The effectiveness of your leadership has a lot to do with understanding your natural personality and how it meshes with your team members. To be a successful leader, reflecting and understanding your own leadership style is the first step for finding the right approach for your team.
Know Your Leadership Style
Here are four leadership styles to consider. Understanding which one you gravitate towards the most can help you gain insight into why you may be seeing progress with your team sometimes and a lack thereof other times.
- Authoritarian: This leader takes charge, giving orders with clear direction and minimal discussion. This style can be useful for quick decisions in fast-paced environments, but it can stifle creativity, and team members who crave collaboration can feel undervalued.
- Democratic: This leader values collaboration and encourages team participation. This style is ideal for fostering innovation, but it can lead to paralysis in decision-making if discussions become bogged down.
- Supportive: This type of leader focuses on building up their team by providing guidance and encouragement. This style is excellent for developing talent and boosting morale, but if decisive action is needed, it might be a hindrance.
- Transformational: This leader inspires teams to achieve exceptional things. While it’s perfect for igniting passion and driving long-term goals, it can fall short of delivering clear direction on a daily basis.
Understanding When to Use Each Style
What is interesting about these four leadership styles is that you might notice you’re able to implement a few of these different styles, depending on the task at hand. This is a key ability of effective leaders. They’re able to consider what type of leadership style is most productive for the types of meetings or projects that are happening.
If you need some help determining when to use different leadership styles, consider these ideas.
- What’s the project or situation? Short deadlines might call for a more decisive approach, while complex projects might benefit from collaborative input.
- What’s your team’s experience level? While new teams might require more coaching, seasoned groups might thrive with a hands-off approach.
Enjoy the Journey of Leadership
It’s important to remember throughout your leadership reflection and adaptation process that this will be a journey. As the company evolves, as your team grows or changes, and even as you evolve as a professional, you will find ways to become more effective along the way. While you may begin your leadership journey by adopting two leadership styles with your team, you may grow into different styles or even develop the ability to use all four styles depending on the scenario. No matter how your leadership journey develops, embrace the challenge and growth opportunities to become an outstanding leader.
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