Leadership style is a manner to motivate, lead, direct and implement the plans with the help of followers. There are various leadership styles and each one has its own merits and demerits. We will study them here.
“A leader is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along that they are being directed from behind.”
Nelson Mandela
Popular Leadership Styles
Autocratic Leadership
This leadership is style is the worst kind of leadership. In this style, the leader never seeks any input from followers. Decisions are taken by leader without prior notice or input and everyone is expected to adhere to the new decisions or policies. The leader is supreme when it comes to decision making.
Suppose, your work timing gets changed without even informing you or asking your opinion or your nature of duties gets changed without even consulting you. This is an example of autocratic leadership.
Democratic Leadership
This is a very popular leadership style. The leader asks for input from fellow members and acts accordingly. The final decision is reserved for leaders only but opinions from team members influence the decision. Common examples include board meetings etc.
Bureaucratic Leadership
This is a kind of bookish leadership. Unlike autocratic, your opinions will be listened but they might not be part of the decision like democratic. The leader here works on the company policy and past track record. This is the kind of leadership you may find in big old corporations and government offices.
Strategic Leadership
This is a good leadership style. In this style, a leader comes forward and takes responsibility for a particular thing at hand. He/she then creates a strategy for that thing which includes the growth of the organization as well as talented and motivated individuals. In the strategy forming stage, the leader persuades teammates to form their versions of strategies and combines them all inclusively. This is a chance to create more leaders as well as let people feel more connected to the vision.
Transformational Leadership
This style focuses more on the communication part. In this style, tough goals are set with a strict deadline and this gets communicated to the team. They are now supposed to be reaching to the goal in time while working as a team or an individual as assigned.
Transactional Leadership
This style involves rewards and incentives to motivate employees to work. This can be a good way at first but it may also encourage people to do a bare minimum work. This is most common in the marketing world where people get perks, rewards, and incentives based on the number of sales they do. This involves a transaction for leading thus the name transactional leadership.
Coaching Leadership
In this leadership style, rather than giving instructions and targets, the leader becomes a part of the team and guides them along the way. This is more of a coaching and less of a leadership. For this very reason, people debated if this to be considered as a leadership style or not but now it is considered as a leadership style.
Laissez-Faire Leadership
Laissez-faire is a French word which means let them do. This is one of the best leadership styles. The leader assigns the task and deadline and leaves you alone with the least supervision or interference. You are free to work on your own flexible hours and innovation. It works best when employees are highly talented and motivated individuals.
Charismatic Leadership
This is a leadership style where leader leads through example. This happens on the basis of the personal characteristics of the leader such as confidence, charm, oratory skills, charisma, etc. It is a kind of one man show. Though it may achieve great success at times if the leader is visionary but it is prone to fail in the absence of the charisma of the particular leader.
A great example of this leadership is our very own prime minister Narendra Modi ji. He has inspired millions to give up subsidies, stay clean and help to keep the country cleaner. He is the most charismatic leader in India and one of the most in the world as of now.