One type of leadership style does not fit all situations. There are many ways to lead, and you will need to be adaptable to deal with whatever challenges or situations may come your way. We talk a bit more about this in our Future Thinking section.
Have a look at the different leadership styles below and have a think about which one you align with most closely – there may be more than one. Think about this in terms of your daily life and the tasks or activities that you do, lead or delegate to family, friends, colleagues, or team members. Then have a look at the scenario below to see how different leadership styles can
A motivational and positive way of valuing people, leading through guidance and support. This style promotes free thinking and the active development of the team skills.
Visionary leaders demonstrate ‘big thinking,’ optimism, positivity, and innovation. They are prepared to take risks and to push forward concepts to enhance progress.
A people first and team satisfaction approach adopted through encouragement and inspiration. Such leaders boost loyalty through their excellent communication and care for others. They allow their team to participate in all decision making and often put the needs of the team beyond their own.
A style found predominately in sectors such as law, the police and government. Autocratic leaders are self-motivated, working to strict guidelines. They micromanage to ensure consistency and efficiency but often make autonomous decisions, creating uncomfortable working environments. Team members may feel left out, unheard, and resentful.
Relaxed leadership is the focus here and the delegation of tasks to competent team members. This can work effectively where team members are highly competent. But this style will work less effectively for those with low confidence or lack of desire to complete tasks in a timely manner.
A democratic leader actively encourages a team to help in the decision-making process and promotes innovation and ideas creation. However, such leaders can be indecisive leading to inefficiency and lack of timely decisions.
Pace setters are highly motivated, driven, determined. Pace setters will push teams to meet goals and to hit high standards with a focus on results, profit. This leadership style is prevalent in the legal and sales sectors.
Self-motivated, determined and resilient, bureaucratic leaders work well in environments where it is important to ensure teams adhere to strict rules and responsibilities in sectors such as the government, law, and heath care.
There is a movement, post pandemic, for a more holistic approach to leadership. Compassionate leaders are empathetic with an awareness and understanding of the trials and tribulations of lives. This style of leadership seeks to be kind, supportive and encouraging. These leaders can make difficult and brave decisions for the overall benefit of team members.
Do you think you can relate to any of these styles or perhaps you are a combination of a few.
See the scenario below. How would you react to the situation. There is no right or wrong answer. This is just a chance for you to consider your leadership approach and the scenarios illustrates that many different styles can be applied.
Scenario: Organising an Event
You are the leader of a student society, and you have permission and funding to organise an event.
You have complied a team of students who have different skill sets and experience. As you get to know them you recognise you have some competent members of the team who have been involved in promoting this type of event before. Other members are highly motivated but do not have quite the right skills and conversely the less confident members do have the skills!
You wish to ensure that the event is successful as this is your first attempt at leading an event. However, you want to avoid being overloaded with tasks as you have an exam deadline coming up, so you know you will need to delegate some tasks.
You want all team members to get something out of the event and so ensuring they feel valued, and at the same time developing their skill set, is important to you.
Have a think about:
How would you approach leading this scenario? What kind of leadership style do you think might be relevant? Are they styles you might use yourself? How can you lead, motivate, and encourage your team to work together to bring a successful event together?
Here are some styles we think you could use:
What about using the laissez-faire style and delegate the promotional work to the more competent team members who have experience in this area. You will want to check that they are happy to take on this level of responsibility so that you do not put too much pressure on them.
You might want to use a coaching style to support the less confident team members to recognise their skillset and the excellent contribution they could bring to the event.
Enthuse the team with a visionary approach and inspire them to work towards your goals.
Lastly, a democratic style of leadership would be helpful to encourage a whole team approach to the event. Listening carefully to the ideas and feedback from others through this collaborative approach will likely result in a successful event!
This scenario activity demonstrates the variety of approaches that can be used. Remember this when you take on responsibility to lead, and find which styles fit most comfortably with you and the situation.
To extend your understanding of your leadership style further you can access various using various tools. The most popular is the Myers Briggs test/tool but there are other options too which are highlighted here and there is a free personality test here.