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December 19, 2024
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Leadership is not just telling people what to do. Directing, questioning, and even delegating are parts of leadership, but the magic happens when people make others do what they want to.
There are more types of leadership than we can possibly name and explain in a short article, but Vantage Circle, HubSort and Harvard Business Review had some interesting thoughts on what constitutes a leadership style. Read below to get the gist of it all.
Nilotpal M Saharia and Thadoi Thangjam published an article on Vantage Circle about different leadership styles. They condensed it to nine of the most popular leadership styles in the workplace.
But first, what is a leadership style? For a leader to lead, they must have a vision and communicate it to their subordinates. They need to be able to motivate people to achieve their company’s goals, but how they achieve this is up to them.
Having a boss is good, but having a leader in your organization is better. You might wonder, “Why is good leadership important in the workplace?” A good leader must inspire certain trust so people follow them willingly; otherwise, they’re just bosses. Being a boss isn’t negative, but it is preferable to have a leader in charge of people, as they can bring out the best in their work and make them grow with the organization’s goals. Leaders can help reduce turnover and even create more leaders when the time is right.
“Leadership styles are how a leader guides a team through different stages. These styles dictate how a leader implements plans, provides guidance, and overlooks work.”
The authors listed the nine most popular leadership styles as follows:
1. Transactional leadership
2. Transformational leadership
3. Servant leadership
4. Democratic leadership
5. Autocratic leadership
6. Laissez-Faire leadership
7. Bureaucratic leadership
8. Charismatic leadership
9. Coaching leadership
Now, Zoe Ashbridge writes about her experience working with different leadership styles as a leader and a worker for HubSpot. She explains in detail examples and qualities of leadership in the workplace, how to know which works best, and how to switch styles when required.
“Each leadership style has its pitfalls, allowing you to proactively address areas of improvement.”
Ashbridge notes that it’s crucial to know your natural leadership style to avoid its potential pitfalls, how to use it, and when to switch it according to your goals. It’s one thing to be a democratic leader and completely different to be an autocratic leader. It’s not like one is better than the other; just that there are different times and places for each.
An autocratic leader, as an example of leadership, tends to be more authoritarian, making decisions without needing input from anyone. This can work in a business where quick, best-fit decisions from a knowledgeable leader are needed. On the other hand, this style can be problematic, as it lends itself to intimidation, micromanagement of the workers, and reliance on a single leader.
Meanwhile, democratic leaders are those who like to make decisions based on all team members’ ideas. This aims to create an inclusive and collaborative environment and people who thrive with effective communication. This might sound like an ideal type of leadership, but communication takes time, and so does finding a consensus.
The first thing anyone should do if they’re put in a leadership position is to understand their intrinsic leadership style. They must know what are their leadership qualities in the workplace to exploit them for their own advantage, but also where they fail naturally. For example, there are introverted leaders everywhere, and they might be good at what they do, but maybe a situation needs them to step up into a more active role with outgoing people, how would they manage? The set of skills would need to be different, but we all can learn new skills.
Changing leadership styles is not uncommon, and in fact, a good strategy depending on the situation. Leaders should be open to feedback to know where they’ve been struggling, and learn all they can about the many different leadership types to see which is the one that suits their current predicament.
In a 2008 article for the Harvard Business Review, editor Thomas A. Stewart writes about one of the most essential parts of leadership in the workplace: knowledge. According to Douglas Freeman leadership comes down to three qualities, “Know your stuff, take care of your men, and be a man.”
Freeman was talking about military history, as that is his expertise, but Stewart argues that there is some truth to his assessment. Freeman writes that having knowledge is a leadership skill in the workplace, and four types of leadership are attached to it.
The first one is specific subject knowledge. Think of an engineer who’d do great on a machine-based project but may not be confident in an editorial job. Leadership can be conditioned on the type of knowledge needed for the project at hand.
But there’s no need to be an absolute expert in one thing. Jacks-of-all-trades can be leaders, too. The second type of leadership is all about broad knowledge that can be used to coordinate and manage others.
“One way to think about a leader’s expertise is to ask what kind of leader you’d hire if you had to replace the boss from outside.”
The third style of leadership is all about knowledge of the external world, which Steward defines as an inward-focused experience that helps people see truths. The last variety is people skills that allow leaders to play the game of politics, read situations, and find the path to diplomatic deals.
The author stresses that leadership is shown in the workplace in different manners, depending on the situation and the type of leader needed. No leader is proficient in all leadership styles, and leaders shouldn’t try to monopolize all of them; instead, they should try to hone one knowledge-based type and roll with it.
There are too many leadership styles to list, and even then, a single person can use different types of leadership depending on the situation. Still, no leader can master all of the styles, as much as they try, so organizations must not only get bosses to manage teams but also leaders who will inspire others to lead.
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