Leadership Styles and How They Impact Teams

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You may think that leaders are either good or bad; the truth is far from it. Everyone leads exceptionally, depending on their personality, team size, and perception of leadership.
Your leadership style is determined by how you treat your juniors and team members. Knowing your leadership style reflects effectiveness and shows if you are in control. You can also capitalize on your strengths as you work on your weaknesses to remain effective.

Are you a leader wondering what the right leadership style is? We discuss the various leadership styles; find out what description best matches your qualities!

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Now, back to leadership styles and why they matter.

Top 5 Leadership Approaches

There are many leadership styles; each has its upsides and downsides. Let’s find out the most common ones.

1. Coaching Style

Think of your favorite sports team; they have a coach! Leaders with the coaching style identify individuals in their team and nurture them to become better.
Such a coach is more of an influencer and will look for strategies that will help better their teams. Growth and success are the central aspects of coaching.

Characteristics of coaches

  • Goal-oriented
  • Supportive
  • Encourages collaboration
  • Empowers team members
  • Allows autonomy

A manager with this style prioritizes individual specialization over teamwork. As a result, coaches might struggle handling team-oriented tasks.

2. Servant Leadership

Managers with this strategy prioritize service over leadership. Instead of inspiring people to submit to their authority, such leaders will focus on helping others.
The principle is to elevate their team by focusing on their needs and can give up what’s rightfully their own to please their juniors.

Characteristics of servant leaders

  • Excellent listeners
  • Trust team members
  • Humble and prioritize team members
  • Empathetic
  • Good stewards

Servant leadership is a bit challenging because you place other people above you and are likely to ignore your priorities. Plus, teammates may take advantage of servant leaders by asking for favors and leaving tasks incomplete.

3. Autocratic Approach

This refers to the know-it-all leader and sticks to my way or the highway approach. The leader doesn’t consult juniors when deciding. For example, a manager changes work hours or shifts for various employees without informing them of the changes.

With autocratic leadership, juniors must follow instructions and adhere to changes without questioning. Most employees can’t stand this approach; you are likely to lose top talents.

Characteristics of autocratic leaders

  • Makes all the critical decisions
  • Prompt in mitigating crisis
  • Exercises power and authority always
  • Reliable

Autocratic leadership can be effective when dealing with inexperienced individuals and when reinforcing policies. However, employees might feel restricted and not valued. Stakeholders, too, may not have a say when making important decisions.

4. Democratic Approach

This type of leader is an all-inclusive strategy where everyone’s opinion matters. Though the leader makes the final decision, they are sure to find out what their members have to say. The approach allows your team to do what you want but their way.

Characteristics of democratic leaders

  • Encourages brainstorming and engagement
  • Embraces teamwork
  • Problem-solving is not left to the leader but a collaborative requirement.
  • Creativity and innovation are encouraged.

Democratic leaders embrace creativity, innovation, and collaboration among team members. However, this type of management can be challenging in achieving consensus and may delay decision-making, especially during crises.

5. Transactional Leadership

This leader sets targets and rewards for the desired outcome and penalizes when the opposite happens. It’s more like you should follow these instructions to get a particular gift or privilege.
Think about leaders who recognize, applauds, or rewards team members who do better. On the flip side, such leaders will penalize employees for missed deadlines or lateness.

Characteristics of transactional leaders

  • Excellent supervisors
  • Works well with structured systems
  • Are more practical
  • Rewards good behavior
  • May decide based on favorable outcomes

Transactional leadership is ideal with set expectations but limits creativity and innovation. In addition, autonomy, significant changes, and working toward long-term goals may be discouraged when working under transactional leaders.