Your Professional Blog
The values we live, breath and operate by create the nucleus of our company.
What is Your Leadership Style? Knowing It Is More Essential Than Ever
21/06/2022
4 minutes read
Introduction
A great and effective leader inspires team members to perform at their highest potential by serving as a mentor, a coach, and a source of constant feedback and support.
While it is obvious that different leadership styles can be employed to get the most out of a team, understanding and applying the right style is essential to the success and productivity of your team.
Leadership Styles and How They Are Applied
Transactional Leadership
Transactional Leadership is a “give and take” scenario in which team members are rewarded based on business standards. This style focuses on communicating clear expectations and supplies comprehensive goal setting. This sort of leadership approach is excellent for large corporations with international teams. Team members must be impartially motivated by obtaining the right number of rewards and recognitions.
Pros | Cons |
● Members understand their responsibilities and expectations ● Beneficial during crisis management ● Temporary goals are workable ● Structure is organized and uncomplicated ● Fair recognition | ● Performance-driven only through rewards ● Neglects relationship-building ● Discourages innovation and expression ● Minimal opportunities for growth |
Autocratic Leadership
This leadership style has total authority over the entire business. It totally negates any suggestions made by the team members. Autocratic leadership is an extreme kind of transactional leadership that works well when fast decisions are needed. This method may momentarily subdue a dispute, but it does not resolve it.
Pros | Cons |
● Structured goal setting and systematic environment ● Strict compliance with the rules ● Subdues conflicts | ● Limits innovation and expression ● Lower team morale ● Not fitting for businesses with collaborative culture ● Absence of relationships and connections ● Rigid structure |
Transformational Leadership
A transformational leader focuses on “transforming” people to help and inspire them to look out for one another and business. However, sole reliance on compliments and encouragement may result in mediocre performance over time. This style works well when fresh ideas or perspectives require taking a risk and leaving your team’s comfort zone.
Pros | Cons |
● Supplies flexibility to team members ● Stimulates innovation ● Disrupts monotony ● Encourages learning, development, and transformation | ● Focuses on broader goals ● Constant feedback is needed ● Difficult to support excessive flexibility ● May lead to burnout |
Servant Leadership
The servant leader works on the idea of “service first and leads later”. It focuses on the leader as a servant. Their crucial roles are developing, enabling, and supporting team members to fulfill their full potential and deliver their best.
This leader is a great listener and puts the team at the top of his priorities. This, therefore, gives the team a better understanding of everyone’s strengths and shortcomings. This style is excellent for building a strong corporate culture and promoting respect, loyalty, and trust.
Pros | Cons |
● Encourages ownership and accountability ● Improves confidence and builds trust within the team where everyone feels valued ● Everyone’s suggestions are valued | ● Slow decision making ● May create uncertainty |
Democratic Leadership
This leadership style allows an elevated level of participation from the employees, who are given the freedom to make decisions and be active participants in how things are run. Here, leaders look for suggestions, feedback for decision-making, and believe that they make the right decision with more ideas from every individual.
Pros | Cons |
● Nurtures various suggestions, increases job satisfaction and productivity ● Creates a dedicated team and increases consciousness of business values | ● Shows skill absence ● Ineffective during crises due to slow decision-making process ● Not all suggestions are used, and team members need to deal with rejections. |
Charismatic Leadership
This is where leaders have a great deal of personal charisma, which makes them very persuasive and draws people to them. They can inspire others, and they can motivate people through their words and actions rather than encouraging behaviors through strict instructions.
These leaders are optimistic and self-confident, having a prominent personality. They believe and put grand expectations on their team whilst leading by example.
Pros | Cons |
● Boosts teamwork and collaboration whilst motivating and inspiring the team ● Creates a positive transformation ● Every opinion is valued | ● Leaders are sometimes viewed as superficial and egocentric ● Results in overpromising and underperforming |
Laissez-Faire Leadership
Laissez-faire is a French term meaning “let do” or “let them do it”. This leader gives autonomy, believes in every member’s ability, and supplies constructive feedback.
It is a style where leaders delegate authority down to lower levels to allow them more autonomy in making decisions on their own. It’s less structured than other types of leadership, but it allows employees more freedom than other styles do.
Pros | Cons |
● Gives ability for self-improvement by encouraging learning and development ● Drops micromanagement and supplies autonomy ● Quick decision making ● Encourages creativity and innovation | ● Vague goals that may result in confusion ● Flexibility may result in isolation and hinder team building ● May cause passive leaders who are less accountable ● Requires a competent team |
Bureaucratic Leadership
This is a leadership style that involves setting up clear rules and regulations within an organization so that all employees know what’s expected of them without having to ask questions or make outside inquiries about procedures within the company. In other words, led by “the book” and rules.
This is a very proper style for industries with safety hazards, such as manufacturing. This style is structured, and delegation of tasks is done according to rank for superior outcomes and responsibility.
Pros | Cons |
● Inflexible and structured ● Discourages transformation and spontaneity ● Tasks are completed faster | ● Inhibits innovation and competition ● Do not adapt to change ● Personal growth and development may take a long time |
Let’s Work Together!
Do you need any of the following help?
- Human Resource Framework design and implementation
- Revision of Human Resources frameworks, policies, and procedures
- Revision of HR documents, processes, and HR Systems
- Advice on Change Management or General HR Advice
- Leadership Training and Workshops
Please do not hesitate to contact our amazing Catalyst Central team: support@catalystcentral.com.au.