Leadership Style

A Leadership Style is a style pattern for a team leader that describes the methods, behaviors, and strategies a leader employs to influence, motivate, and guide others within an organization or team.

• Context:
  • It can (typically) manifest through a Leadership Approach that defines how goals are set, decisions are made, and interactions are handled with team members.
  • It can (often) be characterized by specific Behavioral Traits such as charisma, empathy, decisiveness, or authoritarianism.
  • It can range from being a Transformational Leadership Style to being a Transactional Leadership Style, and from a Coercive Leadership Style to a Coaching Leadership Style.
  • It can impact the overall Organizational Culture and employee satisfaction.
  • It can influence the Team Dynamics and the achievement of Organizational Goals.
  • It can dictate Organizational Behavior, enhance Employee Engagement, and be selected based on the Business Environment, Organizational Needs, and Specific Circumstances faced by the leader.
  • It can involve adopting styles such as Authoritative Leadership Style, Democratic Leadership Style, or Affiliative Leadership Style to suit varying managerial scenarios.
  • It can be studied and taught as part of Leadership Development Programs to enhance Managerial Effectiveness and Leadership Effectiveness.
  • It can be characterized by a Modus Operandi, such as: "demands immediate compliance", and "mobilizes people toward a vision", "develops people for the future", ...
  • ...
• Example(s):
  • Democratic Leadership Style: Encourages team participation in decision-making processes, fosters collaboration, and values diverse opinions, suitable for situations requiring employee buy-in and engagement.
  • Autocratic Leadership Style: Involves clear, top-down decision making with little input from subordinates, suitable for high-pressure situations where quick, decisive actions are crucial.
  • Authoritative Leadership Style: Mobilizes people towards a vision, provides clear direction, and encourages autonomy and creativity, effective during times of change or when a new vision is needed.
  • Coaching Leadership Style: Focuses on personal and professional development of employees, provides guidance and feedback, and invests in long-term individual growth, beneficial for developing a high-potential workforce.
  • Affiliative Leadership Style: Emphasizes building strong emotional bonds, creating harmony, and fostering a sense of belonging, valuable for healing rifts and improving team morale during stressful times.
  • Pacesetting Leadership Style: Sets high performance standards, leads by example, and expects self-direction and excellence from the team, effective with highly motivated and competent employees but can lead to burnout if overused.
  • Laissez-Faire Leadership Style: Hands-off approach that provides little direction or supervision, trusting employees to manage their own work, suitable for highly experienced and self-motivated teams but can lead to a lack of role clarity and cohesion.
  • ...
• Counter-Example(s):
  • Management Technique, which are specific tools or methods used to accomplish tasks but do not necessarily define the overall approach or style of leadership.
  • Worker Style.
• See: Organizational Culture, Leadership, Motivation, Transformational Leadership, Transactional Leadership, Team Leadership, Strategic Leadership, Emotional Intelligence, Managerial Decision-Making.

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References

2024

• (Wikipedia, 2024) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leadership_style Retrieved:2024-5-8.
  • A leadership style is a leader's method of providing direction, implementing plans, and motivating people. Various authors have proposed identifying many different leadership styles as exhibited by leaders in the political, business or other fields. Studies on leadership style are conducted in the military field, expressing an approach that stresses a holistic view of leadership, including how a leader's physical presence determines how others perceive that leader. The factors of physical presence in this context include military bearing, physical fitness, confidence, and resilience. A leader's conceptual abilities include agility, judgment, innovation, interpersonal tact, and domain knowledge. Leaders are characterized as individuals who have differential influence over the setting of goals, logistics for coordination, monitoring of effort, and rewards and punishment of group members. Domain knowledge encompasses tactical and technical knowledge as well as cultural and geopolitical awareness. One of the key reasons why certain leadership styles are blocked with positive outcomes for employees and organizations is the extent to which they build follower trust in leaders. Trust in the leader has been linked to a range of leadership styles and evidence suggests that when followers trust their leaders they are more willing and able to go the extra mile to help their colleagues and organization. Trust also enables them to feel safe to speak up and share their ideas. In contrast, when a leader does not inspire trust, a follower’s performance may suffer as they must spend time and energy watching their backs. Daniel Goleman, in his 2000 article "Leadership that Gets Results", talks about six styles of leadership.

