I Will Lead The Way What is leadership? Leadership means different things to different people. Some might describe leadership as - the activity of leading - motivating a group of people to act towards achieving a common goal - setting the direction and influencing people to follow that direction - shaping goals - developing new ideas In "The Leader of the Future", Peter Drucker sums up leadership: "The only definition of a leader is someone who has followers" John C Maxwell in 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, sums up his definition of leadership as "leadership is influence - nothing more, nothing less Warren Bennis definition of leadership is focused much more on the individual capability of the leader; "Leadership is a function of knowing yourself, having a vision that is well communicated, building trust among colleagues, and taking effective action to realize your own leadership potential." Leadership Styles How you set direction and influence can be thought of as your leadership style. Just as there are many different types of leaders from Nelson
I Will Lead the Way Mandela and Harvey Milk to Audre Lorde and Helen Keller, there are as many different leadership styles. Over the years, the categories below have been developed to describe the different leadership styles. Have a read over them and think about where you see your leadership in relation to these styles. 1. The Autocratic Leader This type of leader will exert high levels of power over their followers. They give followers very few opportunities for making suggestions, even if these would be in the best interests of the organisation or campaign. Many people can resent being treated like this. Because of this, autocratic leadership in usually leads to high levels of absenteeism and turnover in staff and groups. Also outputs do not benefit from creativity and the experience of all involved. So many benefits of teamwork are lost. However it can be argued that for routine or unskilled jobs, this style can be effective. 2. Bureaucratic leaders These leaders work by the book, ensuring that others follow procedures to the letter. This is a very appropriate style for work involving serious and risky circumstances, e.g. health and safety, handling large sums of cash, etc. However, the inflexibility and high levels of control exerted can demoralize followers, and can diminish the organisation or campaign s ability to react to changing external circumstances.
I Will Lead the Way 3. Charismatic Leadership The charismatic leader injects huge doses of enthusiasm into their team/organisation, and is very energetic in driving others forward. However, they can tend to believe more in themselves than in their team. This can create a risk that a project, or even an entire organisation, might collapse if the leader were to leave, because in the eyes of their followers, success is tied up with the presence of the charismatic leader. 4. Democratic Leadership/ Participative Leadership Although a democratic leader will make the final decision, they invite other members of the team to contribute to the decision-making process. This not only increases job satisfaction by involving team members in what s going on, but it also helps to develop people s skills. Team members feel in control of their own destiny, and so are motivated to work hard. As participation takes time, this style can lead to things happening more slowly than an autocratic approach, but often the end results are better. It can be most suitable where team working is essential, and quality is more important than speed to market or productivity.
I Will Lead the Way 5. Laissez-Faire Leadership This French phrase means leave it be and is used to describe a leader who leaves others to get on with their own work. It can be effective if the leader monitors what is being achieved and communicates this back to their team regularly. Most often, laissez-faire leadership works for teams in which the individuals are very experienced and skilled self-starters. Unfortunately, it can also refer to situations where leaders are not exerting sufficient control. 6. People-Oriented Leadership This style of leadership is the opposite of task-oriented leadership: the leader is totally focused on organizing, supporting and developing the people in the team. A participative style, it tends to lead to good teamwork and creative collaboration. However, taken to extremes, it can lead to failure to achieve the team's goals. In practice, most leaders use both task-oriented and peopleoriented styles of leadership. 7. Servant Leadership This term, coined by Robert Greenleaf in the 1970s, to describe a leader who is often not formally recognized as such. When someone, at any level In an organization, leads simply by virtue of meeting the needs of their team, they are described as a servant leader.
I Will Lead The Way In many ways, servant leadership is a form of democratic leadership, as the whole team tends to be involved in decision-making. Supporters of the servant leadership model suggest it is an important way ahead in a world where values are increasingly important, in which servant leaders achieve power on the basis of their values and ideals. Others believe that in competitive leadership situations, people practicing servant leadership will often find themselves left behind by leaders using other leadership styles. 8. Task-Oriented Leadership A highly task-oriented leader focuses only on getting the job done, and can be quite autocratic. They will actively define the work and the roles required, put structures in place, plan, organize and monitor. However, as task-oriented leaders spare little thought for the well-being of their teams, this approach can suffer many of the flaws of autocratic leadership, with difficulties in motivating and retaining team members. 9. Transactional Leadership This style of leadership starts with the premise that team members agree to obey their leader totally when they take a job on: the transaction is (usually) that the organisation rewards the team members, in return for their effort and compliance. As such, the leader has the right to punish team members if their work doesn t meet the pre-determined standard.
I Will Lead the Way Team members can do little to improve their job satisfaction under transactional leadership. The leader could give team members some control of their income/reward by using incentives that encourage even higher standards or greater productivity. Alternatively a transactional leader could practice management by exception, whereby, rather than rewarding better work, they would take corrective action if the required standards were not met. Transactional leadership has serious limitations for knowledge-based or creative work, but remains a common style in many organisations. Autocratic leadership is an extreme form of transactional leadership. 10. Transformational Leadership A person with this leadership style is a leader who inspires their team with a shared vision of the future. Transformational leaders are highly visible, and spend a lot of time communicating. They do not necessarily lead from the front, as they tend to delegate responsibility amongst their teams. While their enthusiasm is often infectious, they can need to be supported by detail people. In many organisations, both transactional and transformational leadership are needed. The transactional leaders ensure that routine work is done reliably, while the transformational leaders look after initiatives that add I Will Lead the Way
I Will Lead the Way All About Leadership Styles value. Charismatic leaders can appear similar to a transformational leadership style. While the Transformation Leadership approach is often highly effective, there is no one right way to lead or manage that suits all situations. So which leadership style is the best? There are strengths and challenges in each of the leadership styles. Rather than thinking about which one is best, a good leader will find they switch instinctively between styles according to the people and work they are dealing with. This is often referred to as situational leadership. In considering which is best for the situation, you might consider - The skill levels and experience of the members of your team - The work involved (routine or new and creative) - The organisational environment (stable or radically changing, conservative or adventurous) - Culture/values of organisation/followers - You own preferred or natural style
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