Leadership Helps Understand Leadership Styles

Strong leadership helps in managing an organization effectively and different styles of leadership are commonly in use today. They are outlined below: Autocratic Leadership rnThere is a thin line between this style of leadership and dictator style. This is because the leader makes all the decisions. The leader does not listen to; or expect any contributions by the subordinates. The leader is usually strongly motivated and successful as there is no consultation before making decisions. The decisions made are normally kept from the rest of the group until the leader feels it is time to make his decisions known. This is because they trust no one and they may also think that any information in any other person’s hands may ruin the outcome of any task. Dictator LeadershiprnIn this kind of style, the leader possesses absolute power over the subordinates. Just as in the autocratic style, all decision making is done by the leader. Orders are obeyed without questioned and no initiative, suggestions or contributions are expected from the subordinates. Fear and threats are used to motivate them and no one is expected to complain. Democratic leadership rnThis is characterized by group decision making. In this kind of leadership everyone is expected to participate in making decisions. The leader will often consult before making any decision. In this type of leadership also encourage participation and in the process give effective and positive motivation. Every member of the group feels wanted because their opinion is valued. The end product is satisfied by its workers who will willingly meet or even exceed the expectations of their leader. Laissez Faire (Free Rein Leadership) rnAs the name implies, subordinates are allowed to have maximum freedom. This kind of leadership leaves the group to work by themselves and only require guidance at the beginning of a particular task. They decide their own policies and methods which they will use as they work the rest of the way. The advantage of this method is that it allows initiative. It is therefore better than autocratic style, but not as effective. Bureaucratic StylernIn this type of leadership, efficient techniques are designed and sustained to ensure high quality output with minimal errors. This is a kind of leadership style where you have to go through the commanding officer to solve the issue and the employees are mere followers. Those big and traditional businesses are most likely to use this kind of leadership. One of the advantages of having a bureaucratic leadership is that, it impose safe and good working environment because they have procedures to comply. Paternalistic LeadershiprnThis kind of leader is seen to be like a “father figure” of the organization. They mostly make decisions on their own because they think that’s the best decision for everyone. The staff will feel motivated and will be willing to work to achieve the objectives of the organization as they feel that their leader “feels” them. Transactional leadership rnThe leader in this style will do the function of leading the group. The role of the employees is just to perform the given task with the specified guidelines or rules. There are structures whereby individuals are either being rewarded or punished for their team’s performance.