Is your leadership style the best one to use?
It all depends.
Over time, we all develop a leadership style that feels like a good fit for our personality and values. But, there may be situations in which you should shift your style to match the situation.
Following are six common leadership styles and some ideas on when it is best to use each. This is based on a recent article in Harvard Business Review.
The Coercive Leadership Style demands immediate compliance with standards and/or a plan of action. This is typically the least effective style. However, if you have a crisis (think of an emergency room) then you may want to shift to this style in the short run.
The Authoritative Leadership Style is about mobilizing people toward a vision by using your positional power. This can be especially useful during times of change. It is important to invoke the mission and future you are building.
The Pacesetting Leadership Style includes setting standards of excellence expecting self-direction. This might seem like a great style to use all the time, but you need to make sure not to burn people out. You may want to balance it with some Coaching Leadership and Affiliative Leadership.
The Affiliative Leadership Style prioritizes developing emotional bonds between team members that builds team spirit. This can be especially helpful if the team has been through a very challenging time – post-Covid, for example.
The Democratic Leadership Style involves coming to consensus as a team when addressing a challenge. This is time consuming, but if input is needed to find the best solution and you need everyone’s buy-in this can be a good move.
The Coaching Leadership Style focuses on developing your people for the future. This style is especially helpful in performance reviews and creating development plans for team members.
It is best to think of each of these styles as potential tools in your leadership repertoire. Using your default leadership style is fine most of the time, but be alert to situations in which some of these other styles may help you make even more of a Mission Impact.
*Ideas for this blog taken from: Knight, R. “6 Common Leadership Styles – and How to Decide Which to Use When,” Harvard Business Review online, April 9, 2024.
