While leadership is a challenge, it's an exciting one. Only around 10% of the world's population are natural leaders. The rest need to acquire these skills and hone them continuously. The right leadership style can drive employee engagement, which in turn, can boost productivity.
Since highly engaged teams increase profitability by 23%, reviewing your leadership style could have a direct effect on the company's bottom line.
Let's take a closer look at leadership styles in management and what you can do to improve them.
6 Types of Leadership Styles in Management
Leadership style is the behavioral pattern that a leader adopts to manage, influence, motivate, and direct employees. A manager's leadership style determines their actions within the organization and the approach they take to achieving set goals and objectives.
So, what is your leadership style?
Determining your leadership style is a big step toward streamlining it. Once you gain awareness, you can improve the existing approach, adopt other methods, and help your business succeed. Here is a closer look at the six types of leadership styles:
1. Transformational Leadership
Transformational leadership is a style that inspires going above and beyond to achieve change. These leaders drive employees to achieve more than they believe possible by discovering and leveraging the existing or hidden potential.
2. Delegative Leadership
A delegative leader (also known as a laissez-fair leader) focuses on delegating tasks to the right team members. While this type of leadership isn't intrusive, it's highly effective. These leaders aren't just excellent managers. They are experts who know which team members can succeed with specific tasks.
3. Authoritative Leadership
Authoritative leaders (also called visionary leaders) position themselves as mentors. Instead of ordering the team to follow, these leaders practice a "come to me for advice" approach. Authoritative managers focus on getting to know their team members to streamline guidance methods and achieve higher productivity.
4. Transactional Leadership
Transactional leaders rely on reward and punishment methods. With such managers at the helm, employees know exactly what to do to achieve a reward and what not to do to avoid punishment. This provides transparency, ensures compliance, and encourages high-quality results.
5. Participative Leadership
Participative leaders (also known as democratic leaders) encourage collective methods of problem solving. These managers base their decisions on employees' opinions and feedback. While effective in some situations, this type of leadership may fail when strong authority is required.
6. Servant Leadership
A servant leader puts the needs of employees and the organization above their own. These leaders focus on employees and find effective ways to boost their potential. When a manager uses the servant style, they base their decisions on the needs of everyone instead of focusing on a select few. This improves employee loyalty and enhances communication between team members.
A leader can adopt multiple leadership styles to approach different business situations. Successful leaders are always looking for improvement opportunities.
Improving Your Management Style
Improving your management style can help streamline business operations, boost employee engagement, retain top talent, and build trust. Here are a few things to consider:
Invest in Leadership Training
Effective leadership rarely comes naturally. It requires training, learning, and continuous skill improvement. By investing in leadership training, you can help managers discover their internal leadership power, identify leadership styles, and keep them up to date with the latest management practices.
Foster Open Communication
No matter what leadership style your management adopts, it requires a collaborative work environment to succeed. By fostering open communication, you can learn more about your employees' needs and capabilities. This, in turn, can help you choose the most effective leadership style for any situation.
Set Clear Goals and Expectations
The leadership style your management chooses heavily depends on the goals it wants to achieve. By being clear about goals and expectations, you aren't just helping managers design effective strategies. You are engaging employees and guiding them in the right direction.
Empower Employees
When you provide more autonomy and decision-making power to the employees, it encourages them to go above and beyond. Such power drives engagement and boosts productivity. It also improves employee morale and builds loyalty.
Embrace Diversity and Inclusivity
A diverse and inclusive workplace doesn't just improve overall productivity. It drives innovation. By embracing these elements, you are making it easier to choose the right leadership style and implement it according to the organization's needs.
Continuously Evaluate and Adapt
If you've been relying on the same management and leadership practices for too long, you could be missing opportunities for improvement. By evaluating the efficiency of these practices regularly, you can gain insight into the current leadership style and figure out which other styles affect the company's bottom line.
Shifting Management Styles and Driving Results
Besides increasing productivity, an effective leadership style can improve workplace culture, drive employee retention, and position the company as an employer of choice.
To leverage leadership styles in management, it's important to work on the workplace environment and employee satisfaction.
That's where a professional employer organization (PEO) comes in.
PRO Resources can handle administrative HR tasks and leave your management time to focus on engaging employees and achieving business goals. For more information, please schedule a conversation at any convenient time.
