“The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things.”-Ronald Reagan.
Above was one of the best quotes by Ronald Reagan as we can find many quotes at bulkqoutesnow. There is a leader hidden in every single person in this world which tends to come out at some point in life. Be it at your workplace where you are the boss of everyone and have to control them. Or at home where you are the eldest of all and everyone is looking up at you for guidance. Formally or informally, you have to act as a leader at some point in life. And that is why it is very important to understand the common leadership styles and how it can help you identify your own strengths and weaknesses.
In this article we are going to talk about the most effective leadership styles and how it can help you become a better leader.
Effective leadership styles:
Below you can find the details of some of the effective leadership styles.
Charismatic leadership:
Charismatic leaders can be considered as the ones who have the ability to walk the talk. In other words, these type of leaders are professional communicators and persuasive and have a sense of charm in them. These leaders tend to have a specific type of appeal and attraction and that is why the team listens to them. Charismatic leaders are always finding ways to inspire and excite their team and spark enthusiasm among them.
The best example of charismatic leaders is Dalai Lama and most of all Obama.
Transformational leadership:
Now this leadership style can be explained as the one where the leader has this desire to improve or transform the business he works for. Any leader who adopts this leadership style aims to empower his team members so as to streamline the company conventions. And most of all this leadership style privileges organizational growth where a leader spends a lot of time discussing and focusing on the big picture goals.
Democratic leadership:
A democratic leadership style which can also be termed as the participative leadership style is the one that involves the leader asking opinion of his team members. Here the leader adopts such a style where he considers input from each team member. He makes them think hard, do brain storming, have a discussion with each other and come up with a plan and listen to each one of them before settling on a final decision. The biggest advantage of adopting this leadership style is that it engages every single team member in the decision-making process and thus job satisfaction, morale, and engagement is boosted.
Bureaucratic leadership:
Bureaucratic leaders are those who only live by the rules. They are the ones who have set some rules from the beginning and then keep following those rules no matter what the circumstances are. In any organization, there may come a time where certain things are not expected to get done by the book and certain changes have to be made. But bureaucratic leaders even in this case stick to those rules. This type of rigidity can restrict the level of creativity in the entire process and thus is not suitable at all times.
A bureaucratic leader can thus be referred to as a person who loves rules, polices, and no matter what happens, he tends to follow them meticulously. There is no room for innovation or new ideas and employees constantly have to follow the set routine methods.
Transactional leadership:
The transactional leadership style is the one that works on “give and take” scenario. Here you as a leader tend to reward or penalize your employees according to the standards that have been set by the organization. With this leadership style in practice, every leader would then have a clear mind on what to do, why we have to do it and to what extent this has to be done. And this is how the evaluation of employee performance is then performed.
This is an effective leadership style and keeps the employees motivated by giving perks and benefits. Plus it works really well where the tasks are repetitive and goal-oriented. But with this leadership style, a leader has to make sure that the employees are motivated equally by getting equal or deserved amount of rewards and recognition. If that is not the case, the employees can feel left out and thus they will work with less motivation and determination.
Servant leadership:
Servant leaders are those who work really hard on the idea of giving service to the team first and leading them later. In other words, this leadership style has a clear motto that is, you should manage your team the way you would like to. You make sure that the entire team has everything they need like all the tools and supplies before they begin. And if the situation is otherwise then you make sure that they get everything to succeed.
This leadership style is quite famous among the workers and works wonders for employee morale. But you also have to make sure that there is a balance between everything you do as you don’t want to give an impression that your team is running the show because in reality you are running it. This can result in not only lack of authority but vision as well.
Autocratic leadership:
In this leadership style, the leader is the one who has to make the decision unilaterally. He has no liability of consulting any other group member while making a decision. And that is why this leadership style is also known as an authoritarian style. This style can be of great help when you have to make quick decisions and there is no time to consult with others.
Laissez-Faire leadership:
Laissez-Faire as the name suggests is a French term which means let do or let them do it. In other words, this leadership style works with a philosophy of non-interference. Here leaders will only give directions and a set goal and less likely check up on the team once given directions. There will be fewer meetings and the employees are expected to do things on their own.
Conclusion:
In the end we can say that all the leadership styles have their own part to play and importance. It only depends on the need of the organization. In the end, it is the leader who has to get things done by the team and make decisions for the organization. How he does that or which style he adopts is up to him. So take a look at the most effective leadership styles today and never stop learning.
Leave a Reply