Leading others

Everyone is a leader in a certain way.

There are many of us who may not hold leadership position in school or at our workplace but we do face many opportunities to lead and guide new employees or co-workers who are unfamiliar with certain new tasks.

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We can have many types of leadership styles but the type of leadership style you decide to adopt can impact us in different ways.

Below is a short videoclip about how a working mum learnt about how a leader should learn to share from her daughter.

This short article will discuss briefly about the common nine types of leadership styles.

Servant

Do you prefer to work together with people who are put under your charge rather than simply give instructions?

You may be one who prefers the servant leadership style. You want to establish a common agreement with others rather than making decision on your own to get others to follow.

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You may be able to get the support of many who are under you but you may also face the dilemma whenever the suggested idea do not align with your school or company goal.

Autocratic

Autocratic leadership is the extreme opposite of servant leadership.

Leaders who feel good when they are in control over their staff. They like to be in control of everything.

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They often order and give instruction more than they listen to ideas.

During a meeting, it is not really to brainstorm for ideas but to disseminate and get people to agree with what he/she has already decided beforehand.

There is little or no participation of decision-making for an autocratic leader.

Transformational

Inspirational leadership through effective interaction leading to the creation of a place with intellectual motivation for different possibilities.

There can be many innovative ideas, visions and thoughts. One who believes that everything is possible and there is no limit to possibilities.

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Staff are motivated but ideas shared by a transformational leader may not be grounded and may not be practical.

They need to research of different facts and craft a good action plan to carry out the vision in a progressive manner.

Laissez-faire

A leader who does not like to interfere with the roles and duties of his staff.

A leader who does not give much guidance but simply assign the task and let the staff decide what to do.

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Such leadership can have the disadvantage of lacking in maintaining consistent standard of outcomes due to no interference.

Nevertheless, it can often get the staff to work more independently leading to development of leadership and creativity of staff.

Transactional

A leader who believes in rewarding people for their good performance while punishing those who do not perform up to expectations.

It is like a reward system for an exchange of performance.

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Very often, there may be a performance bonus being created to reward those who perform up to the requirement.

We can see this in jobs related to sales targets.

The staff may often result in completing assigned jobs for short-term benefits rather than long-term goals.

Democratic

Democracy is really a word that most of us are familiar with.

There are many countries who want to build a democratic society to respect their citizens.

Democratic leaders often ask his staff for their opinions before making the final decision for changes or implementation of new policy.

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Staff may feel that their ideas and thoughts are valued and their leaders respect them greatly.

Changes or new policies may not be implemented very quickly since it takes time to gather opinions from staff.

Charismatic

Charismatic leadership is quite similar to transformational leadership. It is often hard to see the difference of both.

Leaders who use their positive personality as well as persuasive skills to lead their staff.

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They are driven by their personal beliefs and convictions.

The drawback is the absence of the leader may result in staff lacking in motivations leading to possible failures of projects or new initiatives.

Bureaucratic

Leaders who follow the rules and regulations strictly.

The need for standard operational procedures to be followed closely.

Everyone must adhere to the company policies strictly without fail.

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Everything must follow the book stated and there can be little creativity or totally no innovation to improve the current state.

Most governments definitely need to implement bureaucratic but it can be hard for a company to progress and move out of the norms without stepping out of comfort zone when following the book or rules are more important.

Situational

Leaders that adopt different leadership styles depending on the situation.

An adaptive leadership style that believes one size does not fit all.

Leaders who decide different types of leadership styles needed for different environments and situations.

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By knowing the advantages of being a situational leader may not necessary be easy to become one since we have our own preferred leadership style so using another style can be in conflict with our personality and character.

In conclusion

I have generally stated the advantages and disadvantages of different leadership styles.

Through my personal reflection, situational leadership seems to be the most flexible type to adapt to different challenging environment.

As teachers, we may often like the servant leadership since we believe in teaching and learning together as a great learning community.

Reference:

Eagly, A. H., Johannesen-Schmidt, M. C., & Van Engen, M. L. (2003). Transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire leadership styles: A meta-analysis comparing women and men. Psychological bulletin, 129(4), 569.

Sosik, J. J., & Godshalk, V. M. (2000). Leadership styles, mentoring functions received, and job‐related stress: a conceptual model and preliminary study. Journal of organizational behavior, 21(4), 365-390.

Aronson, E. (2001). Integrating leadership styles and ethical perspectives. Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences/Revue Canadienne des Sciences de l'Administration, 18(4), 244-256.

Voon, M. L., Lo, M. C., Ngui, K. S., & Ayob, N. B. (2011). The influence of leadership styles on employees’ job satisfaction in public sector organizations in Malaysia. International Journal of Business, Management and Social Sciences, 2(1), 24-32.

Van Eeden, R., Cilliers, F., & Van Deventer, V. (2008). Leadership styles and associated personality traits: Support for the conceptualisation of transactional and transformational leadership. South African Journal of Psychology, 38(2), 253-267.

Disclaimer: This is my personal reflection and I am not in any position to instruct anyone what they should do. I am not responsible for any action taken as a result of this post. My post can only be a reference for your further research and growth. By reading this post, you acknowledge and accept that. All images and pictures were taken from google images that are free from copyright under labelled for reuse.

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Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://fun2learn.vornix.blog/2018/11/08/leading-others/

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