As a manager, you know that each ATS friendly resume passed to the company represents a different person. That means each person will have different responses to your leadership. However, talking to each person on your team all the time for any concerns may be counterproductive. It will take up a lot of time that you could use for working instead. You will have to use a leadership style that can deal with different personalities all at once. So what leadership style should you adapt for your team?
If you don’t know how to answer that, don’t worry. We have compiled a list of common leadership styles. Read through each one and see which would fit your team best.
8 Common Leadership Styles
1. Autocratic
Autocratic means you will dictate everything. You don’t bother consulting your team members and or asking for feedback. This type of leadership makes you believe that you know more than others. This can be a useful style if there is a project that needs snap decisions and you have inexperienced team members. However, if you use this style too much, you may end up alienating your team members, especially if they really want to be contributing workers.
2. Visionary
This leadership style is the mark of confident leaders. You lead the way, but at the same time also set expectations. You explain your thinking to your team members so that they can understand what you require from them. You also allow them to accomplish their assignment in a way that they would like. This style is perfect for employees who lack clarity and are looking for someone to really lead.
3. Coaching
Think of this style as you being a coach to a sports team. As the coach, your job is to find out the individual strengths of each of your team members and nurture each one. You will also focus on ways that will enable your team to work together. This style will be slow-growing, and won’t get things done right away. It’s more of an investment for the long run. The team you produce will work well together since they’ll use each other’s skills effectively and communicate well.
4. Pacesetting
This article says that pacesetting is when you lead from the front and set high standards for your team. You also drive them to succeed without any supervision on your side. This style is useful if you want a very driven performance from your team with almost instant results. However, you will need to have a highly skilled and knowledgeable team for this to work. Also, even the most motivated workers will become burnt out from the high-intensity pace of work. It’s not sustainable in the long run.
5. Democratic
Just like a democracy, this leadership style allows input from your team members. You will get them involved in the decision-making process. You also encourage them to be creative and throw ideas at you regarding your project. The democratic leadership style usually means your team members will have high job satisfaction and productivity. It is not a good choice to use this style in times when you need to make quick decisions.
6. Transactional
As this leader, you believe in rewarding good work and punishing bad output or failures. In effect, you are telling your team that you will give them something in exchange for what they give you. This style is effective for setting expectations, rules, and procedures. It’s effective in work that needs the office structure to be maintained at all times. However, it does not encourage creativity.
7. Delegative
This type of leadership means you will assign responsibilities to your team and trust that they will accomplish them well. Since you are free of managing them, you will also be able to do other important things. If your members are experienced, prefer to work alone, and do not like to be supervised, this might be best for them.
8. Servant
Instead of leading teams, your desire is to serve your members. If you choose to be this type of leader, you will place the satisfaction of your team members above all else. Yes, even above your own needs. As this article on The 12 Driving Forces & Effective Leadership says, you find your true purpose by helping others. You also create work environments where employees are always understood and supported. You believe that the happier the members of your team are, the better the work they will produce.
What style is yours?
Now that you know the different styles, how do you know which of these styles you should choose? One way is to take leadership assessment tests. Here’s a link for such a test. If you’re curious, contact us if you’d like to see your full report identifying your leadership style.
While these quizzes are not definitive, they will at least give you a starting point based on the results. A good, no matter how long or short, knowledge can help you out too. You can also ask your colleagues to evaluate you and how you lead. Familiarize yourself with the different styles, and see what traits of each style come up in the evaluation.
Another thing to remember is that leading well requires knowing which style of leadership is right for the situation. Adding flexibility to your leadership style and being able to switch to another when needed can enhance your effectiveness. While most of the people under you may respond well to your chosen leadership style, others may struggle to follow. And if you are unable to adjust, you might find your best people leaving sooner or later.
Finally, whichever dominant style you choose to have, just be authentic and genuine. People will be able to detect if you are being fake. If you lose the respect of your team, you will have a hard time being an effective leader in the company.
