An awareness of different styles – and their strengths, weaknesses, and suitability – allows us to work in the way that best lends itself to your personality.
Research has shown that an individual’s personality type is related to his or her personality style and contributes to how well someone responds to the leadership style.
Below are 10 common leadership styles (but assuming LinkedIn doesn’t want to read an essay, I will go over a quick top 3 below):
✔ Autocratic Leadership
In an autocratic environment, the leader makes decisions without input from the rest of the team. It’s a highly authoritarian leadership style that can demoralize employees in the wrong situation. However, autocratic leaders make decisions quickly and confidently, which makes them excellent assets in a crisis. If you’re an autocratic leader, focus on finding a balance between making executive decisions and trusting your team to give insights and feedback.
✔ Democratic Leadership
Leaders with a democratic style value their colleagues’ opinion. They open up most decisions for debate, which help employees feel valued and appreciated. In some cases, democratic leaders can seem indecisive, as though they don’t trust their own ability to reach conclusions, and these leaders can improve their effectiveness by learning to make quick decisions in critical circumstances.
✔ Transformational Leadership
Transformational leaders exist to energize teams and sell a company’s vision. Using a mix of empathy, enthusiasm, and praise, they encourage individual workers to achieve their objectives, explore new ideas, and improve their outcomes. Under a transformational leader, employees feel empowered and loyal, though in larger companies this style of soft leadership can sometimes appear distant or insincere.
If you are intrigued at what a data-driven and holistic approach to leadership development might look like within your organization, I’d love to chat and point you to some of McLean & Company’s research (find samples in the comments below).
Infographic: FnCMX.com
Original post: Elizabeth Kiely, Andrew Baerthel and Nayla (Hamid) Saraccini