Leadership Styles

Do you know what is your leadership style?

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The good artical from website:

The three major styles of leadership are (U.S. Army Handbook, 1973):

• Authoritarian or autocratic
• Participative or democratic
• Delegative or Free Reign

Although good leaders use all three styles, with one of them normally dominant, bad leaders tend to stick with one style.

Forces

A good leader uses all three styles, depending on what forces are involved between the followers, the leader, and the situation. Some examples include:

• Using an authoritarian style on a new employee who is just learning the job. The leader is competent and a good coach. The employee is motivated to learn a new skill. The situation is a new environment for the employee.
• Using a participative style with a team of workers who know their job. The leader knows the problem, but does not have all the information. The employees know their jobs and want to become part of the team.
• Using a delegative style with a worker who knows more about the job than you. You cannot do everything! The employee needs to take ownership of her job. Also, the situation might call for you to be at other places, doing other things.
• Using all three: Telling your employees that a procedure is not working correctly and a new one must be established (authoritarian). Asking for their ideas and input on creating a new procedure (participative). Delegating tasks in order to implement the new procedure (delegative).

Forces that influence the style to be used included:

• How much time is available.
• Are relationships based on respect and trust or on disrespect?
• Who has the information - you, your employees, or both?
• How well your employees are trained and how well you know the task.
• Internal conflicts.
• Stress levels.
• Type of task. Is it structured, unstructured, complicated, or simple?
• Laws or established procedures such as OSHA or training plans.