Each leader has different styles of leadership or leaders traits. If you’re in a leadership role then you’ve come to the right place. We can all do things that help us improve and be more successful. By just reading this page, I’d like to congratulate you on taking your first steps to higher success. Over the years I’ve helped many people recognize leaders traits and different styles of leadership. More importantly, I’ve mentored them optimizing their performance and making them a more successful manager. When it comes to different styles of leadership, where are you? Do you your follower approve of your leaders' traits?
We’ve tried to explain what we know to be true. We’ve tried to identify what we know from experience alone. Some have attempted to measure its effectiveness, while others have asked whether it was even appropriate to do so. It’s all part of understanding the different styles of leadership and your leaders' traits.
And despite more than 100 years of studying this phenomenon (different styles of leadership), we’re no closer to being able to define it than we were at the end of the 19th century. In fact, there are probably as many definitions of of different styles of leadership as there people to ask. So, it should come as no surprise that managers are asking what they are and when to use them. They need to know if their leaders traits' are working to be successful.
However you define leadership, you probably want those you want to lead to follow you. That’s another way of saying that you want to influence their behavior and, on that at least, scholars seem to agree. The debate centers on how to achieve that.
Ultimately, there are three positions regarding the different styles of leadership. The first is that the responsibility is entirely that of the leader. He or she decides what to do, and everyone else just follows. This style is referred to as autocratic, task-oriented, or concern for production, depending on who you ask. The opposite of that is called democratic, but is also referred to as relationship-oriented or concern for people. Nearly every scholar has his or her own terminology. The third position is the theoretical midpoint between them.
The different styles of leadership available to managers are considered to be somewhere between the two extremes. Sounds simple enough, right? If only it was true.
Which of these different styles of leadership or leaders is the most appropriate also depends upon a number of factors. Some say that when leaders lead, followers should follow. In other words, the onus of following is placed on the followers, not on the quality of the leadership that is exercised.
Others have said that the different styles of leadership used depends on the situation. If it’s favorable to the leader, then his or her effectiveness will be greater than if it’s not. Still others believe that the leadership style depends upon the maturity of the followers. That is, that mature followers can be led more democratically than those who are immature.
In the past 30 years or so, the idea of charismatic leadership has become popular. Here the different styles of leadership includes the ability of leader to influence others through the force of their personality more than anything else. And it’s of such as style that that ideas of selling ice to Eskimos or sand to Arabs is so familiar. Of course, just because it’s in vogue, doesn’t mean that it’s new. It’s effectiveness has been known on occasions for most of the last century.
But, we’re not finished yet. There’s one more aspect to the use of different styles of leadership that I haven’t mentioned. In fact, I’ve saved it for the end deliberately. And that is whether or not the leader and the leaders traits will exercise the best style for the situation. This assumes, of course, that they can recall all the different styles of leadership and distinguish between them. More than that, it assumes that having done so, they will objectively choose that one for the situation that they face.
We know from human behavior that this is not at all what happens. Far from considering all the options, they instead rely on the one they’ve used most often to get people to do what they want them to do. And when people don’t follow them or they find themselves under pressure from their paymasters, then they blame their staff, rather than taking personal responsibility.
My belief is that it doesn’t matter what different styles of leadership are available, because managers are more likely to use those that suit them, regardless of the circumstances, situation, or level of subordinate maturity. What matters is which one will give you the results you want, because you’ll only get the behavior you reinforce.
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