2024a

• (Knight, 2024) ⇒ Rebecca Knight. (2024). “6 Common Leadership Styles — and How to Decide Which to Use When.” In: Harvard Business Review.
  • NOTES
    1. Adaptability is Key: The article emphasizes that the most effective leaders are those who can adapt their Leadership Style to varying circumstances, such as changes in the Business Environment, Organizational Dynamics, or shifts in the Business Cycle.
    2. Goleman's Six Leadership Styles: Daniel Goleman outlines six distinct Leadership Styles—Coercive Leadership Style, Authoritative Leadership Style, Pacesetting Leadership Style, Affiliative Leadership Style, Democratic Leadership Style, and Coaching Leadership Style—each suitable for different situations and designed to address specific Team Needs.
    3. Effectiveness of Styles: While the Coercive Leadership Style is generally seen as least effective due to its negative long-term impacts on Company Culture and morale, the Authoritative Leadership Style is highlighted as particularly effective for motivating teams and connecting individual work to larger organizational goals.
    4. Situational Application: The article provides guidance on when to employ each style, for example, using the Coercive Leadership Style in crisis situations, the Democratic Leadership Style when diverse input is needed, and the Coaching Leadership Style during personal development discussions.
    5. Importance of Emotional Bonds: The Affiliative Leadership Style, which focuses on building emotional connections and a supportive environment, is deemed crucial for fostering a positive workplace, especially significant as workplaces evolve post-pandemic.
    6. Leadership and Emotional Intelligence: Daniel Goleman connects effective leadership with Emotional Intelligence, suggesting that leaders can enhance their effectiveness by developing competencies that support different styles, such as empathy for the Affiliative Leadership Style or relationship-building for the Coaching Leadership Style.
    7. Flexibility Over Rigidity: Successful leaders do not rigidly apply styles to predefined situations but rather fluidly switch between styles based on their real-time impact on their teams, enhancing both team performance and individual employee satisfaction.
    8. A Leadership Style can be highly effective when matched with the appropriate business scenario: for instance, Authoritative Leadership Style is best during times of change, while Coaching Leadership Style is ideal for individual development.
    9. Leadership Styles need to be adaptable: as the most successful leaders adjust their approach based on changes in the Organizational Environment, Employee Needs, and specific challenges that arise.
    10. Leadership Styles should incorporate emotional intelligence: enabling leaders to enhance their effectiveness through skills such as empathy, relationship-building, and strategic communication, which support different leadership strategies.
    11. Leadership Styles identified by Daniel Goleman include: Coercive Leadership Style, Authoritative Leadership Style, Pacesetting Leadership Style, Affiliative Leadership Style, Democratic Leadership Style, and Coaching Leadership Style, each tailored to optimize different managerial situations and Team Dynamics.

2016

• (Wikipedia, 2016) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/leadership_style Retrieved:2016-8-25.
  • A leadership style is a leader's style of providing direction, implementing plans, and motivating people. There are many different leadership styles proposed by various authors, that can be exhibited by leaders in the political, business or other fields. Daniel Goleman (2000) in his article "Leadership that Gets Results” talks about six styles of leadership.

2012

• http://materialminds.com/leadership-development/leadership-style/
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2000

• (Goleman, 2000) ⇒ Daniel Goleman. (2000). “[https://hbr.org/2000/03/leadership-that-gets-results Leadership that Gets Results." Harvard Business Review
  • OVERVIEW: A leader’s singular job is to get results. But even with all the leadership training programs and “expert” advice available, effective leadership still eludes many people and organizations. One reason, says Daniel Goleman, is that such experts offer advice based on inference, experience, and instinct, not on quantitative data. Now, drawing on research of more than 3,000 executives, Goleman explores which precise leadership behaviors yield positive results. He outlines six distinct leadership styles, each one springing from different components of emotional intelligence. Each style has a distinct effect on the working atmosphere of a company, division, or team, and, in turn, on its financial performance. The styles, by name and brief description alone, will resonate with anyone who leads, is led, or, as is the case with most of us, does both. Coercive leaders demand immediate compliance. Authoritative leaders mobilize people toward a vision. Affiliative leaders create emotional bonds and harmony. Democratic leaders build consensus through participation. Pacesetting leaders expect excellence and self-direction. And coaching leaders develop people for the future. The research indicates that leaders who get the best results don’t rely on just one leadership style; they use most of the styles in any given week. Goleman details the types of business situations each style is best suited for, and he explains how leaders who lack one or more styles can expand their repertories. He maintains that which practice leaders can switch among leadership styles to produce powerful results, thus turning the art of leadership into a science.
    

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