different leadership styles assignment

The 8 Types of Leadership Styles Explained – With Examples

Last updated on 4th March 2024

At the head of every successful project is a great leader. But not all great leaders are the same. 

There are many different ways to lead a team. And different leaders have different traits that make their specific brand of leadership work. 

In this article we’re going to take a look at 8 leadership styles (with examples), so you can discover which one is the right leadership style for you, your business, and your team. 

Article Contents

1. Transformational Leadership

Transformational leadership is a leadership style that requires the leader to inspire employees and motivate them towards achieving their collective goal. 

Transformational leaders often embody their vision and believe in it so strongly that they can empower others to do the same.  

Transformational leadership: advantages and disadvantages

Millennials are a demographic that respond really well to transformational leadership because of the focus on aligned values.

However, even the most inspired and motivated people have a breaking point. Think of the start ups that work 80 hour weeks in a bid to disrupt their industry – yes, it’s exciting. But in the long run it can also be incredibly tiring. 

If you want to be a successful transformational leader, it’s important to strike the perfect balance.

Example of a transformational leader

There are many examples of transformational leaders throughout history, because these are exactly the type of people to go down in history. They have bold visions and they make them a reality. 

Think of Churchill’s “we shall fight on the beaches” speech. Churchill is a great example of a transformational leader that inspired an entire nation of people to work towards a common goal. 

In today’s world, Elon Musk is another example of a transformational leader. His company SpaceX was the first ever private spaceflight company to send a crewed spacecraft to space. And he is famously quoted as saying:

Richard Branson is also an excellent example of a transformational leader. His Virgin Group owns several companies across a range of industries, from broadband to international travel.

Branson himself isn’t an expert in all of these industries, but his charismatic personality gives him the power to inspire others to get excited about these ideas and make them work.

2. Autocratic Leadership

An autocratic or authoritarian leadership style imposes policies and procedures, sets expectations and defines outcomes. 

Authoritarian leaders are individuals who take full control of their team and makes all of the decisions with little input from anyone else. 

Autocratic leadership: advantages and disadvantages

On the face of it, this leadership style can sound a little tyrannical, but if the leader is the most knowledgeable person on the team – and if they act with fairness and kindness – then this leadership style can work well.

Example of an autocratic leader

Martha Stewart has her autocratic leadership style to thank for her self-made empire. She has been described as a meticulous boss that’s very demanding of her employees. 

And that’s because Stewart has a very clear vision to share with her staff and her customers. It’s this same attention-to-detail that’s boosted her to be a household name, with almost every home in America using her merchandise at one point or another. 

3. Participative (Democratic) Leadership

Also known as democratic leadership, participative leadership allows everyone on the team to get involved and work together to make important decisions.

While everyone’s input is encouraged, it’s the leader who will have the final say in the decision-making process. 

Participative leadership: advantages and disadvantages

The participative leadership style is a great way to create an atmosphere of inclusion and it can really help employees feel more aligned with the company, which is a big focus of democratic leaders. However, we all know the saying about too many cooks!

Example of a participative leader

Southwest Airlines has had many different leaders over the years, and all of them seemed to embody the participative leadership approach.

It’s likely that this is the trait that has taken the business from a small Texas airline to a major US carrier.

Ex-CEO, James Parker referred to participative leadership in his book, Do the Right Thing :

4. Transactional Leadership

Transactional leadership uses a model of rewards and punishments to motivate employees. 

Clear goals are set at the start of a project, with everyone informed on the reward if those goals are met and the consequences if they are not. 

Transactional leadership: advantages and disadvantages

This “give and take” leadership style can motivate employees and increase productivity and satisfaction, so long as the goals outlined are clear and achievable. 

However, not everyone will be motivated by a ‘carrot and stick’ method like this, and the implementation of rigid rules makes it difficult for the business to adapt quickly if needed.

Example of a transactional leader

A classic example of a transactional leader is the ex-football manager, Sir Alex Ferguson. When he was managing Manchester United, he got a lot out of his team using this leadership style. 

Players were rewarded financially if they played well consistently. However, those that were seen as underachieving felt the wrath of Ferguson’s notorious temper. 

This is touched upon in his book, Leading , in which he states:

5. Delegative Leadership

Also known as “laissez-faire leadership”, delegative leadership is a hands-off approach that allows every team member to use their own initiative to make decisions.

There are similarities to participative leadership here, in that employees are valued for their opinions and decisions are made somewhat collectively. 

Delegative leadership: advantages and disadvantages

Delegative leadership allows employees the autonomy to make their own decisions and be rewarded for their innovation. This provides many opportunities for skills development, but can also result in accountability issues if roles and responsibilities aren’t clearly communicated.

Example of a delegative leader

The American investor, Warren Buffet has been the CEO of the holding company Berkshire Hathaway since 1970. He’s currently 93 years old and quite comfortably holds the record for longest reigning CEO of an S&P 500 company.

He’s noted as a delegative leader because of his method of empowering his employees to make their own decisions and solve their own problems. 

6. Bureaucratic Leadership

The bureaucratic leadership style puts the needs of the company first and relies on stringent rules being in place for all team members to follow. 

This is common in long-established industries where rules have been laid out by predecessors.

Bureaucratic leadership: advantages and disadvantages

The bureaucratic leadership style can be advantageous in industries where there’s little room for error, such as healthcare organisations. However, doing things just “as they’ve always been” can lead a team – and a company – to go stale and possibly fall behind. 

Example of a bureaucratic leader

Bureaucratic leaders, because of the nature of this leadership style, are typically forged by the businesses that they work for. 

An example of a business that does things as they’ve always done is McDonalds. Despite their leadership team changing over time, McDonalds has always been run in the same way because their barometer for success is profit. 

As long as the business is profitable, the shareholders are happy and the company is classed as successful – and ultimately, customers get the same experience every time. 

This is why entrepreneurs that opt to buy a McDonalds franchise are expected to adhere to strict rules and regulations when running their branch. 

7. Servant Leadership

Servant leadership places the value of the team ahead of the individual. As such, a servant leader is someone who can shed personal agendas and whose main goal is for their team (and the company) to thrive. 

Servant leaders do everything they can to serve their team and ensure that everyone is happy and fulfilled.

Servant leadership: advantages and disadvantages

Servant leaders – because of their selfless nature – see potential in their team and enjoy raising them to new heights.

However, because of this focus on serving the team, servant leaders can sometimes be undermined if they are seen as lacking authority. Plus, balancing the needs of individual employees with overall organisational success can be difficult.

Example of a servant leader

Leadership expert and author of Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t , Simon Sinek strongly believes in this leadership style. 

He explains this in more detail here: 

8. Coaching leadership

The coaching leadership style is a great way to develop your team members and get the best out of them. It involves giving employees guidance and frequent feedback to help them grow and develop.

Coaching leadership: advantages and disadvantages

Coaching is a highly nurturing leadership style, which can lead to increased job satisfaction and enhanced employee morale.

On the other hand, it’s high-maintenance and requires a lot of time and energy input. Coaching leaders need to be consistent in their feedback and guidance, which can be difficult in large teams. Plus some employees could be resistant to feedback or coaching and become demotivated as a result.

An example of a terrific leader that embodied this style was Apple’s co-founder Steve Jobs. He encouraged creativity in his team members and was known for giving them helpful criticism when necessary. His vision and use of the coaching leadership style helped to propel Apple to be the billion-dollar success it is today.

Final thoughts

There are many ways to lead your team to success. Effective leadership styles come in all shapes and sizes – and, quite simply, the most effective leadership style is the one that best suits you and your team.

However, one thing that all leaders need – regardless of style – is the correct tools at their disposal.

A project management tool can help you successfully manage your projects by keeping everything – communication, files, tasks – in one place, so that you have complete visibility of your team’s work. 

To find out more and get started for free, head to Project.co . 

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Leadership styles: Definition, types, and examples

Leadership styles are the behavior patterns leaders adopt (what leaders do) .

A leadership style comes to life when a unique combination of complementary behaviors co-occur .

Many styles are tied together via underlying commonalities, forming four core types of leadership styles : decision-making leadership styles; everyday leadership styles; beyond everyday-work leadership styles; and values-based leadership styles.

Read on to learn more about leadership styles, the existing types, and the definitions, examples of typical behaviors, and overall effectiveness of the most important styles.

Table of contents

A leadership style is a set of behaviors, not a single behavior, a leadership style can be adopted automatically or via a monitoring effort, leadership styles can include not only behaviors but also personality traits, there is a difference between a theoretical leadership style and the leadership style of a person, different leadership styles can share common behaviors, leadership styles are at the forefront of influence, decision-making leadership styles, everyday leadership styles, beyond everyday-work leadership styles, values-based leadership styles.

• Participative leadership style
• Autocratic leadership style
• Laissez-faire leadership style

Consideration style of leadership

Initiating structure style of leadership.

• Transactional leadership style

Visionary leadership

Transformational leadership, empowering leadership, ethical leadership, authentic leadership, servant leadership, references and further reading, definition of leadership styles.

A leadership style is the behavior pattern displayed by a leader . In other words, a leadership style reflects the recurrent way in which a leader acts towards followers.

This definition highlights six important aspects of leadership styles .

First, leadership styles are viewed as complementary behaviors that tend to co-occur frequently.

It is the combined set of related behaviors that form a leadership style, not a behavior in isolation . No behavior alone is able to capture the complexity and requirements of most leadership styles.

For example, authentic leaders are expected to not only stay true to their moral standards, but also to express their ideas clearly, and to seek information from others to better understand situations and themselves [1a] [2a] .

This does not mean that, in order to adopt a leadership style, a leader must engage in all specific behaviors of such leadership style at the same time. In contrast, a leader adopting a style engages in specific behaviors over time, as necessary .

