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Aug 28, 2019
Dan Rose, Content Creator at SkillPath
Understanding your leadership style and its effect on your team is an important step in finding ways to improve workplace productivity. When leadership is effective, it has countless benefits for the company, particularly organizational productivity, employee engagement and brand advocacy. Here, I’ll examine the benefits and disadvantages of seven leadership styles and share how each can be employed successfully to enhance productivity.
Visionary leaders are successful when they can lay out their long-term vision and get company stakeholders excited about the future. However, these long-term goals need to be crystal clear, and employees must know their role in the plan for it to be a success.
Benefits of visionary leadership
Disadvantages of visionary leadership
Compromise: To be most effective, visionary leaders need a grounded personality working alongside them. For example, when Steve Jobs had his second go-round at Apple®, Tim Cook ran the company alongside him. Jobs was free to set the vision, and Cook managed the operations—a perfect team!
While the idea of a directive or authoritarian leader is generally negative, this type of leader is critical in many industries. For example, heavily regulated fields like banking and finance or safety-focused industries like construction or manufacturing need a firm hand at the top.
Benefits of authoritarian leaders
Disadvantages of authoritarian leaders
Compromise: While the authoritarian style is suited for certain industries, it should be used sparingly in others, like creative fields. Authoritarians can affect talent acquisition of younger generations if employed in the wrong environment.
The affiliate leader often builds a foundation of teamwork, communication and trust, which creates high morale in the company. Employees are happy, engaged and productive when the leaders are open and consistent in their messages.
Benefits of affiliate leadership
Disadvantages of affiliate leadership
Compromise: For the affiliate leadership style to work, these leaders must never lose sight of the overall corporate vision and continue to work toward company growth. To gain buy-in, affiliate leaders must model the same behaviors they want to see.
Leaders with the participative or democratic style are known for asking team members for their input. While team members may have positive reactions to their leadership style, companies can flounder under it if the team has too much power and the leaders lose the ability to direct their vision.
Benefits of democratic leadership
Disadvantages of democratic leadership
Compromise: Judicious use of democratic leadership is best for most companies, especially when it happens in lower levels of the organization. When used as a tool by leaders, it is an incredible engagement practice.
With the proliferation of start-up companies, the pacesetting leadership style is becoming more widespread. The style is popular because it allows the organization to reach maximum outcomes quickly. Leaders truly lead by example—often at a pace no one else can match. Pacesetting organizations usually have a high turnover rate because employees can't keep up and often burn out.
Benefits of pacesetting leadership
Disadvantages of pacesetting leadership
Compromise: Company productivity depends on a full talent pipeline at all times. While the pace is fast and results arrive quickly, be mindful of employees who are not working at the same pace but can still be assets to the organization.
When done right, the coaching leadership style produces a positive workplace environment. A coaching leader puts most of their time and effort into building up their employees’ skills, experiences, confidence and knowledge. The result is a staff of highly trained and competent individuals who are capable of handling multiple responsibilities.
Benefits of coaching leadership
Disadvantages of coaching leadership
Compromise: People generally love working for coaching leaders because they know their own skills will be improved. However, employees must be motivated and hold up their end of the bargain to be effective.
Servant leadership is all the rage in 2019 because today’s flatter organizations are flipping the traditional “top-down” hierarchy upside down and it’s exactly how the servant leader wants it. The servant leader puts the needs of employees and the organization before their own. He or she moves beyond the transactional aspects of management (do work, get a check), and instead actively seek to develop and align an employee’s sense of purpose with the company mission.
Benefits of servant leadership
Disadvantages of servant leadership
Compromise: Employees generally give their all when working for servant leadership because this style tends to unlock creativity, potential and a deep sense of purpose. However, leaders must communicate constantly and remain consistent in action or can potentially lose the support of their workers.
Every leader has a dominant style, but the most effective are skilled in all seven leadership styles. Take advantage of development opportunities to strengthen your leadership skills and create a more productive workforce.
Dan Rose
Content Creator at SkillPath
Dan Rose is a content creator at SkillPath who uses his experience from a 30-year writing career to focus on timely events that impact today’s business world.
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