Knowing the different leadership styles and which one to use in each context is one of the most important tools for any manager. Understand the applications, advantages and challenges of 9 different types of leadership below.
If you've ever wondered why some leaders focus on giving their teams freedom, while others invest more in control and results, the answer lies in the different leadership styles .
Based not only on the leader's profile, but also on the needs and moments of each area led and the company, the different types of leadership have their sets of characteristics that directly impact the performance of team members and, therefore, the results achieved .
In this article, we will explore the concept of leadership and the most common styles in different organizational contexts, to help leaders at all levels understand how to apply each type. Check it
In short, leadership is understood as the activity of coordinating and commanding people, with the aim of achieving a common goal.
However, in a professional context, being a leader does not only mean knowing how to command a team, but also positively impacting people, their behaviors and the results they achieve individually and collectively.
In this sense, the old-fashioned figure of the person who sits hierarchically above the rest of the team, is feared and “orders” others around no longer fits into the current work context, where investment in human capital and collective work is increasingly necessary.
Now that the concept of leadership has been explained, the question remains: what are the common characteristics of a leader ?
Before we answer the question, it is important to highlight that not all leaders have the same characteristics and soft skills. Likewise, not having one characteristic or another does not necessarily make a person a good or bad leader.
However, there are some characteristics that are seen in leaders who have more experience in the management area.
These people may have developed these skills in the past or may have gained them through leadership training .
In relation to behavioral skills (soft skills), people with a leadership profile present:
As we have already mentioned, not all leaders have these skills innately. These characteristics can be developed over time, like many other fundamental skills for leaders .
In addition to the common skills among leaders, leadership styles not only directly influence the performance of the person in the management position, but also of the entire team led.
Let's take a look at the nine leadership styles most commonly seen in organizations?
Autocratic leadership is a leadership style where the focus of decision-making power is completely on the leader.
The autocratic leader gives little or no creative space and discussion to the team, defining objectives, goals and processes vertically, without expecting much dialogue or questions from the team members.
The autocratic leadership style, therefore, is focused on centralizing decision-making and micromanagement .
This can be beneficial in fulfilling processes and goals in more linear contexts, such as in industrial sectors, where respect for procedures is critical for productive results and everyone's safety.
However, autocratic leadership generally results in a lack of team commitment, as there is no room for seeking collective resolutions and creativity.
Democratic leadership, in turn, follows a very different objective than autocratic leadership: the focus of the leader who performs this style is to involve all team members in day-to-day decision-making.
The democratic leader, therefore, invests in inclusive leadership to generate team belonging and commitment.
As it is a leadership model that invests in collective decision-making, it may come up against slower changes, which may not be ideal in times of organizational or area crisis.
The liberal management model is a more extreme form of democratic leadership.
While the democratic leader brings decision-making to the team to involve everyone, the liberal leader completely delegates the autonomy of activities to the team, exempting himself from any control.
This type of leadership, focused entirely on freedom and trust in the team, has positive and negative points.
Strengthening the team's interpersonal relationships, professional development, freedom to carry out activities and valuing each person's ideas are some of the most important points.
On the negative side, liberal leadership can generate problems and frustrations in the team due to there being no clear direction of what should be done and prioritized, especially in teams where employees have less seniority in their roles.
The technical leader is someone who generally becomes the manager of an area based on in -depth knowledge of the activities, processes and goals involved in daily activities.
In this way, the technical leadership style focuses on developing people through example, showing the path to be followed to optimize results.
Although technical leadership brings together the team's recognition for its mastery of the area, it can also bring, in some contexts, challenges to the team, such as the prevalence of technical relationships over human ones and the reduction of employees' freedom to bring innovation.
The transformational type of leadership involves a management focus on team development.
In this sense, the transformational leader focuses on the qualification of each member of the group to achieve objectives and goals.
Among the activities that this type of leader develops to achieve their objective are:
Idealized influence: through example, the leader encourages his team to invest in innovation and professional development;
Encouraging the search for knowledge: the transformational leader invests in and encourages his team to continue specializing, using, for example, a continuous learning strategy ;
Individual development: this leadership style does not focus solely on the team in general, but approaches each employee individually to help each person, creating, for example, an Individual Development Plan (IDP) .
The strategic leadership style seeks to develop high-performance teams by creating a coherent short, medium and long-term vision.
The strategic leader seeks to develop his area by establishing goals and more intelligently positioning the activities to be carried out on a daily basis.
Furthermore, the strategic leader aims to delegate activities in a way that considers the individual skills of each team member, developing their strengths.
The main advantage of strategic leadership is developing a highly engaged team with a strong sense of belonging.
As the name suggests, the motivating leader manages his team on a daily basis using motivation as the main trigger for increased performance .
From helping people with day-to-day tasks to using one-on-one coaching techniques , the motivational leader seeks to engage people individually and create a lighter, more welcoming work environment.
Additionally, motivational leadership often uses a reward system to achieve goals and projects, which also helps with motivation.
The focus of this type of leadership is on building a good relationship between leader and follower.
The charismatic leader chooses to invest in the team and processes by creating a calm organizational climate , where each individual on the team is highly valued and esteemed.
The main advantage of charismatic leadership is to create a team with a high level of engagement in the business, as the work environment becomes increasingly welcoming and shaped by the team's interpersonal needs.
The last leadership style to be discussed in this article is situational leadership. The main characteristic of this leader is to adapt his or her way of working according to the needs of the people, the team, the area and the company.
In this way, the situational leader shapes his/her performance as manager of the area according to the needs of the moment and the people involved, in addition to the challenges of the area itself.
To define how to act with each team member individually, situational leadership uses four levels of action based on the maturity of each team member with their role and with the company. They are:
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