Each leadership style we display can be the result of an automatic or a monitored effort.

The first is largely unconscious and guides us towards our most habitual leadership style(s). Across situations, we lead in the way that comes to mind and in line with our dominant (go-to) leadership style(s). These automatic leadership styles tend to be adopted when:

• We do not have time to carefully analyze a situation at work, relying instead on a leadership style that is usual to us;
• A leadership style fits our personality and we find it easy to use;
• A leadership style served us well in the past and, as such, we learned to keep using it;
• We are not aware that the situation requires the adoption of a different leadership style.

In contrast, monitored efforts guide us to carefully analyze the situation we are facing as leaders. Based on this assessment, we can choose the leadership style that best fits the situation and regulate our behavior accordingly [3] [4] [5] .

Personality traits are an important root of behavior patterns. The stronger a person’s propensity towards a personality trait, the more likely that person engages in a set of behaviors , over time and across situations [6] .

This tells us that not every person has the same likelihood of adopting a given leadership style . Certain leadership styles tend to be more frequently adopted by people with certain personality traits.

For example, the transformational leadership style tends to be adopted more often by extroverts than by introverts [7] . Because extroverts tend to be optimistic, talkative, and assertive, they are likely to display transformational leadership behaviors such as enthusing and inspiring followers.

In some leadership styles, however, personality traits and behaviors are so intricate and fuzzy that it is difficult to draw a line separating the two .

For example, in the ethical leadership style [8a] [9a] , personality traits and behaviors are so interconnected that it is usually accepted that ethical leadership reflects both

• Traits (such as integrity, morality, fairness, and disposition to reflect upon the consequences of one’s actions);
• And behaviors (such as setting an example at work of how to behave ethically, discussing ethics and values with followers, and addressing violations of ethical standards in the workplace).

In theory, a leadership style is a set of complementary behaviors that tend to co-occur frequently. After identifying a new behavioral set in leadership, researchers and practitioners attribute a descriptive name to it. Transformational leadership, ethical leadership, and servant leadership are examples.

In practice, many leaders end up adopting styles that are combinations of theoretical leadership styles [10] . It is very rare to see leaders adopting a leadership style that perfectly matches the theoretical model.

This may happen because a specific behavior is not relevant for a particular job, or because a leader finds out that the most effective way to lead in a given context is to mix and match behaviors from different styles and theoretical models.

For example:

• Most effective transformational leaders are also transactional [11] [12] [13] ;
• Leadership effectiveness is boosted when leaders focus both on structuring followers’ work and on showing consideration towards followers [14a] .
• Followers performance is enhanced when leaders pair a visionary leadership style with an empowering style [15a] .

Nevertheless, theoretical models are particularly useful to identify meaningful sets of behaviors, to map out the available sets of behaviors for leaders, and to identify the consequences of specific leadership styles.

Some leadership styles are narrow and focused on a limited set of behaviors. Others are broader, encompassing multiple sets of behavior.

As a consequence, many broader leadership styles end up encompassing behaviors from narrowly defined leadership styles . In such cases, the narrow leadership style is a necessary aspect of the broader leadership style, but not a sufficient condition to claim that the broader leadership style is being adopted.

For example, while participative leadership is a style in itself, the broader style of empowering leadership also includes followers’ participation in decision making, among other aspects [16a] .

Likewise, many broad leadership styles share common sets of behavior .

For example, being honest and acting with integrity is expected from authentic, ethical, and servant leaders. The other behaviors displayed by the leader will define the actual leadership style taking place.

Since leadership styles reflect the overt and observable actions of a leader, they are at the forefront of influence in organizations.

In fact, large scale studies indicate that leadership styles have stronger effects on effectiveness than leaders’ traits and skills [17a] .

Followers derive what leaders value, what to do at work, and how to achieve goals largely based on what they see leaders doing. When leaders adopt a leadership style they serve as role model to many followers , who end up emulating leader’s attitudes, values, and behaviors [18a] [19a] [20] .

Further, followers obtain clues about their leaders’ underlying traits and skills based on the leadership style displayed. Because traits and skills tend to be less observable than behaviors, personality traits and skills are largely inferred or communicated. Followers infer and attribute leadership traits and skills partially based on the styles their leaders adopt.

Types of leadership styles

The list of leadership styles is extensive. However, many styles are tied together via shared commonalities in their core approach, goals, and focus [17b] [21a] .

In the table below, we list the most established and scientifically studied leadership styles, organized into four broad types of leadership according to their main approach, goal, and/or focus .

Table 1. Typology of leadership styles along with examples.

In using this typology of leadership styles, keep in mind that most leadership styles also have important roles outside their main type .

For example, while the central aspect of decision-making leadership styles is how leaders make decisions, these styles also have important ramifications form everyday work and for the values that leaders signal to others.

Decision-making styles look at when, and to what extent, leaders involve followers in generating and choosing alternatives to solve problems at work [22a] [23] .

The focus here is not on the decision that is made, but rather on how leaders reach the decision : autocratically, with the participation of followers, or being hands off (laissez-faire).

In addition to make decisions, leaders also have to ensure that everyday work runs smoothly and that followers are performing as expected .

After listing virtually all the behaviors leaders have to engage in on a daily basis, researchers found that almost all behaviors fall into either the consideration style (focus on showing concern and respect for employees) or the initiating structure style (focus on goal attainment) [14b] [24] .

Later, researchers identified transactional leadership as a specific form of structuring leadership, focused on rewarding and disciplining followers depending on their effectiveness [17c] .

Everyday leadership styles tend to deliver expected outcomes, but usually fail to sustain extraordinary performance and innovative change [18b] .

Hence the emergence of leadership styles focused, at their core, on influencing effectiveness beyond what is expected in everyday work and on creating meaningful work environments . Among the most well-established and promising styles are transformational leadership, visionary leadership, and empowering leadership .

Due to their properties, these beyond everyday-work leadership styles are also called inspirational [21b] and change-oriented [17d] leadership styles.

The values-based leadership styles represent behaviors rooted on morality, community values, and continuous improvement [21c] .

It represents a shift in the focus of leadership behavior – specifically, from influencing the achievement of results to influencing how results are achieved .

Values-based, moral, and ethical behaviors are encapsulated in ethical leadership, servant leadership, and authentic leadership.

Examples of decision-making leadership styles

Below are the definitions, behavioral acts, and overall effectiveness of decision-making leadership styles.

Participative leadership

Participative leaders engage in decision procedures that allow followers to have an active role in making and implementing decisions at work [25] .

In doing so, participative leaders share some or all of their influence to draw on followers’ ability, information, and competence to make decisions and solve problems [26] .

Participative leaders tend to engage in one or more of the following decision procedures [27] :

• Leaders decide alone but ask followers to express their ideas and take their suggestions into consideration while deciding;
• Leaders encourage followers to express their ideas on a daily basis so that other positions can be considered when leaders make their own decisions;
• Leaders gather information from followers during informal and casual gatherings to enrich their own decision-making.
• Leaders and followers voice their positions, discuss possibilities and, together and with the same level of influence, make the final decision;
• Leaders encourage followers to continuously acquire new competences so that everyone can participate equally, and in an informed way, in the decision-making process;
• Leaders adopt a facilitator role so that a majority/consensual decision is reached.
• Leaders defer the responsibility of making a decision to followers, by defining upfront an acceptable range for the decision;
• Leaders give followers the authority to decide but the implementation needs leaders’ approval;
• Leaders give followers the authority to decide and to implement the decision.

When a leader trusts and has confidence in followers to let them participate in decision-making and in problem solving, followers tend to reciprocate with increased engagement [28] , commitment [29] , performance [30] , creativity [31] , and willingness to go the extra mile at work [32] .

Autocratic leadership

Autocratic leaders behave in a way that asserts their authority, power, and control, and they expect followers’ obedience and compliance [33] .

Typically, autocratic leaders:

• Make decisions on their own, without involving followers;
• Enforce strict deadlines for goal achievement, and request intense work efforts to achieve goals on time;
• Are critical of the ideas and suggestions presented by followers;
• Tell followers how to perform tasks and the procedures to adopt without explanations;
• Ensure that their regulations are being followed by monitoring followers’ work.

It is important to note that autocratic leaders focus on control and obedience, not on being abusive towards followers [34] . As such, autocratic leadership is not considered a destructive form of leadership and tends to be effective in some circumstances . 

For example, in harsh economic environments, autocratic leaders outperform transformational leaders in boosting firm revenue [35] . Likewise, autocratic leadership enhances the performance of followers who respect and believe in the value of hierarchies [36] . Adopting an autocratic style also tends to boost effectiveness when leaders have control over the resources required to achieve something and have a clear understanding of what needs to be done [37a] .

On the negative side, autocratic leadership can leave some followers unsatisfied with their job [38] , less prone to voice ethical concerns [39] , and experiencing work stress [40] .

Laissez-faire leadership

Leaders who adopt a laissez-faire style avoid making decisions, taking action, and taking the responsibilities associated with the leadership position [22b] [41] . Although they occupy a leadership role,  laissez-faire leaders refuse, avoid, and neglect performing their duties.

The delegating form of participative leadership and the laissez-faire leadership may seem similar on the surface, but they are quite different:

• Laissez-faire leadership is a passive and avoidant style of leadership focused on ignoring responsibilities in situations where the leader intervention would be necessary;
• Delegating is an active style of leadership focused on approaching decisions and solving problems at work by giving great depths of authority to followers.

