Why are leadership styles important?

Leadership Styles: What Type Should You Adopt?

Being a good corporate leader is both art and science. On one hand, you need to experiment and often use your “gut feeling” to decide on how you should behave in one situation or another. On the other hand, without a solid leadership methodology, all your efforts may result in minimal impact.

What is Leadership Style?

A simple definition of leadership style:  A leadership style is a combination of a leader’s learned skills, proven methodologies and character attributes meshed into a “style” that is used to motivate and guide others. 

A great leader can create meaningful change, and inspire the people who look to them for guidance. In the workplace, they can encourage teams to become more productive and do their best work.

As you develop leadership skills, you’ll likely use different processes and methods to achieve your employer’s objectives and meet the needs of the employees who report to you. To be effective as a manager, you might use several different leadership styles at different times, depending on situations and circumstances.

Most professionals develop their own style of leadership based on factors like experience and personality, as well as the unique needs of their company and its organizational culture. While every leader is different, there are 10 leadership styles commonly practiced in the workplace.

So let’s take a closer look at the different types of leadership styles, formalized by social scientists, along with explanations on when each of them works best at the workplace.

By taking the time to familiarize yourself with each of these types of leadership, you might recognize certain areas to improve upon or expand your own leadership style. You can also identify other ways to lead that might better serve your current goals and understand how to work with managers who follow a different style than your own.

Here are the Ten most common leadership styles:

1. Coach

A coaching leader is someone who can quickly recognize their team members’ strengths, weaknesses and motivations to help each individual improve. This type of leader often assists team members in setting SMART goals (SMART is Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-based), and then provides regular feedback with challenging projects to promote growth. They’re skilled in setting clear expectations and creating a positive, motivating environment.

The coach leadership style is one of the most advantageous for employers as well as the employees they manage. Unfortunately, it’s often also one of the most underutilized styles—largely because it can be more time-intensive than other types of leadership.

Example: A sales manager gathers their team of account executives for a meeting to discuss performance from the previous quarter. They start the meeting by completing an assessment together of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT Analysis) regarding the team’s performance. 

The coach-leader then recognizes specific team members for exceptional performance and goes over the goals achieved by the team. Finally, the manager closes the meeting by announcing a contest to start the next quarter, motivating the salespeople to reach beyond their goals.

One particular famous coaching leader was Mahatma Gandhi. He empowered the nation of India to set themselves on the path to independence from the UK by getting the people motivated and believing in themselves. Other great leaders who have used the coaching leadership style on occasion, included Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Apple's Steve Jobs.

2. Visionary

Visionary leaders have a powerful ability to drive progress and usher in periods of change by inspiring employees and earning trust for new ideas. A visionary leader is also able to establish a strong organizational bond. They strive to foster confidence among direct reports and colleagues alike.

This type of leadership is especially helpful for small, fast-growing organizations, or larger organizations experiencing transformations or corporate restructuring.

Example: A CEO/COO starts multiple groups within the workplace for colleagues and employees to help facilitate new concepts and ideas for growth and corporate improvement. Visionary leaders include inventors, strategists, marketeers, and business 'gurus' who are able to gain a deep insight into how complex markets operate. Visionary leaders see the future before anyone else conceives of their ideas and the potential in the marketplace.  Apple’s Steve Jobs and Microsoft’s Bill Gates are the very best examples of visionary leaders.

3. Servant

Servant leaders live by a people-first mindset and believe that when team members feel personally and professionally fulfilled, they’re more effective and more likely to produce great work regularly. Because of their emphasis on employee satisfaction and collaboration, they tend to achieve higher levels of respect.

A servant leader is an excellent leadership style for organizations of any industry and size but is especially prevalent within nonprofits. These types of leaders are exceptionally skilled in building employee morale and helping people re-engage with their work.

Example: A product manager hosts monthly one-on-one coffee meetings with everyone that has concerns, questions or thoughts about the customer experience and improving the product their company sells. Characteristics of a servant leader include active listening, empathy, awareness, persuasion, foresight, conceptualization, stewardship, commitment to growth and community building.

4. Autocratic

Also called the authoritarian style of leadership, this type of leader is someone who is focused almost entirely on results and efficiency. They often make decisions alone or with a small, trusted group and expect employees to do exactly what they’re asked. It can be helpful to think of these types of leaders as military commanders.

This leadership style can be useful in organizations with strict guidelines or compliance-heavy industries. It can also be beneficial when used with employees who need a great deal of supervision—such as those with little to no experience. However, this leadership style can stifle creativity and make employees feel confined.

Example: Autocratic leadership is vital in many workplace environments. This style is necessary within organizations and companies that demand error-free outcomes. While autocratic leadership is one of the least popular management styles, it’s also among the most common.

