Since Under My Leadership

10 Mutual Leadership Styles (Plus How To Observe Your Own)

By Indeed Editorial Team

December 8, 2021

At some signal in your career, you may accept on a leadership role. Whether yous're leading a coming together, a projection, a team or an unabridged department, you might consider identifying with or adopting a defined leadership style.

About professionals develop their own style of leadership based on factors like experience and personality, also every bit the unique needs of their company and its organizational culture. While every leader is dissimilar, there are 10 leadership styles normally used in the workplace.

In this article, we will cover the 10 about common leadership styles and provide examples and common characteristics of each to assistance you determine which leadership fashion you well-nigh identify with.

Related video: Top 8 Leadership Styles: Definitions and Examples

The importance of developing a leadership style

In an Indeed survey, 55% of employers cited asking about leadership skills in an interview every bit the nigh authentic evaluation of a candidate'southward ability to succeed in a role.¹ As you develop leadership skills, y'all'll likely use dissimilar processes and methods to accomplish your employer's objectives and meet the needs of the employees who report to y'all. To exist effective as a director, you might apply several different leadership styles at any given fourth dimension.

By taking the time to familiarize yourself with each of these types of leadership, you lot might recognize certain areas to ameliorate upon or expand your ain leadership style. Y'all can too identify other ways to pb that might better serve your electric current goals and understand how to work with managers who follow a different fashion than your own.

Leadership Styles

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Common leadership styles:

Omnibus (motivational)
Visionary (progress-focused and inspirational)
Retainer (humble and protective)
Autocratic (disciplinarian and event-focused)
Laissez-faire or hands-off (autocratic and delegatory)
Democratic (supportive and innovative)
Pacesetter (helpful and motivational)
Transformational (challenging and communicative)
Transactional (functioning-focused)
Bureaucratic (hierarchical and duty-focused)

Types of leadership styles

Here are 10 of the most common leadership styles, including benefits, challenges and examples of each.

1. Coaching leadership mode

A coaching leader is someone who tin quickly recognize their squad members' strengths, weaknesses and motivations to assist each individual improve. This blazon of leader often assists squad members in setting smart goals and then provides regular feedback with challenging projects to promote growth. They're skilled in setting articulate expectations and creating a positive, motivating environment.

The motorcoach leadership style is 1 of the most advantageous for employers besides as the employees they manage. Unfortunately, it's often also one of the near underused styles—largely because it can be more time-intensive than other types of leadership.

You lot may exist a coaching leader if y'all:

Are supportive
Offer guidance instead of giving commands
Value learning as a way of growing
Ask guided questions
Residue relaying cognition and helping others find it themselves
Are self-enlightened

Benefits: Coaching leadership is positive in nature and it promotes the development of new skills, gratuitous-thinking, empowerment, revisits company objectives and fosters a confident company culture. Leaders who motorcoach are often seen as valuable mentors.

Challenges: While this way has many advantages, it can be more time consuming as it requires one-on-one fourth dimension with employees which can be difficult to obtain in a borderline-driven surround.

Example: A sales manager gathers their squad of account executives for a meeting to hash out learnings from the previous quarter. They first the meeting by completing an assessment of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats regarding the team's performance.

The manager then recognizes specific team members for infrequent functioning and goes over the goals achieved by the team. Finally, the managing director closes the coming together past announcing a contest to start the side by side quarter, motivating the salespeople to reach their goals.

Read more: Coaching Leadership: How To Become a Coaching Leader and When To Use This Style

2. Visionary leadership style

Visionary leaders take a powerful ability to drive progress and conductor in periods of modify by inspiring employees and earning trust for new ideas. A visionary leader is also able to institute a strong organizational bond. They strive to foster conviction amongst direct reports and colleagues alike.

Visionary style is specially helpful for small, fast-growing organizations, or larger organizations experiencing transformations or corporate restructuring.

You may be a visionary leader if you are:

Persistent and bold
Strategic
Chance-taking
Inspirational
Optimistic
Innovative
Magnetic

Benefits: Visionary leadership tin can help companies grow, unite teams and the overall visitor and ameliorate outdated technologies or practices.