Typically, laissez-faire leaders engage in one or more of the following sets of behavior [42] [43] :

• Avoid making decisions and getting involved in important issues;
• Turn a blind eye to situations at work that would most likely require attention and intervention;
• Avoid paying attention to and tackling problems that emerge at work, even when those problems become acute or chronic.
• Are absent when followers need them and fail to provide the information followers need to work effectively;
• Are indifferent about followers’ requests for support and about their needs at work;
• Are unavailable to help followers solve problems, conflicts, or disputes among them.
• Do not praise followers when they perform very well at work;
• Do not acknowledge followers’ extra efforts at work;
• Do nothing when followers achieve important work milestones.
• Do not give feedback nor constructive criticism when followers perform poorly;
• Do not intervene when followers are slaking off and getting behind on tasks;
• Do nothing when followers fail at work or miss important deadlines.

Laissez-faire leadership tends to be severely detrimental to the effectiveness, satisfaction, and well-being of followers [44] [45] [46a] . These negative consequences of laissez-faire leadership may happen because followers see themselves [47] :

• Loosing clarity over what is expected from them;
• Becoming ambivalent and in conflict regarding the depth of their role at work;
• Clashing with one another as responsibilities and acceptable behavior at work become blurred.

While teaching leadership and training leaders, we have seen that the most common regret of leaders is turning a blind eye to issues and avoiding problems (that is, engaging in laissez-faire leadership). It can be useful to postpone solving a problem, but it is rarely beneficial to avoid looking at a problem or to pretend that it does not exist.

In the video below, Dr. Alex Lyon (from State University of New York) adopts a complementary communication perspective to go through participative, autocratic, and laissez-faire leadership styles:

Examples of everyday leadership styles

Read on for the definitions, typical behaviors, and overall effectiveness of everyday leadership styles.

Leaders who engage in the consideration style display people-oriented behaviors and tend to be focused on the welfare of followers [37b] [48] .

Typically, leaders who are considerate:

• Show concern for followers’ problems and take their needs into account;
• Find ways to solve personality clashes and other disagreements between followers;
• Treat followers in a respectful manner;
• Show appreciation for followers’ efforts;
• Touch base with followers before taking actions that may impact them;
• Are approachable and followers feel at ease around them.

This leadership style tends to boost effectiveness through personal support, camaraderie, warmth, and trust. However, we tend to see stronger boosts on followers’ job satisfaction than on job performance [14c] [49a] .

The consideration style of leadership also acts as a protective factor of followers’ mental health and as a facilitator of their well-being , as people appreciate to be treated well and meaningfully [50a] .

Leaders who initiate structure display task-oriented behaviors and have a prevailing focus on goal attainment [37c] . Leaders who rarely initiate structure tend to be seen as hesitant with regards to taking initiative, and are hands off with regards to how work should be done.

Typically, leaders who initiate structure:

• Organize work, assign followers to tasks, define roles, and schedule work activities;
• Stress that meeting deadlines is crucial;
• Define performance goals and strategies to achieve them;
• Define communication channels and how the information should flow in the team/organization;
• Monitor performance, review results, and give instructions to improve task achievement.

The leadership style of initiating structure tends to enhance effectiveness at work [50b] [51] by:

• Clarifying expectations;
• Reducing ambivalence regarding priorities;
• Providing resources to followers (for example, an effective system of information flow and a clear understanding of what each part of the task entails).

However, the initiating structure style tends to be more relevant to boost followers’ task performance than to enhance other indicators of effectiveness , such as job satisfaction [14d] [49b] .

Transactional leadership

The transactional leadership style stems from the formal hierarchical structure of most organizations and emphasizes conditional rewards and disciplinary actions as sources of motivation [18c] .

Transactional leaders exchange resources with followers based on self-interest – leaders give followers something they want when followers do what leaders want.

Transactional leaders tend to engage in one or more of the following sets of behavior:

• Complimenting followers when they perform well;
• Assigning what needs to be done and promising a reward for carrying out the assignment;
• Negotiating with followers what needs to be done as well as the rewards for a work well done.
• Monitoring followers to anticipate problems;
• Watching closely whether followers violate important rules so that corrective actions (negative reinforcement, criticism) can be implemented before or when it happens;
• Actively looking for mistakes from followers so that followers can receive negative feedback and mistakes be corrected in a timely mater.
• Intervening only after standards are not met (with a negative performance evaluation, for example);
• Talking with followers about sub-optimal approaches to work only after serious problems emerge;
• Correcting followers’ behaviors only after serious difficulties have emerged as a consequence of those behaviors.

In terms of effectiveness [17e] [46b] [52] :

• Contingent rewards tend to enhance performance at work;
• The active form of management by exception tends to improve, but only slightly and inconsistently, followers’ performance ;
• The passive form of management by exception tends to have detrimental effects on followers’ performance .

Examples of beyond everyday-work leadership styles

Here are the definitions, descriptive behaviors, and overall effectiveness of beyond everyday-wok leadership styles.

Visionary leaders communicate an image of the team/organization’s future with the intent of persuading and motivating followers to work on its implementation [53] .

Typically, visionary leaders:

• Talk with followers about the future;
• Show a clear understanding of the direction to take and of the opportunities ahead;
• Clearly state their plans for the future and where the team/organization is going;
• Clearly communicate expected accomplishments;
• Show a clear understanding of the critical goals of the team/organization and how followers can work together to achieve them.

This leadership style tends to enhance performance at work by clarifying goals and instilling a shared sense of purpose in followers [15b] [54] . Visionary leadership also tends to boost innovation and change , since articulating a vision is usually the starting point for a leader targeting change [55] .

Here is a video, from speaker coach Noah Zandan, with three tips on how leaders can communicate their vision more effectively:

Transformational leaders inspire followers to transcend self-interest, to believe they can achieve great things, to identify with the leaders’ vision, and to commit to the collective mission [18d] .

Transformational leaders tend to display four sets of behavior [56] [57] :

• Setting an example in terms of ethics and morality;
• Showing that collective good prevails over self-interests;
• Showing confidence, persistence, and determination in the face of obstacles;
• Self-sacrificing to benefit the team/organization.
• Talking positively and optimistically about the future;
• Presenting a meaningful vision for the future and explaining how to attain it;
• Setting high expectations on what is to be achieved;
• Emphasizing values to be endorsed with emotional appeals and symbolic actions.
• Challenging followers to rethink problems with fresh and new perspectives;
• Questioning sub-optimal approaches and assumptions;
• Reframing problems to find creative solutions;
• Encouraging the implementation of new procedures and ways of doing things at work.
• Providing quality support to followers at work;
• Listening to followers’ concerns and doubts;
• Identifying the improvement opportunities of each follower and supporting their improvement;
• Mentoring the growth of followers and nurturing their potential.

The transformational leadership style tends to enhance effectiveness at work by boosting followers’ positive affect, confidence, motivation, engagement, and perceptions of a fair and trustworthy workplace [58] .

By inspiring followers, transformational leaders also end up developing high quality relationships with them. In such relationships the norm of reciprocity prevails – followers reciprocate the relationship growth with increased effectiveness and morale at work [59] .

Transformational leadership is a style particularly suitable for leading change and innovation [60] . It tends to make followers more committed, open, ready, and supportive of change and innovation, while reducing their natural resistance and doubts [61] .

Empowering leaders share power with followers and support followers’ development, autonomy, and self-reliance [16b] [62] .

Typically, empowering leaders:

• Encourage followers to solve problems as they pop up, without leaders’ supervision, input, or approval;
• Provide the discretion and leeway for followers to do their work as they see fit;
• Decide, together with followers, performance goals and related rewards;
• Highlight and explain the relevance of followers’ work to the organization;
• Make decisions with followers and, when participation in decision making is not possible, take time to explain the rationale behind their decisions;
• Express confidence in followers’ ability to carry out their work successfully;
• Encourage followers to seek out learning opportunities and to enrich their skills repertoire;
• Share how they structure their days and plan their work, and tip followers on improvement opportunities.

This leadership style tends to enhance performance at work and followers’ willingness to go the extra mile by [63] [64] :

• Promoting a vibrant environment where learning and adaptation are paramount;
• Boosting followers’ motivation through psychological empowerment;
• Increasing followers’ willingness to reciprocate the trust and confidence leaders’ deposit on them.

Empowering leadership is particularly effective in promoting innovation and creativity at work [65] [66] . The autonomy, self-belief, and intrinsic motivation that followers experience around empowering leaders leave them in a privileged position to explore new ideas and to find ways to implement them in the workplace.

Examples of values-based leadership styles

Read on for the definitions, characteristic behaviors, and overall effectiveness of values-based leadership styles.

Ethical leaders display ethical behavior at work by being fair, honest, and moral; and promote followers’ ethical behavior through rewards, punishments, and effective communication skills [8b] [67] .

Ethical leadership is grounded on leaders’ prosocial values and moral emotions [68] . Ethical leaders signal their prosocial values by engaging in behaviors that benefit and cause no harm to others. Moral emotions propel ethical leaders to:

• Get back on track when they derail ethically (with shame and guilt);
• Condemn followers when they violate important norms (with anger, irritation, and disgust);
• Understand the suffering of others (with compassion and sympathy);
• Praise the ethical elevation of followers’ actions (with awe, admiration, and gratitude).

Typically, ethical leaders:

• Are fair, trustworthy, honest, and act with integrity;
• Do what is right and ethical even when facing temptations and difficulties;
• Are supportive and caring when followers face difficulties at work;
• Reward followers’ ethical behaviors and punish their unethical behaviors;
• Clearly communicate ethical standards to be followed at work;
• Include ethical behavior in the assessment of followers’ effectiveness – they look both at the results and at the way they were achieved;
• Hold everyone accountable (leader and followers) for mistakes and accomplishments, and for unethical and ethical practices;
• Make sacrifices to benefit everyone that, directly or indirectly, are affected by their practices (followers, organization, clients, investors).

This leadership style tends to be particularly useful to enhance ethical behavior at work, and to prevent unethical behavior and turnover [9b] [69] .

