You may be surprised to learn that there is no best leadership style. There are actually many good ways to lead. The key is knowing how to choose the most effective style for the situation you’re facing. The best leaders have this ability. Certainly, there are one or two leadership styles you’ll gravitate toward, 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.
To discover what’s needed to lead — and lead well — you must know how to adapt. This begins with asking yourself a few questions. At first, this may take some getting used to, but over time it will become automatic. Soon you’ll easily fit leadership styles to situations without thinking twice.
Asking the Right Questions
So what are these questions you should be asking yourself? First, you must examine 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 who 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? What are the crises? Where is change urgent? Where is the status quo acceptable? What does your company culture tolerate?
Choosing Your Leadership Styles
Based on your answers to the questions above, you can decide how to lead based on the situation at hand. There are many leadership styles to choose from. Here are seven of the most common:
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 decisions with 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 a 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 isn’t always efficient at getting things done.
Laissez-Faire: Laissez-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. The 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.
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 provide focus to continually move teams and organizations forward.
Transformational: Transformational leaders motivate others to do more than thought they might otherwise have been able to. They propose aspirational thoughts 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 on 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
Remember, leadership styles are not one-size-fits-all. What works best depends on the situation you’re faced with. And if you’re wondering if there’s a worst style — yes. It’s the one you use all the time.
The best leaders are constantly learning. Great leaders lean into this and seek to educate themselves about their team and the individual team members. They understand the motivation toward individual and collective team goals.
Is this approach easy? No. It will stretch you. However, by continuing to develop new leadership styles, you will be more effective and your organization will be stronger.
Which leadership styles do you gravitate toward? Which ones do you need to work on? Leave us a comment below, and let us know which style is your favorite and how we might be able to help you develop the others.