LEADERSHIP

Leadership style refers to an appr.oach taken by a partic.ular leader. It might ref.er to a directive or comma.nding style or a parti.cipative or collaborative style. It mig.ht equally refer to a lead.er who has a visionary sty.le or who isa coaching-cente.red style. There are m.any other st.yle labels that we mi.ght add. (Cooper, 2008)

Some lea.ders are prone to use.ing one general style in al.most all situations. Oth.er leaders straighdjusten their s.tyle to meet the particular ne.eds of each situation encoun.tered. In both cases, how.ever, it is important for the leaders to know what their main style preferences are so that the.y can evaluate the likel.y effectiveness of that given st.yle in a given set of circumsta.nces (or know how farmuch they ma.y need to change their style in or.der to get a better res.ult).

Autocratic lea.dership style;: iIn this style of lead.ership, a leader has com.plete command and hold ov.er theirs employees/te.am. The team cannot put forwa.rd their views even if they are b.est for the team’s or the organization.al's interests. They cannot criti.cize or question the leader’s wa.y of getting things do.ne. The leader himself gets the th.ings done. The advanta.ge of this style is that it le.ads to speedy decision-mak.ing and greater producti.vity under the leader’s supervi.sion. DThe drawbacks of this leader.ship style are that it leads to greate.r employee absenteeism and turnov.er. This leadership styl.e works only when the lea.der is the best in perfor.ming oer, when the job is monotono.us, unskilled and routine in na.ture, or wheren the proje.ct is short-term and ris.ky. (Judge & Piccolo, 2005)

The Laiss.ez F-faire Lleadership S.style;: tThe leader tcompletalely tru.sts their employee.s/team to perform the job them.selves. He just concentr.ates on the intellectual/ratio.nal aspect of his work a.nd does not focus on the mana.gement aspect of his w.ork. The team/employ.ees are welcomed to sha.re their views and provide sugges.tions which are best for orga.nizational interests. This leadersh.ip style works only when the em.ployees are skilled, lo.yal, experienced and intell.ectual. (Hesselbein, et al., 2003)

Democra.tivec/Pparticipative leader.ship style;: tThe lead.ers invites and encoura.ges the team members to pla.y an important role in the deci.sion-making process, th.ough the ultimate decision-ma.king power rests with the lea.der. The leader gui.des the employees o.n what to perform and ho.w to perform, while the emp.loyees communicate to the le.ader their experience an.d the suggestions, if any. The adva.ntages of this leadership sty.le are that it leads to satis.fied, motivated and mo.re -skilled employees. It leads to an o.ptimistic work environm.ent and also encourages cre.ativity. The only drawback of this leadership st.yle hais the only draw.back that it is time-con.suming. ( Gibson & Cuiulla, 2004)

The qu.alities required to show lea.dership can be demonstra.ted by all types of people in many differ.ent ways, and as we ha.ve seen, with many differiengt styl.es. They can all be equally eff.ective (or ineffective!) in perfor.ming a leadership role. Ho.wever, to be successful, espec.ially over the long.er term, people need to unders.tand their style of leadership an.d how this may impact on othe.rs. This can help us to mi.nimize our blind spo.ts, which might der.ail us in a particular sit.uation.





















References
Cooper, A. (2008). The transformational leadership of the apostle Paul: a contextual and biblical leadership for contemporary ministry. Christian Education Journal, 2(1), 48-61.
Gibson, I., & Cuilla, J., (2004). Ethics: The heart of leadership. Teaching Business Ethics, 3(2), 201-205.
Hesselbein, A., Frances, P., and Paul M., (2003). Leader to Leader. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
Judge, T., & Piccolo, R., (2005). Transformational and transactional leadership: a meta-analytic test of their relative validity.  Journal of Applied Psychology, 89/5, pp. 755-768.