Nevertheless ethical leadership can also enhance followers’ performance and willingness to go the extra mile [70] [71] through:

• The development of high quality, dependable, and trusting relationships;
• The development of an ethical culture that sustains the additional efforts that are often required to achieve great things in an ethical way;
• The identification with the virtuous values that leaders display and encourage.

Authentic leadership has personal, relational, and developmental aspects to it [1b] [2b] [72] .

Personally, authentic leaders understand and act in keeping with who they are, their purpose, and their values . The relational aspect manifests in the development of transparent, genuine, open, and honest relationships with followers . Also, authentic leaders emphasize development and continuous improvement (in themselves and in followers).

Authentic leaders display four sets of behavior:

• Tell the truth and admit their own mistakes;
• Express emotions that are both genuine and appropriate to the situation at hand;
• Clearly articulate their thoughts and what they mean.
• Seek feedback from others to better understand their strengths and weaknesses;
• Have a learning, non-defensive, orientation towards feedback and mistakes;
• Understand the impact they have on others, as leaders;
• Seek opposing views and thoroughly analyze all the available information before making a decision;
• Look up for information that may challenge their beliefs and positions;
• Encourage followers to voice all their views (both supporting and opposing) on an issue.
• Stay true to their moral standards through consistent behavior;
• Act consistently in line with their beliefs and values;
• Do not bend to pressures that go against their moral standards neither fall prey to moral disengagement .

Authentic leaders tend to thrive in ethical environments as it tends to be safer and easier to admit mistakes in such workplaces [73a] . In unethical environments , authentic leaders can become vulnerable to unethical tactics and a target of questionable political moves.

Authentic leadership tends to be particularly effective to enhance collective performance, followers’ willingness to go the extra mile, and followers’ ethical behavior in the face of temptation [74] [75] . These results are rooted on the high quality and trusting relationships that authentic leaders develop with their followers due to their consistency and openness [9c] [73b] .

Servant leaders [19b] :

• Are oriented towards serving others;
• Focus on followers’ needs, interests, and holistic growth;
• Show concern for the wider community and for multiple stakeholders.

These three features of servant leadership tend to manifest through seven sets of behavior [76] [77] [78] :

• Caring about followers’ well-being and personal struggles;
• Taking time to help followers to cope with their personal problems.
• Being involved with and helping the community that is affected, directly or indirectly, by the organization;
• Encouraging followers to have an active role in the community surrounding the organization.
• Having a deep and clear understanding of how the organization works, of its priorities, and of its goals;
• Showing competency by anticipating and solving work problems with complex decision making and creativity.
• Encouraging followers to make decisions autonomously;
• Giving followers freedom to decide how to deal with problems and how to tackle tasks at work.
• Understanding and supporting followers’ careers and goals;
• Sharing insights and opportunities that can help followers to achieve their full potential.
• Prioritizing followers needs and interests over their own needs and interests;
• Making an effort to simplify and enrich followers’ work.
• Being honest and showing integrity in everyday actions;
• Consistently following ethical standards, even in the face of temptations.

Servant leaders tend to drive effectiveness because they:

• Increase followers’ job satisfaction and satisfy followers’ basic psychological needs of competence, autonomy, and relatedness [79] [80] ;
• Develop high quality relationships with followers based on trust and fairness [81] [82] ;
• Create a serving culture that direct followers’ attention to serving the community and all the stakeholders involved [83] .

Servant leadership is one of the most promising leadership styles in the sense that it tends to boost effectiveness over and above other well-established leadership styles , such as transformational leadership and ethical leadership [9d] .  Also, due to their community and stakeholder focus, servant leaders are at the forefront of sustainable and socially responsible organizational practices [84] .

In the video below, Dr. James Lemoine (The State University of New York), Dr. Chad Hartnell (Georgia State University), and Dr. Hannes Leroy (Erasmus University) discuss how ethical, authentic, and servant leadership overlap, along with what distinguishes these leadership styles.

Behaviors are the building blocks of leadership styles. When a pattern of complementary behaviors occur, we witness a leadership style coming to life.

Understanding which types of leadership styles leaders can rely on, and knowing the defining behaviors of the most important styles can leave us better prepared to face the challenges ahead.

As always, we thank you for trusting your time with ManagingLifeAtWork.com . Until next time, keep leading effectively and keep an informed eye on leadership styles.

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3 Common Leadership Styles & How to Identify Yours

• 22 Oct 2019

Leadership is an indispensable skill that can drive career advancement. According to a recent survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers , leadership is one of the top attributes sought by hiring managers on a job seeker’s resume.

Effective leadership can lead to organizational success, too. A recent report by global consulting firm DDI found that companies committed to developing employees with high leadership potential are four times more likely to financially outperform those that don’t.

To take charge of your professional development and boost performance at your organization, it’s vital to establish a personal leadership style that informs how you handle demanding situations and motivate colleagues.

Before diving into some of the ways you can identify and develop your leadership approach , it’s important to understand what the term “leadership style” means.

What Is a Leadership Style?

A leadership style entails the patterns of behavior that are consistent across how you make decisions, interact with others, and use your time. It’s also characterized by how your colleagues would describe their working relationship with you.

In the online course Leadership Principles , Harvard Business School Professors Anthony Mayo and Joshua Margolis explain that your leadership style can be examined through three frameworks:

• Imprint: The way you’re experienced by those you work with and lead
• Functions: The practices you employ to mobilize colleagues and get things done
• Motivations: The desire, stimulus, or incentive that drives you to take a certain course of action

Using these frameworks, you can hone your personal style and become more effective in your role. But first, here’s a look at three common leadership styles that can inform how you determine the approach that works best for you.

3 Common Leadership Styles

Leadership imprint, one of the key tenets of leadership style, can be mapped along seven dimensions and consolidated into three primary groups. Those groups are:

1. Approachability

Approachability is comprised of authenticity and warmth—attributes that help you forge deeper connections with teammates. Being an approachable leader means conveying openness and showing empathy in your interactions.

This leadership style requires a high degree of emotional intelligence , or the ability to understand and manage your emotions, as well as those of others. According to EQ provider TalentSmart, emotional intelligence is the highest predictor of workplace performance , underscoring how important it is for you to hone this highly valued skill.

2. Credibility

Credibility encompasses competence, humility, and resolve. This leadership style imparts knowledge and authority. A credible leader can set a plan and guide others in the right direction.

This leadership style involves a great deal of trust between you and your employees, and requires strong decision-making skills, even when faced with difficult choices . Sharpening your ability to make tough calls can not only enable you to become a more effective leader , but help your team build resilience.

3. Aspiration

Aspiration is a combination of two leadership imprints: Elevation and faith. Elevation refers to the ability to set high expectations others feel motivated to pursue, while faith is the capacity to create a sense of belief and confidence in what can be achieved.

An aspirational leader brings out the best in both themselves and others. Through empowering employees and nurturing their growth, you can cultivate a high-performing team that’s driven to achieve organizational goals.

Related: 6 Characteristics of an Effective Leader

How to Identify Your Leadership Style

Understanding common leadership styles and the imprints they’re comprised of is just one part of developing your personal approach. Here are three ways you can expand on that knowledge and identify your own.

1. Build Self-Awareness

Being an effective leader starts with knowing yourself. Through honest reflection and self-assessment—using tools like the Myers-Briggs test or similar resources—you can gain a deeper understanding of your strengths and weaknesses and build greater self-awareness .

Research shows that leaders with high degrees of self-awareness are more effective in their roles, have better work relationships, and report lower levels of stress.

Look to your colleagues for feedback. Be open to their perspectives on your leadership tendencies so you can identify areas for improvement and growth.

2. Consider Your Core Functions as a Leader

Examining your leadership functions is the second of the three frameworks for developing your personal style. In Leadership Principles , two sets of practices are explored:

• Structure and direction: The behaviors you employ to mobilize others and clearly communicate tasks that need to be done
• Support and development: The behaviors you exhibit to rally others and provide instructional guidance

It’s important to use self-assessment to determine where you tend to fall on the spectrum between these two sets of practices. This knowledge can enable you to adapt your leadership approach to different business challenges, and figure out which function you should bolster to be more effective in your role.

3. Understand Your Motivations

Motivating your team members and equipping them with the resources to succeed is one of your key functions as a leader. But it’s important to also understand what inspires you to do your best work.

In examining your motivations as a leader, consider what external rewards stimulate you, such as salary and perks. Take stock of intangible forms of motivation as well, such as a sense of belonging at your organization or the opportunity to work on new and exciting projects.

With an innate sense of what drives you to perform at your best, you can, in turn, unleash that potential in others, enabling them to develop and deliver in the face of organizational challenges.

Related: 4 Tips for Developing Your Personal Leadership Style

Developing Your Leadership Style

Identifying and refining your personal leadership style is a process. By understanding common approaches to leadership, practicing self-assessment, and garnering feedback from colleagues, you can heighten your self-awareness and build a foundation upon which you can continue to learn and grow.

Do you want to enhance your leadership skills? Download our free leadership e-book and explore our online course Leadership Principles to discover how you can become a more effective leader and unleash the potential in yourself and others.

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• Section 3. Styles of Leadership

Chapter 13 Sections

• Section 1. Developing a Plan for Building Leadership
• Section 2. Servant Leadership: Accepting and Maintaining the Call of Service
• Section 4. Building Teams: Broadening the Base for Leadership
• Section 5. Developing a Community Leadership Corps: A Model for Service-Learning
• Section 6. Recognizing the Challenges of Leadership
• Section 7. Encouraging Leadership Development Across the Life Span
• Section 8. Ethical Leadership
• Section 11. Collaborative Leadership
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What is leadership style?

Why pay attention to leadership style, what are some conceptions and methods of leadership, what are some ways of looking at leadership style and what are their effects on an organization, how do you determine what is an appropriate style, how do you choose and develop a leadership style.

