Leadership styles when applied tends to produce a reasonable outcome, but naturally, personalities of different individuals influence their leadership styles. Leadership cannot be cloned from one human to another.
Leadership style is very important because it’s one of the major characteristics that help choose a leader that is the right fit for a particular role and organization. If you’ve worked in different groups and organizations, you would have encountered the different leadership styles that have been displayed by different leaders. Below are the different leadership styles:
The Autocrat: This leadership style involves the leader not involving others before taking decisions, the leader’s decision is final.
The Democratic Leader: This leadership style involves the leader including the team in decision making and evaluation process.
The Laissez-faire Leader: This style involves the leader giving team members significant scope in how work is done. Excessive scope in most cases.
A transformational leader combines the best features of these leadership types. The transformational leader demonstrates great compassion, creativity and a clear vision of the direction of the organization. It is the best leadership style recommended for businesses as the rate of change is increasing and companies need to remain agile.
A transformational leader demonstrates great compassion, creativity and a clear vision of the direction of the organization.
THE MAIN CHARACTERISTICS THAT SETS TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERS APART
Listening is the main emphasis for a transformational leader. This set of leaders do their best to listen to different viewpoints and not just those that are in line with what they already had in mind. This listening process takes inner security and confidence for someone to engage in it because it can result in admitting that one is wrong and leaders rarely agree to be wrong.
Transformational leaders know the importance of listening because they know that employees are changing as time goes by, this generation of employees are curious, diverse, informed and they have their personal goals.
Transformational leaders get informed before taking a decision, and listening is the major tool used by transformational leaders.
WHY OTHER LEADERSHIP STYLES WERE RELEVANT IN DIFFERENT ERA
In the era where stability was expected and change was slow, the autocratic leadership style was seen as the best. At that time, there are times when making decisions on behalf of a group, with ownership and confidence seems to be the right thing to do. There are cases where sure, swift and final decisions should be made, but in an era of rapid change, autocratic leadership will be problematic.
In times when risk was lower in business, the Democratic leader who is willing to give in for team consensus on some decisions seems to be the best leadership style to be applied. The Laissez-faire Leadership style is relevant and effective in organizations where autonomy is needed to continuously move forward.
The transformational leader is the best that fits for an era where the business world moves quickly, with high risk and individuals accountable for their actions.
LEADERSHIP COACHING AND TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP
Leadership coaching does not impose leadership style on leaders, rather they work on the essential skills of a transformational leader. In most cases, leadership coaching works on developing the listening skills of the client, because it is one of the key tools of a transformational leader.
Leadership coaching is also applicable to leaders who are transformational leaders with loopholes. Some transformational leaders might have the required listening skills but the may not have the skill to proceed after listening.
Transformational leaders are passionate, trustworthy, energetic, creative and intelligent and they inspire these qualities in others. There are times when the transformational leader acts authoritatively or allows more autonomy, this they do with the knowledge of why they are doing it and still maintain their listening and data gathering skills.
In recent times, transformation occurs rapidly in all sectors of the world, both in our organizations. As a leader, you have to accept and work with the fact that times are changing and every leader has to follow the trend if not leadership will not be as effective as it used to be. Every leader should pursue the knowledge of transformational leader.
If you would like to further develop your transformational leadership skills or those of the leaders in your organization, please find more information on the Intelligent Leadership Executive Coaching program through the link below. Recently named one of the top three advanced leadership development programs in the world, it is a 9 to 12 month “immersive” leadership and personal growth journey that unlocks and unleashes a leader’s full potential so they truly become the best leaders and people they can be.
