Leadership styles are classifications of how a personbehaveswhile directing, motivating, guiding, and managing groups of people.
There are many leadership styles.
Great leaders can inspire political movements and social change.
Illustration by Joshua Seong, Verywell
They can also motivate others to perform, create, and innovate.
Fortunately, researchers have developed differenttheoriesand frameworks that allow us to better identify and understand these different leadership styles.
The researchers found that democratic leadership tended to be the most effective at inspiring followers to perform well.
What Kind of Leader Are You?
Abuse of this method is usually viewed as controlling, bossy, and dictatorial.
Participative leaders encourage group members to participate, but retain the final say in the decision-making process.
Group members feel engaged in the process and are more motivated and creative.
Delegative leaders offer little or no guidance to group members and leave the decision-making up to group members.
Another often overlooked benefit of the authoritarian style is the ability to maintain a sense of order.
This style was first described during the late 1970s and later expanded upon by researcher Bernard M. Bass.
Transformational leaders are able to motivate and inspire followers and to direct positive changes in groups.
These leaders tend to beemotionally intelligent, energetic, and passionate.
Transactional Leadership
The transactional leadership style views the leader-follower relationship as a transaction.
By accepting a position as a member of the group, the individual has agreed to obey the leader.
This style allows leaders to offer a great deal of supervision and direction, if needed.
Group members may also be motivated to perform well to receive rewards.
One of the biggest downsides is that the transactional style tends to stifle creativity and out-of-the-box thinking.
Situational Leadership
Situational theories of leadershipstress the significant influence of the environment and the situation on leadership.
Hersey and Blanchard’s leadership stylesis one of the best-known situational theories.
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Blanchard KH, Zigarmi P, Drea Zigarmi.Leadership and the One Minute Manager: Increasing Effectiveness Through Situational Leadership.
William Morrow, An Imprint Of HarperCollins; 2013.
Hersey P, Blanchard KH.Management of Organizational Behavior: Utilizing Human Resources.
Prentice Hall, 1969.