Leadership styles are the ways in which a leader views leaderships and performs it in order to accomplish their goals. This chapter provides a guide for understanding what different styles look like, which ones are more and less effective, and how you can develop or change your style to come closer to the ideal you aspire to.

According to John Gardner, in On Leadership , "Leadership is the process of persuasion or example by which an individual (or leadership team) induces a group to pursue objectives held by the leader or shared by the leader and his or her followers." If we accept that definition, then leadership style is the way in which that process is carried out.

Leaders' styles encompass how they relate to others within and outside the organization, how they view themselves and their position, and - to a very large extent - whether or not they are successful as leaders. If a task needs to be accomplished, how does a particular leader set out to get it done? If an emergency arises, how does a leader handle it? If the organization needs the support of the community, how does a leader go about mobilizing it? All of these depend on leadership style.

Much of the material in this section looks at individual leaders, but leadership can be invested in a team, or in several teams, or in different people at different times. Many - perhaps most - organizations have several levels of leadership, and thus many leaders. Regardless of the actual form of leadership, however, leadership style is an issue. Whether you're the leader of a large organization or a member of a small group that practices collective leadership, the way that leadership plays out will have a great deal to do with the effectiveness and influence of your work.

The style of an organization's leadership is reflected in both the nature of that organization and its relationships with the community. If a leader is suspicious and jealous of power, others in the organization are likely to behave similarly, in dealing with both colleagues and the community. If a leader is collaborative and open, this behavior is likely to encourage the same attitudes among staff members, and to work collaboratively with other organizations.

In many ways, the style of its leader defines an organization. If the organization is to be faithful to its philosophy and mission, its leader's style must be consistent with them. An autocratic leader in a democratic organization can create chaos. A leader concerned only with the bottom line in an organization built on the importance of human values may undermine the purpose of its work. For that reason, being conscious of both your own style as a leader and those of others you hire as leaders can be crucial in keeping your organization on the right track.

We've all known and seen different types of leaders. (We'll look more closely at some specific styles later in this section.) One of the enduring images of the 20th century is that of hundreds of thousands of Germans wildly cheering their Fuhrer in Leni Riefenstahl's brilliant and terrifying 1930's Nazi propaganda film "Triumph of the Will." Franklin Roosevelt comforted a nation paralyzed by economic depression by explaining that "We have nothing to fear but fear itself." John Kennedy electrified a generation with his exhortation to "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."

All of these are representations - for various purposes - of great motivational leaders working their magic through their speeches. Our concept of leadership tends to linger on such examples, but there are other kinds of leaders as well. Gandhi sitting and spinning in a dusty Indian courtyard; John Lewis and other Freedom Riders being brutally beaten in Mississippi; Vaclav Havel refusing to take revenge on the former Communist bureaucrats of Czechoslovakia; Nelson Mandela sitting in prison on Robben Island - these also are pictures of leadership.

Conceptions of leadership

The leadership style of an organization may be concerned with less dramatic issues than these examples, but it nonetheless has profound effects on the people within that organization, and on everything the organization does. Styles have to do with a leader's - and organization's - ideas of what leadership is and does. Possible conceptions include:

• Exercising power . Leadership is a matter of pursuing one's own ends. Asserting power over others is an end in itself, and symbolizes one's position as a leader.
• Gaining and exercising the privileges of high status . Leadership is about getting to the top, and being recognized as having the highest status.
• Being the boss . Leadership is overseeing the work of the organization by telling everyone what to do when, and rewarding or punishing as appropriate.
• Task orientation . Leadership is getting the job done - that's all that matters.
• Taking care of people . Leadership is looking out for those you lead, and making sure they get what they need.
• Empowerment . Leadership is helping those you lead gain power and become leaders.

Taking these last two together, we might add a conception whereby one aspect of leadership is the fostering of personal (and professional) growth in others.

• Providing moral leadership . The leader, by force of character and her own high standards, creates expectations and pulls others up to her level.
• Providing and working toward a vision . Leadership is the ability to envision a goal, and to motivate others to work with you toward that goal.

Methods of leadership

In many, or perhaps most, organizations, more than one of these conceptions may define leadership. Each implies particular ways of leading, and leaders may use a number of different methods.

• Pure exercise of power . "My way or the highway." If you don't do what the leader demands, no matter how unreasonable, you're gone. The leader's decisions are not open to question or discussion, and no one else gets to make decisions.
• Political scheming . The leader plays people off against one another, creates factions within the organization, cultivates "allies" and isolates "enemies," and builds up (through favors or overlooking poor performance) personal debt which can be cashed in when needed, in order to manipulate people and events as he wishes.

A school superintendent bragged to voters about how little was spent on the school system, and then explained to teachers how they couldn't have raises because the community was too cheap to invest in education. He set principals at odds with one another and with teachers, played favorites among system administrators, postured in public, did his best to charm particular school committee members, and generally kept everyone off balance. He did it so well that, for most of his long term of employment, almost no one noticed that he exercised no educational leadership whatsoever, and that the schools deteriorated both physically and educationally under his administration.

• Using relationships . The leader develops strong positive relationships with all or most of the people in the organization, and uses these relationships to steer people in particular directions. People do what they're asked because of their relationships with the leader, rather than for reasons connected to the tasks themselves.
• Setting an example . The leader may or may not demand or request particular behavior or actions, but she will demonstrate them, and expect or imply that others will follow.

In Sicily, a young archeologist was the dig supervisor, given the task of negotiating with and organizing local workmen for a dig. The workmen, most of them nearly twice the supervisor's age, saw the job as an opportunity to make some money without doing much work (and had been given to understand as much by the local mafioso who recruited them). The supervisor surprised them by speaking their dialect, and by treating them with respect. But the biggest surprise was that, after explaining carefully what needed to be done and how, he didn't stand over them or tell each person what to do. Instead, he simply turned away and went to work. The older men, impressed and embarrassed, started to work as well. They were surprised once more when they realized that the young archeologist was willing to do any job, no matter how hard or dirty, and that - although they were farmers, accustomed to labor - they couldn't outwork him no matter how they tried. Contrary to their original expectations, they worked hard for the time they were employed...without the supervisor ever giving orders.

• Persuasion . The leader convinces people through argument, reasoning, selling techniques, or other persuasive methods that what the leader wants is, in fact, the best course, or in line with what they want to do.
• Sharing power . Some leaders choose to exercise at least some leadership through the other stakeholders in the organization. In this situation they may give up some personal power in return for what they see as more ownership of decisions, goals, and the organization itself by those involved in the decision-making process.
• Charisma . Some leaders are charismatic enough to simply pull others along by the power of their personalities alone. They may, in fact, advocate and accomplish wonderful things, but they do it through people's loyalty to and awe of them.

Alexander the Great was only 18 when he succeeded his murdered father as King of Macedonia, and only 32 when he died, but he was able in the short time in between to conquer much of the known world. His personal magnetism was such that his soldiers - who knew him well, and fought beside him - thought him immortal, and followed him for years through battle after battle, and through one unknown country after another. As he lay dying, his whole army - 50,000 men - filed past to say goodbye personally to the leader they loved and revered. That's charisma.

• Involving followers in the goal . The leader gets others to buy into her vision for the organization, and to make it their own. She may accomplish this through charisma, through the force of her own belief in the power and rightness of the vision, or through the nature of the vision itself.

Various combinations of these and other methods.

The combination of the leader's and organization's conception of leadership and the leader's way of leading does much to define leadership style. In addition, the characteristics of the leadership are almost always reflected in the relationships within and among the staff, participants, Board, and others related to the organization, as well as in its policies, procedures, and program. We'll return to this idea in more detail when we examine specific styles later in this section.

There are also other factors that come into play in defining leadership style. In some organizations, for instance, leaders are expected to shake things up, and to foster and support change. In others, they are expected to sustain the status quo. In some, they are expected to be proactive, and assertive; in others, more passive. All of these elements - concepts of leadership, methods of leading, attitude toward change, assertiveness - combine with personalities and individual experience in different ways to create different styles of leaders.

There are a number of theories about leadership style, many involving a continuum - two opposite styles with a number of intermediate stops between them. We'll try here to present four styles that summarize many of the existing theories, and to show how they interact with another, all-embracing way of looking at leadership style.

Some ways of looking at leadership style, and their effects on an organization

Four leadership styles:.

Keep in mind that each of the styles below is a stereotype that actually fits very few real people. Each is meant to outline the characteristics of a style in very simple and one-sided terms. Hardly anyone actually sees or exercises leadership as inflexibly as laid out here. Most leaders combine some of the characteristics of two or more of these styles, and have other characteristics that don't match any of those below. You can find many descriptions of other leadership styles as well. What this list really provides is some useful ways to think about your own and others ' leadership. It's also important to remember that people can be either effective or ineffective in any of these categories. An autocratic leader might simply, through his behavior, serve to strengthen the very forces that he's trying to squash. A managerial leader may be an excellent or a terrible manager. Adopting a certain style doesn't necessarily imply carrying it off well. There are also some styles that are by their nature less effective than others. One which appears in the literature, for instance, is laissez-faire, which means letting things happen as they might, and providing neither vision nor direction nor structure. This may work for a short time in an organization that has already devised successful ways of working, but it won't suit even the best organization over a long period of time, and will be disastrous in an organization that needs direction and structure.

1. Autocratic . Autocratic leaders insist on doing it all themselves. They have all the power, make all the decisions, and don't often tell anyone else about what they're doing. If you work for an autocratic leader, your job is usually to do what you're told.

An autocratic leader often maintains his authority by force, intimidation, threats, reward and punishment, or position. Although he may or may not have a clear vision, and may or may not be steering the organization in the right direction, he's not concerned with whether anyone else agrees with what he's doing or not.

