Types of Leadership for my Business

By David KigerImage courtesy of unsplash.com at Pexels.com

Leadership is the capacity or ability that a person has to influence, encourage or motivate others to perform well, carry out certain goals with enthusiasm and willingness, and ultimately achieve success.

In the case of a company, leadership is usually equated to the management of the business. That is to say that a person belonging to higher hierarchical levels is the leader of others in lower positions. For instance, the owner of the business is considered a leader before his employees, or a supervisor to his subordinates. Therefore, leaders and managers can sometimes be the same person, but there is a marked difference between the two. They are separate roles.

Nevertheless, leadership can and should be also implemented between workers that belong to a same hierarchical level. For example, a worker can provide enthusiastic and proactive leadership towards his colleagues.

Let's take a look at the most predominant or classical styles of leadership that are assumed, and then, let’s draw some conclusions about which one to use.

Leadership Types

There are several classifications of leadership styles. In this article we are going to cover three basic types or styles: the authoritarian leadership, the democratic leadership and the liberal leadership.

Authoritarian Leadership: This type of leadership is based on a dominant style. They are also called autocratic leaders. In this style, the leader tends to dictate the procedures, policies, assign the goals to be achieved, directs, controls and makes decisions without the meaningful participation of his subordinates. This leader is bossy, restrictive, demands obedience and constantly supervises workers. This type of leader does not feel the need of explaining his reasons for doing things, much less cares about justifying his actions.

Democratic Leadership: In this type of leadership the leader has an open approach, seeking to be a team-player, and decisions are usually shared and made among the workers, contributing valuable opinions for the vision and the goals to be achieved but under the supervision, guidance and consent of the leader. It is also called participative leadership and it invites to discussion, consensus and engagement. The democratic leader is characterized by listening to his group members. He is friendly, accessible, and helpful, shows concerns and respect for others, delegates and encourages participation. Laissez-Faire Leadership: This type of leadership is based on a minimum participation of the leader. It gives total freedom for the decisions making process. The group members end up having the responsibility of setting goals and solving problems. This type of leaders have very limited participation in decisions.

What Type of Leadership is Better for my Business?

Exclusively authoritarian leadership can achieve a greater amount of work, but at the cost of generating tension, dissatisfaction, lack of spontaneity and initiative in employees. As negative as is sounds, this leadership can be appropriate in contexts where new employees are constantly arriving, there is limited decision-making time and resources, and there is a need for coordination at a larger scale. This authoritarian leadership can be displayed, for example, when tasks are repetitive and based on a routine, when there is lack of discipline in the workers, when they are not doing their job well, or when mistakes are reiterative.

Under a laissez-faire type of leadership poor results are often obtained in terms of quality and quantity, plus the tasks tend to develop randomly and wasting time. These leaders can only succeed in contexts where there are highly trained and self-directed employees. They are not appropriate in companies where the member require direction, supervision, guidance, initiative and praise. Under a democratic leadership the level of production usually might seem different to that of the employees who are under an authoritarian leadership, but the quality of the work tends to be higher. Additionally, under this leadership, the workers tend to show greater efficiency, greater creativity, communication, responsibility and commitment. The democratic leader is ideal for an organization where there is need for cooperation. Democratic leadership can be displayed, for example, when workers are doing their job well, and the business is growing steadily. It would not be so successful in an organization where guidelines, roles and practices are strict and unchanging.

Adopting a democratic leadership would seem to be the best option of the three. However, in practice this is not necessarily the case. It is important to apply the three types of leadership according to the situation that is taking place, according to the people in need to be led, and according to the task or job that needs to be performed.Sometimes, there is a need to be authoritarian and enforce orders. Other times, participation needs to be fostered and consultation with workers can be crucial before making decisions and, other moments a leader needs to allow his group to figure out things on their own, especially if they are displaying efficiency and responsibility.If you want to know more insight from David Kiger on leadership soft skills, click here.