Challenges: Visionary leaders may miss of import details or other opportunities because they're and then focused on the big picture. They may likewise sacrifice the resolution of present-day issues because they are more future-oriented, which could go out their squad feeling unheard.

Case: A instructor starts a group at work for colleagues who want to help resolve anxieties and issues students are having outside of school. The goal is to aid students have improve focus and succeed in school. He has developed testing methods so they can find meaningful ways to help students in a quick, efficient style.

Read more: xiv Traits of Visionary Leaders

3. Servant leadership manner

Servant leaders live past a people-first mindset and believe that when squad members feel personally and professionally fulfilled, they're more effective and more probable to regularly produce great work. Because of their emphasis on employee satisfaction and collaboration, they tend to achieve higher levels of respect.

Retainer manner is an excellent leadership mode for organizations of whatsoever industry and size but is peculiarly prevalent within nonprofits. These types of leaders are exceptionally skilled in building employee morale and helping people re-engage with their work.

You may exist a servant leader if yous:

Motivate your team
Have excellent communication skills
Personally intendance about your team
Encourage collaboration and engagement
Commit to growing your team professionally

Benefits: Retainer leaders have the capacity to boost employee loyalty and productivity, improve employee evolution and decision-making, cultivate trust and create hereafter leaders.

Challenges: Servant leaders can become burnt-out every bit they ofttimes put the needs of their team above their own They may accept a difficult time being authoritative when they demand to be.

Example: A production manager hosts monthly ane-on-ane coffee meetings with everyone that has concerns, questions or thoughts about improving or using the product. This time is meant for her to accost the needs of and help those who are using the product in any chapters.

Read more: Retainer Leadership: Definition, Tips and Examples

4. Autocratic leadership fashion

Also called the "authoritarian style of leadership," this type of leader is someone who is focused primarily on results and efficiency. They often make decisions solitary or with a small, trusted group and look employees to exercise exactly what they're asked. It can be helpful to think of these types of leaders as military commanders.

Autocratic way can exist useful in organizations with strict guidelines or compliance-heavy industries. It can as well exist benign when used with employees who need a great bargain of supervision—such as those with little to no feel. Nevertheless, this leadership style can stifle creativity and brand employees feel confined.

You may be an autocratic leader if y'all:

Accept self-conviction
Are self-motivated
Communicate conspicuously and consistently
Follow the rules
Are dependable
Value highly structured environments
Believe in supervised work environments

Benefits: Autocratic leaders tin can promote productivity through delegation, provide clear and direct advice, reduce employee stress by making decisions quickly on their own.

Challenges: Autocratic leaders are often prone to high levels of stress because they experience responsible for everything. Since they lack flexibility and oftentimes exercise non want to hear others' ideas, these leaders are often resented by the team.

Instance: Earlier an operation, the surgeon carefully recounts the rules and processes of the operation room with every team member who volition be helping during the surgery. She wants to ensure anybody is articulate on the expectations and follows each procedure advisedly and exactly so the surgery goes as smoothly as possible.

Read more: What Is Autocratic Leadership?

5. Laissez-faire or easily-off leadership style

Laissez-faire style is the opposite of the autocratic leadership type, focusing mostly on delegating many tasks to squad members and providing little to no supervision. Because a laissez-faire leader does not spend their time intensely managing employees, they oftentimes have more fourth dimension to dedicate to other projects.

Managers may adopt this leadership manner when all squad members are highly experienced, well-trained and require little oversight. However, it can also cause a dip in productivity if employees are dislocated nearly their leader's expectations, or if some team members need consistent motivation and boundaries to work well.

You may be a laissez-faire leader if you:

Effectively delegate
Believe in freedom of option
Provide sufficient resources and tools
Will have control if needed
Offer effective criticism
Foster leadership qualities in your team
Promote an autonomous piece of work environment

Benefits: This style encourages accountability, creativity and a relaxed work environment which frequently leads to college employee retention rates.

Challenges: Laissez-faire leadership style does non work well for new employees, every bit they need guidance and hands-on support in the beginning. This method can too pb to a lack of structure, leadership confusion and employees not feeling properly supported.

Instance: When welcoming new employees, Keisha explains that her engineers can set and maintain their ain work schedules as long as they are tracking and hit goals they fix together equally a team. They are too free to acquire near and participate in projects outside of their squad.