Autocratic leadership allows quick decision-making, and eliminates arguments over how and why things get done. At the same time, however, it may reduce the likelihood of getting a range of different ideas from different people, and can treat people badly, or as if they don't matter. If, as is often true, the leader is concerned with his own power and status, he'll be looking over his shoulder, and moving to squelch any opposition to him or his ideas and decisions. Innovation or the use of others' ideas is only permissible if it's part of the leader's plan.

Effects on the organization . Autocratic leaders often leave fear and mistrust in their wake. Others in the organization tend to copy their protection of their position, and their distrust of others' ideas and motives. Often, autocratically -led organizations are not particularly supportive of personal relationships, but much more keyed to chain-of-command. Everyone has her own sphere, and protects it at all costs. Communication tends to go in only one direction - up - as a result of which rumor can become the standard way of spreading news in the organization.

At its best (and there are decent autocratic leaders - see the box directly below ), autocratic leadership provides a stable and secure work environment and decisive, effective leadership. All too often, however, it can sacrifice initiative, new ideas, and the individual and group development of staff members for the predictability of a highly structured, hierarchical environment where everyone knows exactly what he's supposed to do, and follows orders without question.

Although the above paints a pretty bleak picture, many autocratic leaders are not hated and feared, but rather esteemed, and even loved. It depends on their own personalities - like anyone else, they can be nice people, or highly charismatic, or even willing to listen to and act on others' ideas - on the organization itself (in the military, most soldiers want someone firmly in charge), on the quality of their decisions, and on the needs of the people they lead. If they're generally decent and not abusive, make good decisions for the organization, and fulfill the parent-figure or authority -figure image that most people in the organization are looking for, they can be both effective and well-respected.

2. Managerial . The leader who sees herself as a manager is concerned primarily with the running of the organization. Where it's going is not at issue, as long as it gets there in good shape. She may pay attention to relationships with and among staff members, but only in the service of keeping things running smoothly. Depending upon the nature and stability of the organization, her main focus may be on funding, on strengthening the organization's systems and infrastructure (policies, positions, equipment, etc.), or on making sure day-to-day operations go well (including making sure that everyone is doing what he's supposed to).

If she's efficient, a managerial leader will generally be on top of what's happening in the organization. Depending on the size of the organization and her management level, she'll have control of the budget, know the policies and procedures manual inside out, be aware of who's doing his job efficiently and who's not, and deal with issues quickly and firmly as they come up. What she won't do is steer the organization. Vision isn't her business; maintaining the organization is.

Effects on the organization . In general, a well-managed organization, regardless of its leadership style, is a reasonably pleasant place to work. Staff members don 't have to worry about ambiguity, or about whether they'll get paid. As long as oversight is relatively civil - no screaming at people, no setting staff members against one another - things go along on an even keel. Good managers even try to foster friendly relationships with and among staff, because they make the organization work better.

On the other hand, good management without a clear vision creates an organization with no sense of purpose. The organization may simply act to support the status quo, doing what it has always done in order to keep things running smoothly. That attitude neither fosters passion in staff members, nor takes account of the changing needs (and they do change) of the target population or the community. The organization may do what it does efficiently and well...but what it does may not be what it should be doing, and it won't be examining that possibility any time soon.

Obviously, the leader of any organization - as well as any other administrator - has to be a manager at least some of the time. Many are in fact excellent managers, and keep the organization running smoothly on a number of levels. The issue here is the style that person adopts as a leader. If she sees management as her primary purpose, she's a managerial leader, and will have a very different slant on leadership than if her style is essentially democratic, for instance.

3 Democratic . A democratic leader understands that there is no organization without its people. He looks at his and others' positions in terms of responsibilities rather than status, and often consults in decision-making. While he solicits, values, and takes into account others' opinions, however, he sees the ultimate responsibility for decision-making as his own. He accepts that authority also means the buck stops with him. Although he sees the organization as a cooperative venture, he knows that he ultimately has to face the consequences of his decisions alone.

Democratic leadership invites the participation of staff members and others, not only in decision-making, but in shaping the organization's vision. It allows everyone to express opinions about how things should be done, and where the organization should go. By bringing in everyone's ideas, it enriches the organization's possibilities. But it still leaves the final decisions about what to do with those ideas in the hands of a single person.

Some models of democratic leadership might put the responsibility in the hands of a small group - a management team or executive committee - rather than an individual.

Effects on the organization . Democratic leadership, with its emphasis on equal status, can encourage friendships and good relationships throughout the organization. (In more hierarchical organizations, clerical staff and administrators are unlikely to socialize, for instance; in a democratically-led organization, such socialization often happens.) It helps people feel valued when their opinions are solicited, and even more so if those opinions are incorporated into a final decision or policy.

What a democratic leadership doesn't necessarily do - although it can - is establish staff ownership of the organization and its goals. Although everyone may be asked for ideas or opinions, not all of those are used or incorporated in the workings of the organization. If there is no real discussion of ideas, with a resulting general agreement, a sense of ownership is unlikely. Thus, democratic leadership may have some of the drawbacks of autocratic leadership - a lack of buy-in - without the advantages of quick and clear decision-making that comes with the elimination of consultation.

4. Collaborative . A collaborative leader tries to involve everyone in the organization in leadership. She is truly first among equals, in that she may initiate discussion, pinpoint problems or issues that need to be addressed, and keep track of the organization as a whole, rather than of one particular job. But decisions are made through a collaborative process of discussion, and some form of either majority or consensus agreement. Toward that end, a collaborative leader tries to foster trust and teamwork among the staff as a whole.

A collaborative leader has to let go of the need for control or power or status if she is to be effective. Her goal is to foster the collaborative process, and to empower the group - whether the staff and others involved in an organization, or the individuals and organizations participating in a community initiative - to control the vision and the workings of the organization. She must trust that, if people have all the relevant information, they'll make good decisions...and she must make sure that they have that information, and provide the facilitation that assures those good decisions.

Effects on the organization . Collaborative leadership comes as close as possible to ensuring that members of the organization buy into its vision and decisions, since they are directly involved in creating them. It comes closest to the goal of servant leadership explored in the previous section, and it also comes closest to reflecting the concepts of equality and empowerment included in the philosophy and mission of so many grass roots and community-based organizations. It thus removes much of the distrust that often exists between line staff and administrators.

David Chrislip and Carl E. Larson, in Collaborative Leadership - How Citizens and Civic Leaders Can Make a Difference, equate collaborative leadership not only with servant leadership, but with transformational (see below) and facilitative leadership as well. They identify four characteristics of the collaborative leader: Inspiring commitment and action . The collaborative leader helps people develop the vision and passion to start and maintain the work. Leading as a peer problem solver . The collaborative leader facilitates problem solving by modeling and teaching a process, and by helping others bring their experience and ideas to bear. Building broad-based involvement . The collaborative leader invites everyone concerned into an inclusive process. Sustaining hope and participation . Reaching goals may take a long time. The collaborative leader both helps the group set interim goals so it can see progress, and, by example and in other ways, helps to maintain the passion and commitment to keep going when there's no end in sight.

Collaborative leaders also generally foster close relationships among staff members, making for more communication and cross-fertilization in their work, and leading to more effective ways to accomplish the organization's goals.

On the down side, management can be neglected in favor of building a collaborative organization. Even more to the point, collaborative decision-making can be excruciating. Depending upon the group, ideas can be talked to death, and insignificant disagreements about insignificant areas of policy can take hours to resolve.

Collaborative decision-making can be democratic - based on a majority vote after discussion - or dependent on arriving at consensus, with a range of possibilities in between. Consensus decision-making is particularly difficult, in that it requires everyone to agree before a decision can be made. A single determined individual can derail the process indefinitely. Even at its best, a consensus process can take inordinate amounts of time, and try the patience of all involved. It's not impossible to employ, but it takes real commitment to the ideal of consensus, and enormous patience. In practice, true consensus decision-making is most often used in collective organizations, which are significantly different from collaborative ones, and often involve everyone in leadership.

Styles of leadership

A different view, popularized by James MacGregor Burns, contrasts two styles of leadership: transactional and transformational.

Transactional leadership , as its name implies, views leadership as based on transactions between leader and followers. The leader sees human relations as a series of transactions. Thus rewards, punishments, reciprocity, exchanges (economic, emotional, physical) and other such "transactions" are the basis of leadership. In simplest terms, I lead this organization by paying you and telling you what you need to do; you respond by doing what you need to do efficiently and well, and the organization will prosper.

Transformational leadership looks at leadership differently. It sees a true leader as one who can distill the values and hopes and needs of followers into a vision, and then encourage and empower followers to pursue that vision. A transactional leader thinks of improvement or development as doing the same thing better: an organization that reaches more people, a company that makes more money. A transformational leader thinks about changing the world, even if only on a small scale.

Combining the two views of leadership style

These two ways of looking at leadership style are not mutually exclusive: in fact, it's easier to look at leadership in the context of both. Assuming, as almost all leadership theorists do, that transformational is either better than, or a necessary addition to, transactional leadership, what elements go into creating a transformational leader? What styles are transformational leaders likely to employ, and how?

Elements of transformational leadership

The transformational leader conceives of leadership as helping people to create a common vision and then to pursue that vision until it's realized. She elicits that vision from the needs and aspirations of others, gives it form, and sets it up as a goal to strive for. The vision is not hers: it is a shared vision that each person sees as his own.

Martin Luther King's overwhelming "I Have A Dream" speech derived its power not only from the beauty of his oratory, but from the fact that it crystallized the feelings of all those citizens, of all races, who believed that racism was a great wrong. In that speech, King spoke with the voices of the hundreds of thousands who stood before the Lincoln Memorial, and of millions of others who shared in his vision. That speech remains as the defining moment of the Civil Rights struggle, and defined King - who had already proved his mettle in Birmingham and elsewhere - as a transformational leader.

