Leadership styles are a major topic of study in business. They are used to determine how leaders implement plans and strategies to accomplish goals that are aligned with stakeholder expectations, the wellbeing of their team, and the soundness of their organization.
There are a variety of leadership styles, all with different advantages and disadvantages. The style that is most effective in a given situation can be determined by the leader’s behavior and personality traits.
A leadership style is a set of behavioral approaches used by leaders to direct, motivate, and guide their followers towards the attainment of certain objectives. These approaches can include commanding, democratic, and liberal styles of leadership.
Authoritarian Leadership
An authoritarian leadership style is characterized by centralized decision-making and a strict control of actions by subordinates. This leadership style is not suitable for a large, diverse team that may be in conflict with each other or not understand their leaders’ decisions and needs.
Transactional Leadership
The transactional leadership style involves rewards and punishments to motivate team members. This approach is effective in situations where there is a clearly defined problem and everyone has clear roles. However, this leadership style can be detrimental to creativity and teamwork because it focuses on results and deadlines instead of emotional needs.
Commanding Leadership
A commanding leadership style is a good choice for teams that don’t have a lot of skills or experience. It also works well in emergency situations as leaders can make quick decisions without much discussion.
These types of leaders are effective in a crisis as everyone knows what their role is and can be trusted to follow directions. They can also help a group that has inexperienced members learn new tasks and skills.
This style is also effective when there are few people involved in a project as the leader can quickly identify problems or gaps that need to be addressed. But this type of leadership can be detrimental to a group because it doesn’t support team members’ emotional needs and can be overbearing.