Read more: Laissez-Faire Leadership: Definition, Tips and Examples

half-dozen. Democratic or participative leadership style

The democratic fashion (too called the "participative mode") is a combination of the autocratic and laissez-faire types of leaders. A democratic leader is someone who asks for input and considers feedback from their team before making a decision. Considering squad members feel their voice is heard and their contributions matter, a democratic leadership style is oftentimes credited with fostering higher levels of employee engagement and workplace satisfaction.

Because this type of leadership drives word and participation, it's an excellent manner for organizations focused on creativity and innovation—such as the technology industry.

You may be a democratic/participative leader if you:

Value group discussions
Provide all data to the squad when making decisions
Promote a work environment where everyone shares their ideas
Are rational
Are flexible
Are proficient at mediation

Benefits: Under this leadership way employees can feel empowered, valued and unified. It has the ability to boost retention and morale. It also requires less managerial oversight, every bit employees are typically part of controlling processes and know what they need to do.

Challenges: This leadership manner has the potential to be inefficient and plush every bit information technology takes a long fourth dimension to organize big grouping discussions, obtain ideas and feedback, discuss possible outcomes and communicate decisions. It also can add social pressure to members of the team who don't like sharing ideas in group settings.

Example: As a shop manager, Jack has hired many brilliant and focused team members he trusts. When deciding on storefronts and floor design, Jack acts only every bit the final moderator for his squad to motility forward with their ideas. He is there to answer questions and nowadays possible improvements for his team to consider.

Read more than: What Is Participative Leadership?

vii. Pacesetter leadership style

The pacesetting fashion is 1 of the nearly effective for achieving fast results. Pacesetter leaders are primarily focused on performance, often prepare loftier standards and hold their team members accountable for achieving their goals.

While the pacesetting leadership style is motivational and helpful in fast-paced environments where squad members demand to be energized, it's not always the best option for team members who need mentorship and feedback.

You may exist a pacesetter leader if you:

Gear up a high bar
Focus on goals
Are ho-hum to praise
Will jump in to hit goals if needed
Are highly competent
Value performance over soft skills

Benefits: Pacesetting leadership pushes employees to hit goals and attain business objectives. It promotes high-energy and dynamic work environments.

Challenges: Pacesetting leadership can too pb to stressed-out employees as they are e'er pushing towards a goal or deadline. The fast-paced work surround tin can also create miscommunications or a lack of articulate instructions.

Instance: The leader of a weekly meeting recognized that an hour out of everyone'southward schedule once a calendar week did non justify the purpose of the meeting. To increase efficiency, she inverse the coming together to a xv-minute standup with only those with condition updates.

Related: How To Demonstrate Leadership Skills at Work

8. Transformational leadership style

The transformational style is similar to the coach style in that it focuses on clear communication, goal-setting and employee motivation. All the same, instead of placing the bulk of the energy into each employee's private goals, the transformational leader is driven by a commitment to organizational objectives.

Because transformational leaders spend much of their time on overarching goals, this style of leading is all-time for teams that tin can handle many delegated tasks without constant supervision.

Yous may exist a transformational leader if you:

Have common respect with your squad
Provide encouragement
Inspires others to achieve their goals
Think of the big picture
Places value on intellectually challenging your squad
Are artistic
Take a good agreement of organizational needs

Benefits: Transformational leadership values personal connections with their teams, which can boost company morale and retention. It also values the ideals of the company and team instead of being entirely goal-oriented.

Challenges: Since transformational leaders look at individuals, it can cause team or company wins to get unnoticed. These leaders can as well overlook details.

Case: Reyna is hired to atomic number 82 a marketing department. The CEO asks her to set new goals and organize teams to achieve those objectives. She spends the first months in her new office getting to know the company and marketing employees. She gains a potent understanding of current trends and organizational strengths. After three months, she has set clear targets for each of the teams that report to her and asked individuals to prepare goals for themselves that align with those.

Related: What Does Leadership Hateful?