The conception behind transformational leadership is thus providing and working toward a vision, but also has elements of empowerment, of taking care of people, and even of task orientation. The job of the transformational leader is not simply to provide inspiration and then disappear. It is to be there, day after day, convincing people that the vision is reachable, renewing their commitment, priming their enthusiasm. Transformational leaders work harder than anyone else, and, in the words of a spiritual, "keep their eyes on the prize".

The methods that transformational leaders might use to reach their goals can vary. They'll virtually always include involving followers in the goal, as well as charisma, which comes, if not from personal characteristics, from the ability to put a mutual vision into words, and to move a group toward the realization of that vision. Transformational leaders may also use sharing power, setting an example, and/or persuasion to help move a group toward its goal.

What style does all that imply? The managerial style is perhaps least appropriate to transformational leadership, since it pays no attention to vision. The autocratic pays little attention to the ideas of others, and is not generally congenial to the transformational leader. On the other hand, there was Hitler, who tapped into the deepest emotions of those he led, and voiced them in a frightening but highly effective way. There is no guarantee that a transformational leader will work for the betterment of humanity, although he may couch his vision in those terms. The intersection of the transformational and the autocratic is not impossible, but it usually has, at best, mixed results.

Fidel Castro initiated and has maintained desperately-needed land, education, health, and other reforms in Cuba, for which he is still revered by much of the island's population. He also eliminated any vestige of political freedom, imprisoned and executed dissenters and political opponents, and was at least partially responsible for destroying much of Cuba's economic base in the name of ideological purity. As with the four styles described earlier, there is no guarantee that either a transactional or transformational leader will be an effective one.

The democratic and collaborative styles are both better possibilities for transformational leadership. Both allow for input from everyone, and both encourage participation in the realization of long-term goals. It can be difficult for a highly motivated, charismatic leader to operate in the collaborative mode, but it can also be tremendously satisfying. There is an argument to be made that, because of the high degree of ownership of the vision in a collaboratively-run organization, the collaborative style could be the most successful for transformational leadership. As noted above, David Chrislip and Carl Larson actually see collaborative and transformational leadership as essentially the same.

All that said, it is probably true that any leader, even a highly collaborative one, uses a range of different styles at different times - even, perhaps, in the course of a single day. Decisions have to be made, major and minor crises have to be met, situations and conflicts have to be resolved, often right at the moment. It is important to realize that different styles may be appropriate at different times, and for different purposes.

In an emergency, no one would suggest sitting down and making a group decision about what to do. There has to be decisive action, and one person has to take it as soon as possible. As long as it's clear who that person is, there should be no question about the philosophical issues involved. By the same token, it's counter -productive to make decisions about how people should do their jobs without at least consulting those people about what might work best. Good leaders usually have a style that they consciously use most of the time, but they're not rigid. They change as necessary to deal with whatever comes up.

There are at least two other factors that have to be considered when choosing a leadership style. The first is that leadership style - at least at the beginning - must, to at least some extent, be consistent with what people in the organization expect. You can try to change their expectations and perceptions of how an organization should be run - that's part of leadership - but you have to start by meeting them at least halfway, or you'll never get close enough to talk about it.

If you're trying to turn a system that's been autocratic into a collaborative one, you have to accept that most people in the system not only won't welcome the change, and that some won't even understand what you're suggesting. You also have to accept that they've probably developed their own methods of getting around the rigidity of the system that they'll continue to use, even if the system is no longer rigid. It can take a long time just to get your ideas across, and longer to help people overcome their suspicions and break old habits. A few may never be able to. You need patience, and the willingness to act occasionally in ways you'd rather not.

In the second story at the beginning of this section, the school principal was on the side of the angels: he was trying to be a collaborative, transformational leader who would inspire and support teachers to become the best educators they could, and who would make the school into a model of excellence, learning for all, and collegiality. The problem was that the teachers expected something entirely different. They wanted someone to tell them what to do, and then leave them alone to do it. They saw the principal's plans as just another way to trick them into doing things they didn't want to do, and to get them to work longer hours. The more he tried to explain how what he was asking was for their benefit, the more they resisted - they'd heard that line before. If he had started where the teachers were, the principal might have been able to be more successful. That would have meant his "running" the school as his predecessor had, and introducing reforms slowly over a long period. Suggestions to receptive teachers might have started the process; professional development could have helped it along. He might have used incentives of some sort to encourage teachers to try new things, rather than assuming they would be happy to be more independent and creative. Paying attention to the expectations of the staff might have paid off for the principal in the long run.

Finally, your style needs to be consistent with the goals, mission, and philosophy of your organization. As mentioned earlier - and in numerous places elsewhere in the Community Tool Box - an organization cannot remain faithful to its mission if its internal structure is at odds with its guiding principles. An organization dedicated to empowerment of the target population, for instance, must empower its staff as well. For most grass roots and community-based organizations, this consistency would mean using some variation of a democratic or collaborative style.

What kind of leader do you want to be? Perhaps even more important, how would you be most effective as a leader? What kind of leadership style would be of the most benefit to your organization, and would allow you to be the best leader you could be? The leadership styles described in this section aren't the only ways to look at leadership. As we've already discussed, most real leaders use a combination of styles, and there are others that haven't really been touched on here.

It's possible that Alexander the Great was a born leader, but how much are you like Alexander the Great? Be honest now...it's doubtful, isn't it? Just about all leaders, even great leaders, have to learn how to lead, and have to develop their skills over a period of time. You can do the same, especially if you have a clear idea of what you think leadership is about, and if you have good models to learn from. Here are a few things you can do to choose and develop your own effective leadership style:

Start with yourself.

Use what you know about your own personality, and about how you've exercised leadership in the past. Neither of these has to determine what you choose now - people can change, especially if they believe that what they've done before was ineffective or inconsistent with their values - but it's important to be honest with yourself about who you are. That honesty has two aspects.

First, be clear with yourself about what your natural tendencies and talents are. If you want to be a collaborative leader, but you tend to tell people what to do, you have to admit that and think about ways to change it. If you want to be a directive leader, but you have trouble making decisions, you need to deal with that issue. Not everyone can be charismatic, but almost everyone can learn to distill and communicate a vision that reflects the hopes and needs of a group. Knowing who you are is the first step toward both choosing a style and understanding what you'll have to do to adopt it.

Being truly honest with yourself is a difficult task. For most of us, it may take some time with a counselor or a trusted friend, or the willingness to hear feedback from colleagues, co-workers, and/or family members. It also takes an honest self -assessment, which can mean stripping away defenses and facing insecurities. Some questions you might ask yourself to start: How great is my need to be in control? (When you're in a car, are you uncomfortable if you're not driving, assuming the driver is competent? Would you let someone else order for you in a restaurant? If you were teaching a class, would it be a lecture? Would you follow tangents that were interesting to class members? Is there a right way to do most everything? If your answers to these questions are yes, no, yes, no, and yes, you probably have a pretty high need to be in control of things.) How willing am I to trust others to do their jobs? (Are you uncomfortable delegating work, so that you just try to do it yourself? Do you tell people exactly how to do things, even when they have experience doing them? Do you think supervisors should spend a lot of their time checking the work of those they supervise? "Yes" answers to these questions could mean that you don't have much confidence in others.) How patient am I? (If someone is having trouble doing something, do you just do it for him? Do you interrupt with your comments before others are finished speaking? Do you want the discussion to end because you want to start doing something? If all these are the case, patience may not be your greatest virtue.) How organized am I? (Can you almost always find whatever you need without having to search for it? Is your desk clean? Are your files alphabetized and orderly? Are your books alphabetized? Do you have a place for nearly everything? Is your appointment book readable by anyone but you? Are you always on time, and hardly ever miss appointments?) How good are my people skills? (Are you comfortable with other people? Do people seem to comfortable with you? When you're with others, do you spend most of your time talking? Listening? About even? Do people seek you out for help or advice? Do you consider yourself a good judge of people, and has that been borne out by your experience? Do you try to consider others' needs and feelings in any decision?) These few questions are obviously just a beginning, but they should help you think about some important leadership issues. If you have a high need for control, for instance, it doesn't mean you can't be a collaborative leader, but it does mean that you'll have to learn some new behavior, and perhaps a whole new way of looking at things. If you're not well-organized, it doesn't mean you can't be a good manager, but you'll have to find strategies to keep you on top of everything.

Second, acknowledge and be true to your beliefs. If you have a real philosophical commitment to a particular leadership style, it will probably be easier for you to change your behavior to match that style than to live with knowing you're betraying your principles.

Think about the needs of the organization or initiative.

A community coalition almost has to have collaborative leadership, or it will fall apart amid turf issues and accusations of discrimination. An organization that responds to situations where it has to act quickly - an emergency medical team, for example - may need more decisive and directive leadership. Some groups may have an impassioned vision, but don't have the practical skills - financial management, scheduling, etc. - to achieve it.

You can adapt most styles to most situations, but don't neglect the real needs of the organization in your calculations. You may need to practice a different style at the beginning from the one that you want to assume over the long term, in order to solve problems in the organization, or to get people on board. In the example at the beginning of this section, for instance, the school principal might have had more success if he had started by making very little change and moved more slowly into the role and philosophy he wanted.

Observe and learn from other leaders.

Think about how leaders you've worked for or with exercised leadership. What were their styles, and were they effective? How did they handle different kinds of situations? How did what they did make you and others feel? Try to watch others in action, and talk to them about how they see what they do. What do you like about how they operate? What don't you like? What can you incorporate into your own style?

Find a mentor. If there's a leader whom you particularly admire, and that person is accessible (Nelson Mandela might have trouble fitting you in), talk with her about leadership issues - about how she perceives what she's doing, how she'd handle particular situations and why, etc. Most people, especially if they're good leaders and conscious of what they do and why, welcome the opportunity to help others develop their own leadership skills.