The autocratic leadership process generally entails one person making all strategic decisions for subordinates. Although it has fallen out of favor in recent decades, the autocratic leadership style is still very prevalent.

Autocratic leadership is easily abused, often uses negative reinforcement techniques, and should mostly be avoided. It can be a career killer.

5. Laissez-faire or hands-off

This leadership style is the opposite of the autocratic leadership type, focusing mostly on delegating many tasks to team members and providing little to no supervision. Because a laissez-faire leader does not spend their time intensely managing employees, they often have more time to dedicate to other projects.

Managers may adopt this leadership style when all team members are highly experienced, well-trained and require little oversight. However, it can also cause a dip in productivity if employees are confused about their leader’s expectations, or if some team members need consistent motivation and boundaries to work well.

Example: When welcoming new employees, the Chief of Product Development explains that software engineers can set and maintain their own work schedules as long as they are tracking towards and hitting goals that they set together as a team. They are also free to learn about and participate in projects outside of their team they might be interested in.

6. Democratic

The democratic leadership style (also called the participative style) is a combination of the autocratic and laissez-faire types of leaders. A democratic leader is someone who asks for input and considers feedback from their team before making a decision. Because team members feel their voice is heard and their contributions matter, a democratic leadership style is often credited with fostering higher levels of employee engagement and workplace satisfaction.

Because this type of leadership drives discussion and participation, it’s an excellent style for organizations focused on creativity and innovation—such as the technology industry.

Example: A general operations manager, has hired many brilliant and focused team members he trusts. When deciding on operational changes to enhance productivity and efficiencies, he acts only as the final moderator for his team to move forward with their ideas. He is there to answer questions and present possible improvements for his team to consider.

7. Pacesetter

The pacesetting leadership style is one of the most effective for driving fast results. These leaders are primarily focused on performance. They often set high standards and hold their team members accountable for hitting their goals.

While the pacesetting leadership style is motivational and helpful in fast-paced environments where team members need to be energized, it’s not always the best option for team members who need mentorship and feedback.

Example: The leader of a weekly meeting recognized that an hour out of everyone’s schedule once a week did not justify the purpose of the meeting. To increase efficiency, the leader changes the meeting to a 15-minute standup with only those needed with relevant updates to share.

8. Transformational

The transformational leadership style is similar to the coach style in that it focuses on clear communication, goal-setting and employee motivation. However, instead of placing the majority of the energy into each employee’s individual goals, the transformational leader is driven by a commitment to organization objectives.

Because these types of leaders spend much of their time on the big picture, this style of leading is best for teams that can handle many delegated tasks without constant supervision.

Example: A newly hired mid-level executive is tasked with setting up a marketing department to support sales and business development.  The CEO asks the new manager to set aggressive goals and organize teams to reach corporate objectives. the manager spends the first months in the new role getting to know the company and hiring new marketing employees. He/she gains a strong understanding of current market trends, brand awareness and organizational strengths. After three months, he/she has set clear targets for each of the teams and asks individuals to set goals for themselves that align with those.

9. Transactional

A transactional leader is someone who is laser-focused on performance, similar to a pacesetter. Under this leadership style, the manager establishes predetermined incentives—usually in the form of monetary reward for success and disciplinary action for failure. Unlike the pacesetter leadership style, though, transactional leaders are also focused on mentorship, instruction and training to achieve goals and enjoy the rewards.

While this type of leader is great for organizations or teams tasked with hitting specific goals, such as sales and revenue, it’s not the best leadership style for driving creativity.

Example: A regional sales manager meets with each member of the team bi-weekly in-person or by phone, reviews CRM activities and discusses ways they can meet and exceed assigned monthly goals. This style is a "show me the money" with few accepted excuses, way of leading and managing a team.

10. Bureaucratic 

Bureaucratic leaders are similar to autocratic leaders in that they expect their team members to follow the rules and procedures precisely as written.

The bureaucratic leadership style focuses on fixed duties within a hierarchy where each employee has a set list of responsibilities, and there is little need for collaboration and creativity. This leadership style is most effective in highly regulated industries or departments, such as finance, healthcare or government.

Example: Managers working in a government-bureaucracy will instruct employees to work within a specific, defined framework as outlined by a policy and procedures manual. They must take many steps to complete a task with strict adherence to the rules.

Remember, most leaders borrow from a variety of styles to achieve various goals at different times in their careers. While you may have excelled in a role using one type of leadership, another position may require a different set of habits to ensure your team is operating most effectively.

By understanding each of these leadership types, and the outcomes they’re designed to achieve, you can select the right leadership style for your current situation.