So now you know what the basic qualities are for being a leader, we’ll start to look at the different leadership styles you can adopt. And, there are lots to choose from, ten in fact, so I’m sure you’ll find something to suit you and your career. Do bear in mind that you may need to change your style of management depending on who and what you are tasked with managing. So, have a read through the first five styles below and see if any jump out at you.
Transformational Leadership
This is often considered to be the best form of leadership. Leaders who use this style have integrity, set clear goals, communicate well with all members of the team, are excellent motivators and manage people effectively. They lead from the front and pass on that enthusiasm to the people working for them. Their main aim is to transform the organisation to become more efficient by motivating the staff. You can see why this works so well – it’s always great to have a leader who is willing to get stuck in, listens to your ideas and wants you to do as well as they are doing.
Transactional Leadership
This style of leadership begins with the idea that all members of the team will ‘obey’ their leader when given a job to complete. The idea of the ‘transaction’ comes from the exchange of reward for work completed successfully. It also means the leader can ‘punish’ the workers if they fail to achieve the required standards. This may seem a little cruel, but it does work in certain situations. Some of the benefits of this style are:
- everyone knows what their role is, each person’s responsibility is clearly defined
- it works best for those motivated by rewards
However, there are some downsides to this style of management:
- not much can be done to improve job satisfaction
- the strict environment can seems a little restrictive for some
- there can be a high staff turnover as some people do not work well under this kind of leadership.
Often this style of leadership is used in companies who rely on sales. You have a definite role – to sell – and usually a target to hit. If you hit the target, you’ll be rewarded. If you don’t, you’ll be punished, which can often be the loss of your job if you consistently miss your targets.
Autocratic Leadership
This is much like Transactional leadership, but rather than the staff agreeing to obey the leader, it is an expectation that they do – there is no choice in the matter. There’s no opportunity to offer ideas, suggestions or changes – even if they could benefit the whole organisation.
However, the great benefit of this system is that it allows decisions to be made quickly and efficiently. And, work completion rates are high making this a great leadership style for some kinds of manual, unskilled work. It also works really well in a crisis when decisions need to be made quickly, without questions and objections. But the downsides of this style are quite significant. Most people do not like having their ideas, thoughts, feelings and suggestions ignored and those using this style will probably find they have high staff turnover and levels of absence.
Charismatic Leadership
This resembles transformational leadership in that the leader inspires his team to do well. However, where this style differs is that the leader does not necessarily want the whole team to do well – they are more focussed on doing well themselves. They often believe more in themselves than their team and may not want to effect any kind of change within the organisation. This style can also lead to the team being wholly dependent on their leader for motivation and enthusiasm, thinking they can do nothing without them. This can create failure in the team if the leader leaves.
Bureaucratic Leadership
Rules rule the day with bureaucratic leaders. They have a set of rules to follow and they will follow them, and make their team follow them to the letter. This is what’s known as working ‘by the book’ and is an effective leadership style for risky jobs, such as those that involve machinery, poisons or chemicals or a dangerous environment – underwater, high up and so on. In these situations you can see why it is important for the manager to make sure that everyone follows the rule. However, this style of leadership is ineffective for people who work in teams, or those professions that require the workers to be creative and flexible.
So, that’s your lot for this week. Which of these styles do you think would suit your personality and job? Next week we’ll cover the remaining five management styles: Servant Leadership, People/Relations Orientated Leadership, Democratic/Participative Leadership, Laissez-Faire Leadership and Task Orientated Leadership.