9. Transactional leadership style

A transactional leader is someone who is light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation-focused on functioning, similar to a pacesetter. Under this leadership style, the manager establishes predetermined incentives—usually in the form of monetary reward for success and disciplinary activity for failure. Dissimilar the pacesetter leadership style, though, transactional leaders are also focused on mentorship, instruction and training to accomplish goals and savour the rewards.

While this type of leader is great for organizations or teams tasked with striking specific goals, such every bit sales and acquirement, it's non the best leadership mode for driving creativity.

You may be a transactional leader if you:

Value corporate structure
Micromanage
Don't question dominance
Are practical and businesslike
Value goal-hitting
Are reactionary

Benefits: Transactional leaders facilitate the accomplishment of goals, through short-term goals and a clearly defined structure.

Challenges: Existence overly focused on curt-term goals and non having long-term goals can crusade a company to struggle with arduousness. This style stifles creativity and is unmotivating to employees who are not incentivized by budgetary rewards.

Case: A banking company co-operative manager meets with each member of the squad bi-weekly to talk over ways they can come across and exceed monthly company goals to get their bonuses. Each of the top 10 performers in the district receives a budgetary reward.

Read more: What Is Transactional Leadership?

x. Bureaucratic leadership mode

Bureaucratic leaders are similar to autocratic leaders in that they look their squad members to follow the rules and procedures precisely every bit written.

The bureaucratic manner focuses on stock-still duties within a hierarchy where each employee has a gear up listing of responsibilities, and at that place is little need for collaboration and inventiveness. This leadership style is most effective in highly regulated industries or departments, such as finance, wellness intendance or government.

You lot may be a bureaucratic leader if you:

Are detail-oriented and task-focused
Value rules and structure
Have a great work ethic
Are strong-willed
Have a commitment to your organization
Are self-disciplined

Benefits: The bureaucratic leadership mode tin can be efficient in organizations that need to follow strict rules and regulations. Each person in the team/company has a conspicuously defined role which leads to efficiency. These leaders split up piece of work from relationships to avoid clouding the team'southward ability to hit goals.

Challenges: This style does non promote creativity which can feel restricting to some employees. This leadership style is as well slow to change and does non thrive in an environs that needs to be dynamic.

Example: Managers at a Department of Motor Vehicles office instruct their employees to work inside a specific, defined framework. They must take many steps to complete a job with strict lodge and rules.

How to choose and develop your leadership mode

Every bit someone who is interested in the leadership path or looking for more than structure in their leadership approach, information technology tin exist helpful to choose a leadership style that feels authentic to you lot. Some questions you may ask yourself when trying to decide which style is right for yous include:

What do I value more than—goals or relationships?
Do I believe in construction or freedom of selection?
Would I rather make a decision on my own, or collectively?
Do I focus on curt or long-term goals?
Does motivation come from empowerment or direction?
What does a healthy team dynamic wait like to me?

These are simply a few examples of questions to ask yourself while reading through leadership styles to help you decide which mode you lot relate most with. To develop your leadership way consider these strategies:

Experiment. Attempt out varied approaches in different circumstances and pay attention to the event. Be flexible in changing out your approach.
Seek a mentor. Speaking with a leader with more feel than yourself can offer great insight into how they adult their style and what worked for them.
Enquire for feedback. Although sometimes difficult to hear, effective feedback helps you grow into a successful leader. Seek feedback from individuals you trust that volition give you an honest reply.
Be authentic. If you are trying to perfect a leadership style that is in opposition to your personality or morals, it will come across as inauthentic. Try to choose a leadership mode that'due south in alignment with your strengths and piece of work to improve it.

While a certain leadership mode may be impactful in a specific job—for example, autocratic leaders tend to do well in military settings—the best leadership is using a alloy of these styles. Knowing what style to enforce in workplace situations comes with fourth dimension, practice and emotional intelligence. Call back, virtually leaders infringe from a variety of styles to achieve various goals at unlike times in their careers.

While you lot may have excelled in a role using one type of leadership, another position may require a different set of habits to ensure your team is operating most finer. By understanding each of these leadership types, and the outcomes they're designed to reach, you can select the right leadership style for your current situation.

Related: seven Types of Workplace Management Theories

¹ Indeed employer-based study by The states Decipher/Focus Vision (Base of operations: all respondents, North=1,000)

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Source: https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/10-common-leadership-styles