What’s the worst leadership style?

You might be surprised to learn there is no best or worst leadership style. Instead, there are many different styles that we encourage leaders to learn and model. It’s important to pick the leadership style for the situation you’re facing. Certainly, there are one or two leadership styles you will gravitate towards, but it’s important to continue to work on developing all styles.

Your best style of leadership should have many variables and context. You choose the leadership style needed at any given moment based on the context of yourself, those you are leading, and the work environment. In order to discover what’s needed to lead, ask yourself the below questions. At first, this may take some getting used to, but soon it will become automatic and you’ll easily fit leadership styles to situations without thinking twice.

Choosing a leadership style

First, you must look to your own personality, motivators, and experience. How are you most comfortable leading and being led? What are your personality strengths and how do these lead to your weaknesses when carried to extreme or frequency? What experience do you have leading and influencing others?

Second, what are the strengths and weaknesses of those you are influencing and leading? What are their motivators? What is their work experience and competence? Are they learners or competent experts?

Third, what are the organization’s strengths and weaknesses in the marketplace? What are the crises? Where is change urgent? Where is status quo acceptable?

The different leadership styles

Based on your answers to the above questions, you will choose a leadership style below to fit each situation. There are at least 7 different leadership styles to choose from. You may know of more – if so, leave us a comment below!

Democratic: The democratic leader makes decisions based on the input of teams. Every person shares their point of view and often the leader makes the final decision. This style can be effective because leaders can utilize the role to educate, secure buy-in, and problem-solve difficult scenarios. However, you may not always have the time for this process.

Autocratic or Directive: Autocratic leadership, also known as authoritarian leadership, is a leadership style characterized by individual control over all decisions and little input from group members. These leaders typically make choices based on their ideas and judgments. This works well in a crisis, but rarely leads to buy-in and commitment from followers later.

Supportive or Servant: Servant leaders focus on meeting the needs of their followers; they lead by example. Supportive leaders are other-focused and motivated to help others succeed. This unselfish approach requires integrity, authenticity, and truly generous spirit. Therefore, this motivates others and leads to high morale among motivated professionals – some call this a coaching leadership style. This style is great for team and individual development, but not always efficient at getting things done.

Laisse-Faire: Laisse-faire leaders yield nearly all authority to a trusted team. The term literally means “let them do.” Some leaders view this as empowerment, but it can lead to a lack of direction and irresponsibility on the part of the leader. Development of others often lags under this leadership. There aren’t many positives for this style of leadership because it leads to a disconnected team and leader. Use this style sparingly and then only with accomplished colleagues for short periods of time.

Strategic or Visionary: Strategic leaders prompt change and improvement by being strategic in their thinking, actions, and words. They have a knack for pointing out new possibilities, seeing challenges as opportunities, and causing others to catch and share their vision. They are a force that works to continually move teams and organizations forward.

Transformational: Transformation leaders motivate others to do more than thought they might otherwise have been able to. They propose aspirational thought of what could be and then point the way to change and improvement. These kinds of leaders challenge and ask people to achieve new heights previously thought inconceivable.

Transactional: Transactional leaders focus of the exchange of value. Followers get immediate and tangible results for following the plan. This style requires clear expectations and communication. Without clear feedback, the results and the transaction fail. This type of leadership style is good for speed and efficiency, but often doesn’t build trust or lead to team/individual development.

Leadership in action

Being a new leader means you’re constantly learning. A great new leader will lean into this, and seek to educate themselves about their team and the individuals in it so they can best work to accomplish the team’s collective goals. You don’t need us to tell you that it’s not always easy. However, by continuing to develop these various leadership styles, you will get more comfortable leading and working with your team.

We’re curious – which leadership style do you gravitate toward? Which one do you need to work on? In the comments below, let us know which one is your favorite and how we might be able to help you develop the others.