When you think of the word ‘leader’ what comes to mind?
A high-powered CEO conducting a business meeting in an air-conditioned boardroom with his staff discussing targets for the next financial year.
How about an environmental activist organising beach clean-ups and picket signs to march through the streets in protest about humanity’s cruel treatment of the environment?
Or perhaps a leader can be someone within a family unit –dropping and picking children up from school, paying bills, keeping the home protected and organising family vacations?
Leadership comes in various forms, circumstances and styles. As people are diverse, so too are the multiple styles of leadership. Whether you’re working in Barbados’ thriving tourism, financial, technological or corporate sector, you will be almost certain of encountering these leadership styles:
Types of leadership styles
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Autocratic
Autocratic leaders are usually classified as individualists. They operate as a ‘one man show’ where the leader makes decisions without much or any input from their team members. With an autocratic style, there is little or no team collaboration, consultation or communication. The leader makes the decisions based on his or her intellect, judgement and expertise.
Employees under this style can feel a sense of lack of control or autonomy. Employee morale and motivation can also be low, as you’re constantly having to conform and perform to someone’s else’s idea of what the outcome should look like. There is no sense of innovation or creativity.
While this style seems harsh and overbearing, autocratic leadership can work in situations where the leader alone possesses specialised knowledge over his or her peers. The rest of the team will require his or her direction to perform. For example, a surgeon performing complex surgery may adopt an autocratic style, as the aides will not be as knowledgeable about the procedure and will be looking to the surgeon to provide guidance on what to do.
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Bureaucratic Style
This leadership style adopts a very traditional approach with elements of the autocratic style. Bureaucratic leaders operate under a ‘We’ve always done it this way’ philosophy. Traditional company rules are observed and while there is a greater degree of collaboration compared to autocratic leadership, new ideas and practices are usually rejected if they contradict the company’s traditional approaches.
Bureaucratic leadership uses what models worked best in the past and sticks to that strategy. Similarly, to autocratic leadership, under such a leader, there is no innovation, change and or evolution. The company’s strategies remain stagnant and it’s difficult employees to reach their highest potential.
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Democratic Style
Unlike the previous two leadership style, democratic leaders encourage participation which leads to employees feeling included, important and ultimately empowered. The discussion of differing ideas and accumulation of different experiences can lead to the development of creative strategies through multiple thought patterns.
The democratic style of leadership is highly effective at fostering a team spirit by including the ideas, and suggestions of everyone in the team. Within team meetings for example, each employee has a voice. The democratic leader maintains responsibility for the decision to be made, however employee suggestions are entertained.
Strategic Leadership
Strategic Leaders are termed ‘visionaries’. Their focus and emphasis are on long-term growth and sustainable development. For example, a strategic leader of a hotel chain in Barbados might contemplate how to increase guest bookings each year over a five- or ten-year period, as opposed to focusing on per quarter or year. What new customer service best practices can we adopt? What strategies are the competitors undertaking? Strategic leaders are concerned with the bigger picture and long-term benefits.
Transformational Leadership
Similar to their visionary counterparts, transformational leaders emphasise growth as well. However, their style of leadership is building upon consistent improvement and transformation. Usually experts in their fields, these leaders set goals and targets for their team to meet and are constantly challenging them towards improvement.
Banks and insurance companies observe this leadership to their sales force to meet a certain quota of loans, credit cards or policies sold. While this style does push for growth and champions improvement, consistently living to achieve higher and higher targets can be stressful.
Coaching Leadership
This leadership style prioritises the individual growth and success of each employee on one-on-one basis to promote the development of unique skills within each team member. Coaching leaders, as a result achieve a diverse range of skills on their team as this style is very interpersonal, encourages feedback and builds rapport.
Servant Leadership
Servant leaders go one step beyond coaching and places employee empowerment as their utmost responsibility. The rational being that once employee morale and motivation is built, they will perform at their optimum level. Servant leadership is effective because there is such importance placed on job fulfilment and team collaboration. A principle surrounding this theory suggests that once employees are fulfilled and satisfied, they will treat the customers in the same manner.
Laissez-faire Leadership
Emphasis on employees is an effective strategy, however this style of leadership places total control and power into the hands on the team members. The leader does not exercise any authority. Full trust is placed towards members of the team. Within this style, there is a serious threat of chaos and unproductivity as there is very little guidance or direction provided by the leader. This means there is no accountability. As employees are left to their own devices, there is no collaborating towards a common, specific purpose and the quality of work performed can be compromised.
The Importance of Leadership Styles
If you are a leader or planning to develop your leadership skills, knowing which style you respond to and work best with is essential. Different situations may require different styles to be adopted. Each style can be beneficial in certain, sometimes specific circumstances.
Importance of the leadership styles
Leadership style is important because knowing your type of leadership develops your self-awareness about your core competencies. Knowing your leadership style highlights what you can do well, how people will likely respond to you as well as what strengths you have to nurture and weaknesses to overcome. For example, if you find an autocratic leadership style best describes you, you can sharpen your confidence and decision-making skills while trying to improve upon your collaborative and teamworking abilities.
All the Leadership styles help you to know the work environments
For a young professional pursuing a career path or entering the job market, knowing the different style of leadership can indicate to you the type of work environment you feel most suited for you. If you’re a person open to working as a team, a democratic work environment would be best suited for you. If you enjoy challenges and achieving results, a transformational or coaching leader will be able to bring the best out of you.
Creating your own work environment
Additionally, if you have plan to start your own business, understanding the types of leadership can help you to identify what business environment culture you want to cultivate. Are you open to a workspace being free and empowering employees or are you more results driven and think long-term? Knowing leadership styles translates into the work environment you create for yourself and your team.
