situations where tasks are clearly defined and individuals are not intrinsically motivated to perform. Situations requiring creativity, or those where individuals are already motivated, are not ideal for transactional styles.
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Servant Leadership
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Servant leadership, coined by Robert Greenleaf, is a leadership style driven by a desire to help others. In the business world, a servant leadership style can be described as a boss or manager who removes roadblocks to help his employees do their jobs or achieve great success. Qualities of the style include listening, empathy, persuasion and a dedication to improving the growth of followers. Examples of servant leaders include Martin Luther King and Ghandi.
Emergent Leadership
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An emergent leadership style depends on an individual's ability to meet followers needs at a specific point in time in the absence of a formally appointed leader or an accepted leader. Emergent leaders can be found in juries, ad hoc groups or work teams experiencing a management transition. Effectiveness of an emergent leadership style is measured by followers' perceptions of the leader's ability to meet the task at hand.
Situational Leadership
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A situational leadership style, defined by Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard, is defined by a leader's ability to switch her approach based on the needs of followers. There are four approaches to a situation leadership style: telling, selling, participating and delegating. Followers who are unwilling or unable to do a job require a telling approach. Followers who are capable of completing a task and internally motivated to do so require a delegating approach. Followers who fall in between those ends require either a selling or participation approach. The key aspect of situational leadership is a leader's ability to diagnose the needs of an audience and respond appropriately.
Behavioral Leadership Styles
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Behavioral leadership styles are marked by the types of actions a leader takes with his followers. Three types of styles under the behavioral umbrella are autocratic, democratic and laissez faire. These terms, defined by Kurt Lewin, deal with how a leader makes decisions. Autocratic styles do not take group input and rely on telling followers what to do. Democratic styles seek input from the group though the final decision rests with the leader. Leaders using a laissez faire approach are literally hands off. They do not provide a lot of direction and prefer to let the group do what it will.
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References
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