Once upon a time, a CEO would merely get up and go about his work. Now, they are scrutinized to immense detail – with many having labels forced upon them.
One such label comes in the form of their leadership style. Over the years experts have devised several different styles that can be attributed to leaders all around the world and as you may have gathered, we’re now going to explore some of them.
Autocratic
If you’re an autocratic leader, it means that you don’t really need the input of your team. It’s here in which the manager or CEO has complete authority and no challenge, from anyone, is accepted.
While it might appear quite a strict and negative style, there are some occasions where it can be effective. For example, if a team is made up of employees who need regular supervision, it stands to reason that they will benefit from an autocratic leader.
However, anyone with an ounce of creativity will struggle to get to grips with this style and it won’t be effective.
Laissez-Faire
This is probably one of the most well-known leadership styles out there although again, there are plenty of occasions where it’s not necessarily effective.
It’s in these cases where the leader will offer minimal supervision to employees and this means that it’s only suited to some businesses. If a company is comprised of a lot of experienced workers who don’t need to be supervised, they will probably benefit from the laissez-faire approach. However, anyone who isn’t completely confident in their abilities might struggle and they won’t be nearly as productive as they would be with other styles.
Transformational
The transformational style of leadership is seen as being a little more positive. It’s one where communication is absolutely key and the leaders will form close relationships with employees and motivate them highly.
To highlight this leadership style, we could draw on tech CEO Charles Phillips. As well as being Infor CEO, Charles Phillips and his wife also run Phillips Charitable Organizations and both appear to benefit from the transformational leadership style. Communication appears to be strong in both and high levels of motivation run down the teams.
Participative
Next on the list is the participative form of leadership, which some readers may refer to as democratic.
Again, it’s seen as a positive style and there is plenty of input from employees who contribute hugely to the decision-making process. It’s a style which means that everyone’s opinion counts – although one that might not necessarily work if quick decisions need to be made.
Transactional
The final style on our list comes in the form of transactional leadership. This is a very task-based style and largely surrounds rewards and punishments.
Goals are set at the start of each project and progress is constantly monitored. Over time, this monitoring will result in the employee being rewarded with something like a bonus, or potentially being retrained if they have not met expectations. Just like all of the styles we have touched upon, the transactional style will only be effective in certain situations.
Kidal Delonix is a contributor to Mr. Hoffman's blog. The views and opinions are entirely his/her own and may not reflect Mr Hoffman's views.
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