Utilize Varied Leadership Styles
Better Leaders Employ the Use of Multiple Management Methods
Good leaders understand that different management styles are needed to deal with changing situations. The best leaders can easily use four of these methods.
Good teachers and leaders share a secret in their ability to communicate specific ideas or actions to students and employees. They know different people learn and respond in different and varied ways. Some of us learn by listening, some by seeing and others require a more hands-on approach.
Leadership Styles - A exceptional leader can vary their management or leadership style to best suit an individual employee, work group or business situation. Research first advanced by Daniel Goleman in 2000, suggests that there are six leadership styles that can be employed in the workplace. These styles are coercive, authoritative, affiliative, democratic, pacesetting and coaching. Research conducted also shows that the more of these styles a leader exhibits; the better they perform as leaders in their organization. The very best leaders can utilize four or more these styles.
Implications of Change - Jerry Robinson Jr., a distinguished professor emeritus at Delta State University, has drawn some comparisons between leadership styles and the ability of an organization to handle change. Change generates conflict within an organization. Successful leadership styles should vary with managerial implications of change and the amount of time needed to accomplish the needed revision.
Directive Approach - Groups with few resources and limited time are likely to use a directive approach (coercive or authoritative styles) to accomplish the desired goals. This is a top down approach that would be familiar to those in the military or law enforcement fields.
Mixed Directive Approach - An organization with a little more in the way of time and resources may use a mixed directive style that might include affiliative or democratic styles to accomplish their goals. This can be done when there is time for bargaining and negotiation among those involved in the required change.
Developmental Directive Approach - Finally, if change is planned and viewed in the long term, a developmental directive type style can be used. Developmental directive leadership styles would include pacesetting and coaching. The developmental directive style offers the most opportunity for growth of a learning organization and employee development. This type of planned change is for groups having substantial time and robust resources to facilitate the process.
Putting it Together - Warren Bennis known as the foremost expert on organizational change and leadership described some common leadership traits in 1994. Bennis says that an effective leader has a guiding vision or purpose for the organization, passion or enthusiasm for the work being done, personal integrity, curiosity about the world and the daring to try something new. The skill of integrity is subdivided by Bennis into self-knowledge, candor and maturity. Daniel Goleman's pioneering work in emotional intelligence found that effective leaders have mastery of the core competencies identified by Bennis and make use of multiple leadership styles.
