A successful leader creates an inspiring vision for his followers, while motivating them to achieve it. Various types of leadership styles are learnt by sheer hard work and best practices. It is vital to understand different leadership styles in management for enabling companies to not only adapt, but also efficiently practice the right leadership style.

The best leadership style is the one which is flexible and effective at the same time, while bringing out the best in their employees. Improving every day adds to the overall growth of a company. Here is a list of the most common ones:

Autocratic Leadership

 

This type of leadership is based on the fact that the leader exercises complete control over his followers. This is no longer a favorable type in today’s contemporary global environment. The leader’s word is final and he gives orders for execution with minimal feedback from the workers.

This kind of leadership demands prompt execution from their workers which gives rise to strict rules which are expected to be followed to the core.

Creativity rarely flourishes in such a kind of environment as it is the leader who determines the pace of work. Also, the consequences of failure are disastrous for the workers. Most organizations of today cannot sustain continuing such a type of leadership style as they would run into the risk of losing employees.

Some of the examples regarding leaders who practice this leadership style are North Korean leader Kim-Jong un and United States President Donald Trump, who is one of the most powerful and richest men in the world. 

Lassez-Faire Leadership

This leadership style provides complete independence to workers. If you are a leader who follows this kind of leadership, you completely trust in your followers. In fact, it can be categorized as the least interfering or intrusive type of leadership style.

Allowing employees to complete tasks as per their judgement is the most marked feature of this kind of leadership. Employees do value the autonomy given to them and they mostly exhibit a forthcoming and an open initiative while performing their responsibilities.

This leadership style is not necessarily always effective as it can stunt employee growth and limit potential opportunities. This leads to the conclusion that this style needs to be kept in check.

Some of the charismatic leaders which have followed the laissez-faire style of leadership include Warren Buffet in the corporate world legend who uses this style of leadership to run his business empire.

Democratic Leadership Style

This is one of the most preferred leadership styles today. The main reason of its popularity is the fact that leaders involve their employees in final decision making process.

They take into consideration their employee’s opinions and input into consideration. Displaying confidence in your employees boosts their confidence and they considers themselves as an intricate part of the organization.

In the long run, a leader can have super successful innings if there is no dictatorship or undue pressure on the employees. Helping the people to move in the right direction with the guidance of capable leaders are the cornerstone of running successful organizations. One of the most effective leadership styles, democratic leadership brings all the best ideas to the table.

In history, two great examples that can be seen as unforgettable figures are Abraham Lincoln and George Washington. Both the leaders exercised democratic leadership style while utilizing the output of their subordinates.

In today’s corporate world, business tycoon Jeff Bezos of Amazon is a perfect example of successful participative leadership. He believes in considering the opinions and input of his employees and is a firm believer that real changes have to come from the bottom level. 

Transformational Leadership

Leaders following transformational style are usually evolving or ‘improving’ upon the existing company’s policies and conventions. In this style, employees are constantly called upon to push themselves outside their comfort zone. Though the employees might have a set of regular objectives on hand, however the leader constantly encourages them to surpass their own parameters for excellence.

Such leaders also inspire their workers for intellectual stimulation. Honestly these companies perform very well and this proves to be an all-round approach to attain excellence. Transformational leadership can only be successful in any company if they have an honest and dedicated senior management in place. This kind of a system ensures the completion of daily processes efficiently.

After all, the leader of the company or the CEO has to be a visionary with contemporary and innovative approach to following best practices. Usually this style is practiced across big businesses and has been proved to be quite successful. 

A note-worthy example of successful transactional leadership is Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple. He is till date regarded as an iconic and super successful leader who always had a knack of challenging his employees. 

Transactional Leadership

This style of leadership focuses on working and being rewarded at the same time for producing consistent results. They are common in the corporate world of today. This style is not as charismatic as the transformative one, however it is result oriented which makes it successful in business. Leaders following it need to be consistent with their company goals and main objectives.

Positive and precise performances are given incentives and more money in the form of bonus and so forth. However employees do get punished if their performances are not as per expectations or follows bad practices.

This can include a demotion or at times even an expulsion from the company. It has been seen that going with a reward based system proves to be productive for a company as it becomes a constant source of motivation for employees.

A great example of a transactional leader is Bill Gates. He is an exemplary leader and expects the best performance from his employees and motivates them while following the reward-punishment strategy. 

Bureaucratic Leadership

Bureaucratic leadership usually is implemented and practiced in regulated environments. It is indeed one of the oldest styles globally initiated by German sociologist, Max Weber. Leaders stick to strict rules and regulations. They might also seek feedback, opinions or input of employees. However ultimately the leader tends to reject the input of an employee, in case there is a conflict with the company policy.

This style of leadership does not dominate its employees like autocratic leadership does. There is a lack of complete freedom, though.

That is the reason that companies who encourage freedom of thought and input do not prefer sticking to this leadership style. Organizations with high ambitions and lofty goals cannot grow by leaps and bounds if they shut down innovation.

Conclusion

After knowing about all the major leadership styles in management, it can be said that there is no definite style of leadership which can be termed as better than the other. An ideal leadership style should be implemented for the growth of a company and should be adaptive in the specific circumstances. This is because of the fact that each organization has a different set of mission and vision values and so are the situations.

As a summary of leadership styles, there is no doubt in the fact that a leader can resonate with more than one style of leadership. Narrowing down to pick your ultimate choice can be done after weighing the pros and cons of each one of them.

Management is all about maintaining the perfect balance for maximizing the growth of your company. Once you have taken all these factors into consideration, it’s high time to put together everything and translate it into action.

Are you looking to become a successful motivational speaker and hence an effective leader for your followers? Watch the video for valuable info, tips and ideas to get it all running!