Leadership is part of our everyday lives. It’s about how you determine and prioritize tasks, make decisions, and communicate with other people. Whether you’re a solopreneur or manage a team of 50, you are a leader.
Knowing your leadership style can help clarify how you do these things. Greater self-awareness will help you become a more effective leader, helping both you and your team thrive.
Why You Should Know Your Leadership Style
You need to understand your own leadership style because it affects almost everything you do as a leader. You might not even be aware of your own style, but it’s making a big impact on your work.
Your leadership style will impact:
- How you lead your employees and get results.
- How you manage projects and organize tasks or responsibilities.
- How you communicate with clients or customers.
Your leadership style can help or hinder you. It will either allow you to effecdtively motivate others or totally rub them the wrong way.
Bottom line: Knowing your leadership style is self-awareness, and self-awareness makes you a better leader.
3 Common Leadership Styles
Theorists and analysts have come up with tons of different leadership styles. Instead of reviewing them all, it’s helpful to consider three broad categories (identified by social psychologist, Kurt Lewin):
- Authoritarian leadership.
- Participative leadership.
- Delegative leadership.
Authoritarian leadership
Authoritarian leadership is when leaders have a clear direction and command. Decision-making is centralized and presented in a top-down manner. Authoritarian leaders might:
- Make decisions quickly and independently.
- Separate themselves from the group.
- Rarely seek input, advice, or ideas from their team.
Participative Leadership
Participative, or democratic, leadership is when everyone’s opinions are welcome, and leaders consider themselves part of the team. Collaboration is the key feature of this leadership style, and leaders are always improving their collaboration processes for the team. Participative leaders might:
- Prioritize and encourage group learning so that it benefits everyone.
- Listen to all ideas and opinions when making a decision.
- Build a bigger project team than necessary because, in their mind, more collaboration is always better.
Delegative leadership
Delegative leadership is when there is little guidance to the team or group. It can also be referred to as “laissez-faire” leadership because the leader is hands-off and allows the team to make decisions. Delegative leaders might:
- Expect everyone to be a self-starter and take initiative.
- Leave colleagues to work out disagreements and differences on their own.
- Let every team member try their own method individually instead of deciding on one.
These three leadership styles are broad categories. Within them, there are other leadership styles such as visionary leader (authoritative) or coaching leader (participative). If you want to learn more about the expanding web of leadership styles, this article does a great job of breaking some of those down.
Determine Your Leadership Style
After reading these descriptions, you might be able to quickly tell your own leadership style. But, if you’re still not sure, think about these questions:
- How do you like to make decisions on projects, tasks, or deadlines?
- Do you view yourself as part of the team, or distinctly separate from the team?
- Should your team make their own autonomous decisions, or do you need to guide them?
It can be helpful to look back at past projects you led and consider how you led them. You don’t have to perfectly define your leadership style, but start thinking about it and notice your own patterns.
How to Make Your Leadership Style Work
There are pros and cons to each leadership style. So while some might think that one is better than the other, it’s actually that one is better in some situations than others. There is a need to adapt and change your leadership style when the environment calls for it.
Consider these examples:
- Authoritative leadership is best when they are the most knowledgeable person on the team and quick decisions need to be made. It can be a negative form of leadership when creativity is needed or they are viewed as overly controlling.
- Participative leadership is best to encourage creativity and high-quality contributions. It can boost motivation and engagement. It can be a negative form of leadership because it can take a long time to reach a consensus.
- Delegative leadership is best when all team members are experts who value autonomy. It can be a negative form of leadership because there are unclear roles.
Leadership Style Pro Con Authoritative leadership This style is best when they are the most knowledgeable person on the team and quick decisions need to be made. It can be a negative form of leadership when creativity is needed or they are viewed as overly controlling. Participative leadership Participative leadership is best to encourage creativity and high-quality contributions. It can boost motivation and engagement. This style can backfire because it can take a long time to reach a consensus. Delegative leadership This style is best when all team members are experts who value autonomy. It can be a negative form of leadership because there are unclear roles. Given this, any leadership style can work. The key is to know your own default style and then be aware of when you need to adapt.
For example, by nature, you might be an authoritative leader who enjoys making independent decisions. You know, however, that you need to draw out creativity from your team to create a good product. Investing time to learn about different collaboration skills for successful teams can be a great first step to embracing a participative leadership style.
At the end of the day, this is all about self-awareness. Learning your leadership style will help you become a more effective leader because you’ll be aware of how and why you make decisions.
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