What’s your leadership style?
According to internationally known leading psychologist, Daniel Goleman, there are six definitive leadership styles. Each of them has their own strengths but knowing how to adapt different leadership styles in different situations shows a highly developed Emotional Quotient (or EQ).
Research also suggests that people who with a high EQ are more likely to be innovative and have higher job satisfaction. To find out how what the four main components of EQ are and how you can improve yours have a read here.
Here are the six most common leadership styles, which situations they work best in and what to be aware of.
The Visionary Leader (the futurist)
Visionary leaders have the big picture in the forefront of their minds and are great at communicating it to their team. They encourage team members to think outside the square and provide a supportive environment to achieve the shared vision.
Use this leadership style: To drive change and encourage creativity.
When to be aware: If your team see the future differently to you. The visionary leadership style may also cause important short-term tasks to be overlooked in favour of the grand vision.
The Coach Leader (the mentor)
Developing individual team members for success, nurturing their strengths to create strong, cohesive teams, is at the heart of this leadership style. This leader guides their team towards achieving a shared vision, builds loyalty and commitment and helps them to become leaders themselves.
Use this leadership style: if you’re stuck doing the work of the team, if you have a team member who needs help building long term skills or want to promote and develop talent within the organisation instead of hiring externally.
Be aware: If the team member is not open to coaching. Also, the coach as leader is time consuming and you need to have good skills to do it competently. In my coaching and training programs I show leaders the fundamental techniques and skills to apply the coach as leader approach and grow confidence and capabilities within their teams.
The Affiliative Leader (the people person)
A positive work environment is at the forefront of the affiliative leader’s mind. They’re big on harmony, giving praise and inviting people to share their thoughts and emotions.
Use this leadership style: to create trust, build team dynamics and cohesion.
When to be aware: The affiliative leadership style could leave team members feeling confused and directionless if they don’t get enough advice and feedback because their leader values relationships over outcomes.
The Democratic Leader (the facilitator)
The democratic leader is a collaborator — they want to find solutions together. They value every voice and listen before reaching a consensus within the team.
Use this leadership style: When you need to get your team on board with an idea and build consensus.
When to be aware: Being a democratic leader means more time, more meetings and won’t always work in situations where fast decisions are required. This style shouldn’t be used either with people who are inexperienced, lack competence or not informed about a situation.
The first four leadership styles promote team harmony and positive outcomes. The following two styles may create tension in the team and should only be used in specific circumstances.
The Commanding Leader (the problem fixer)
Commanding leaders are great during a crisis or challenging times as their authoritarian leadership style means they are able to take charge, find urgent solutions and give orders with a clear plan.
Use this leadership style: During crisis management, high pressure situations that require urgent solutions.
When to be aware: On a day-to-day basis, this leadership style can negatively impact employees’ motivation if their input is not valued.
The Pacesetting Leader (the perfectionist)
The pacesetting leader has high expectations of excellence and is focused on performance and results. These leaders are passionate and disciplined and expect the same high performance from themselves and lead by example.
Use this leadership style: For short term, high-value projects for driven and motivated teams with tight deadlines and high stakes.
Be aware: This leadership style can place pressure on teams into working more or harder than necessary and in the long term can lead to burn out and high turnover.