Leadership Styles
Ward (2020), defined leadership as a skill to motivate a group of people in achieving common goals. Although leadership is not always associated with the profit or income of the company, a good leader is capable of increasing the company’s bottom line (Ward, 2020). Good leaders usually have their unique leadership style that is affected by their traits, personalities, and leadership experience that developed over time (Toastmasters International, 2016).
Transformational
Leaders whose leadership style is transformational can encourage their employees with their vision and mission (International Institute for Management Development, 2021). Transformational leaders encourage their employees by serving as role models for them. Although transformational leadership style can increase the employee’ morale and motivation to achieve the company vision, it can sometimes lead to the deviation of protocols and regulations as the task can’t be assigned without employees’ permission. (International Institute for Management Development, 2021).
Democratic
According to Martinuzzi (2019), democratic leaders tend to request employees’ opinions and judgments before deciding on something. They ask and share information with their employees. By doing this, democratic leaders can encourage trust and build a cooperative environment for the employees, allowing creativity to grow and develop in the workplace. (Martinuzzi, 2019)
Autocratic
Martinuzzi (2019) illustrated the autocratic leadership style as an old command and control approach that used to be applied by leaders in the past. Autocratic leaders decide without considering others’ opinions or ideas. Nevertheless, the autocratic style is not always bad, it can be useful when a critical decision needs to be made in the fastest way possible or when the leaders need to deal with inexperienced new employees (Martinuzzi, 2019).
Pacesetting
Pacesetting leaders set a high target and push their employees to work harder and faster to achieve the target within a short time frame (Martinuzzi, 2019). Martinuzzi stated that this type might be useful to get things done faster, but it also can drive off the team members in the long run.
Coaching
Coaching type of leaders focusing on developing individuals by helping them in building skills (Toastmasters International, 2016). Furthermore, Martinuzzi (2019) added that coaching leaders presume that each employee can achieve their full potential. Even though this style is great for realizing the full group or individual potential, coaching is ineffective if the employees or groups are not receptive and reluctant to change (Toastmaster International, 2016)
Altruistic
Altruistic leaders’ leading purpose is to serve others by focusing on empathy, active listening, and commitment to building the community (Toastmasters International, 2016). They motivate the employees by creating a safe and trusted working environment while elevating employees’ morale. Despite its effectiveness to build a high-performing team, this style might be ineffective in the short term. (Toastmasters International, 2016).
Style of Leadership That Interest Me the Most
As for me, altruistic leadership is the most interesting style of all the leadership styles explained above. In the past, we used to think that a leader stands in the front and leading the team by giving commands or instructions. However, the altruistic leaders consider themselves as a servant that must serve the team to motivate the team in achieving the common goals. In my opinion, this kind of leadership can be considered rare in the countries that still hold traditional hierarchical values such as Japan, the country I have been living in for the past 4 years. I see that some Japanese companies are still reluctant to adopt the new way of thinking despite the fact that they need to change their old hierarchical style with a more democratic or even altruistic style to encourage more innovation.
Conclusion
Conforming to Toastmasters International (2016), leadership virtues are distinct actions that leaders might take while leadership styles are an immense concept that helps defining a leader’s approach and/or the tendency of their decision-making process. Leaders need to discern both their leadership behaviors and styles beneficial to identify techniques that might help them to prevail in any workplace environment.
References
International Institute for Management Development. (2021, May). The 5 leadership styles you can use & how to implement each. IMD business school. https://www.imd.org/imd-reflections/reflection-page/leadership-styles/
Martinuzzi, B. (2019, October 16). The 7 most common leadership styles (and how to find your own). Business Class: Trends and Insights | American Express. https://www.americanexpress.com/en-us/business/trends-and-insights/articles/the-7-most-common-leadership-styles-and-how-to-find-your-own/
Toastmasters International. (2016). Berkeley Entrepreneurial Toastmasters. https://berkeley-entrepreneurial-toastmasters.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Understanding-Your-Leadership-Style.pdf
Ward, S. (2020, September 17). What is leadership? The Balance Small Business. https://www.thebalancesmb.com/leadership-definition-2948275
Note:
This article is written based on University of The People Organizational Behavior (BUS 5113) written assignment by Fristy Tania in October 2021