Use the research on leadership.

There are lots of resources available on leaders and on both the theory and practice of leadership. Many are included at the end of this section, and there are hosts of others you can find yourself. They 'll give you a lot more ideas about leadership styles, and help you refine your own thinking about what leadership is and what kind of leader you'd like to be.

Believe in what you're doing.

If you've thought it through carefully, and believe in the way you practice leadership, that will be projected to others. If you believe in yourself, they'll believe in you, too.

Be prepared to change.

Although this may seem at odds with some of the above, it is probably the most important element to good leadership. No matter how well you're doing, it's not perfect - it never is, and never will be. Be prepared to find for yourself or hear from others the negative as well as the positive, to consider it carefully and objectively, and to make corrections if necessary. That way, you can not only become a good leader, but continue to be one.

Leadership style is the way in which a leader accomplishes his purposes. It can have profound effects on an organization and its staff members, and can determine whether the organization is effective or not.

Leadership style depends on the leader's and organization's conception of what leadership is, and on the leader's choice of leadership methods. Depending how those fit together, a leader might adopt one of a variety styles, each reflected in the way the organization operates and the way its staff members relate to one another. Some (very stereotyped) possibilities:

• Autocratic - totally in control, making all decisions himself
• Managerial - concerned with the smooth operation, rather than the goals and effectiveness, of the organization
• Democratic - consulting with others, encouraging equality within the organization, but making final decisions herself
• Collaborative - sharing leadership, involving others in all major decisions, spreading ownership of the organization.

Another way of looking at leadership is to categorize it as either transactional (based on transactions such as pay in return for work) or transformational (based on enlisting people in pursuit of a vision voiced by the leader, but based on their own needs and aspirations, which aims at real change). Combining this view with that based on the four styles makes it easier to understand how leaders operate and make decisions. It also makes clear that different styles may be appropriate for different purposes, and that most leaders shift back and forth among several in the course of a day, even if there is one that characterizes them.

You can choose and develop leadership styles and skills by assessing your own tendencies and talents; understanding the needs of the organization or initiative; observing others leaders and finding a mentor; believing in yourself, and being prepared to change.

Online Resources

The Center for Creative Leadership

The Center for Strategic Management

Chapter 10: Empowerment in the "Introduction to Community Psychology" addressed the different levels of empowerment, how to contribute to power redistribution, and ways to take action to make changes in communities.

Connective Leadership and Achieving Styles

Emerging Leader

The Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership

Idea Bridge

The Leadership Challenge

Leadership styles and problem solving - deBono's Six Hats

The Pew Civic Entrepreneur Initiative

Power and Leadership Practices by the Superintendent: What Do They Mean to Leaders and Followers?

Spokes: Resources for Non-profits

Style of Management and Leadership

Transformational Leadership

Print Resources

Bass, B. (1995). Leadership and Performance Beyond Expectations . New York, NY: Free Press.

Burns, J. (1985).  Leadership . New York, NY: Harper Collins.

Chrislip, D. & Carl E.  (1995).  Collaborative Leadership - How Citizens and Civic Leaders Can Make a Difference . San Francisco: Jossey Bass Publishers.

Gardner, H. (1996).   Leading Minds: An Anatomy of Leadership . New York, NY: Basic Books.

Gardener, H. (1998).   Extraordinary Minds . New York, NY: Basic Books, 

Gardner, J. (1993).  On Leadership . New York, NY: Free Press.

Greenleaf, R. (1983).   Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness . Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 

Macchiavelli, N. (1998).  The Prince . Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Wheatley, M.  (2001).  Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World . Barrett-Koehler Publishing.

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How to Develop Your Leadership Style

• Suzanne J. Peterson,
• Robin Abramson,
• R.K. Stutman

Bosses often sense that something is missing in an employee’s tool kit but can’t put a finger on what it is. They say something like “You need certain important intangibles” or “You don’t have enough gravitas,” but they fail to provide advice or guidance.

What they’re talking about is leadership style. In every interaction, we send signals to others that fall into two categories: power and attractiveness. Powerful markers are associated with confidence, competence, charisma, and influence but also arrogance, abrasiveness, and intimidation. Attractiveness markers are related to agreeableness, approachability, and likability but also diffidence, lack of confidence, and submissiveness. The more consistent our signals, the more distinctive our style.

This practical guide offers concrete advice for developing a dynamic and effective leadership style that draws from both types of markers for maximum impact.

Concrete advice for a squishy challenge

Idea in Brief

The problem.

Bosses often sense that something is lacking in an employee’s tool kit but can’t put a finger on what it is. They say something like “You’re missing important intangibles” or “You need more gravitas” but fail to provide advice or guidance.

The Research

What they’re talking about is leadership style. In every interaction, we send signals to others about our power and status. The more consistent we are in our signals, the more distinctive our style becomes.

The Approach

This practical guide offers concrete advice for developing a dynamic and effective leadership style, including tips such as what volume and pace to use in your speech, whether to take notes in a meeting, and how and when to interrupt others.

Few things are more frustrating for talented professionals than hitting a ceiling in their careers because they lack the appropriate leadership style. A boss senses that something is missing in a person’s tool kit but can’t put a finger on exactly what it is or how the person can improve. The boss says something like “You’re lacking important intangibles” or “You need more gravitas” but fails to provide specific advice or tools for improving.

• SP Suzanne J. Peterson is an associate professor of leadership at the Thunderbird School of Global Management and a partner at CRA, a leadership consulting and advisory firm.
• RA Robin Abramson is an independent executive coach.
• RS R.K. Stutman is the managing partner of CRA|Admired Leadership and founder of the Admired Leadership Institute.

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The Five Different Leadership Styles

In today's ever-evolving business world, leadership plays a pivotal role in shaping an organization's culture, productivity, and overall success. Effective leadership isn't a one-size-fits-all concept; it encompasses a variety of styles, each with its unique attributes, advantages, and disadvantages. Understanding the different leadership styles and their effects in the workplace is crucial for aspiring leaders and existing ones alike.

What is Leadership Style?

Leadership style is the manner in which an individual or a group of leaders interacts with their team, makes decisions, and influences others in an organization. It reflects the leader's approach to guiding, motivating, and overseeing their team members. The diverse array of leadership styles acknowledges that there is no single "best" approach to leadership, and leaders often adopt different styles depending on the context and their team's needs.

Types of Leadership Styles

Leadership styles can be categorized into several broad types, each with its distinct characteristics and methods. These styles have a profound impact on organizational culture and the achievement of goals. Here are five prominent leadership styles and their strengths and weaknesses.

1. Servant Leadership

Definition: Servant leadership is a style characterized by leaders who prioritize the needs and well-being of their team members. They actively seek to serve and support their employees, putting their interests ahead of their own.

Examples: Prominent servant leaders include Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and Mother Teresa.

Focus: Servant leaders focus on fostering a culture of empathy, empowerment, and inclusiveness. They believe that by addressing the needs of their employees, they can create a highly motivated and productive workforce.

• Enhances employee morale and loyalty.
• Encourages a collaborative and harmonious work environment.
• Promotes personal and professional growth among employees.
• May be perceived as weak or indecisive in certain situations.
• Requires a leader with a high degree of emotional intelligence.
• Balancing employees' needs with organizational goals can be challenging.

Learn More About Compassionate Leadership

2. Charismatic Leadership

Definition: Charismatic leadership involves leaders who possess an inspiring and magnetic personality. They have a compelling ability to influence and motivate others, often drawing followers into their vision.

Examples: Iconic charismatic leaders include Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, and Winston Churchill.

Focus: Charismatic leaders are unwavering in their pursuit of a vision. They lead through inspiration and persuasion, using their charm and confidence to rally their team behind them.

• Drives innovation and a sense of purpose.
• Energizes and excites team members.
• Can effectively steer organizations through challenging times.
• Reliance on a single charismatic leader can be risky.
• May overshadow the contributions of team members.
• Can lead to a cult of personality, reducing accountability.

3. Bureaucratic Leadership

Definition: Bureaucratic leadership is characterized by leaders who adhere to strict rules and procedures. They establish detailed processes and expect team members to follow these guidelines meticulously.

Examples: The military and government organizations often exhibit bureaucratic leadership.

Focus: Bureaucratic leaders prioritize consistency, efficiency, and adherence to established protocols. They believe that a structured environment is key to success.

• Ensures clear guidelines and procedures.
• Reduces ambiguity and potential for errors.
• Provides a sense of stability and predictability.
• May stifle creativity and innovation.
• Can lead to inflexibility in adapting to changing circumstances.
• Employees may feel micromanaged, leading to disengagement.

4. Democratic Leadership

Definition: Democratic leadership is centered on collaboration and team decision-making. Leaders seek input from their team members and engage them in shaping the organization's direction.

Examples: Companies with open and inclusive cultures like Google and Facebook often adopt democratic leadership.

Focus: Democratic leaders aim to foster a culture of participation, valuing diverse perspectives, and harnessing collective intelligence for decision-making.

• Encourages creativity and innovation.
• Boosts employee engagement and commitment.
• Promotes a sense of ownership and accountability among team members.
• Decision-making can be time-consuming.
• May be less effective in urgent situations.
• Requires effective communication and conflict resolution skills.

5. Coaching Leadership

Definition: Coaching leadership involves leaders who prioritize the development and growth of their employees. They invest time, energy, and personalized guidance to help their team members reach their full potential.

Examples: Leadership development programs and coaching-oriented managers exemplify this style.

Focus: Coaching leaders are committed to nurturing talent, offering guidance, and providing constructive feedback to aid their team's development.

• Fosters a high-performance culture.
• Enhances employees' skills, knowledge, and job satisfaction.
• Builds long-term relationships and loyalty.
• Requires a substantial time investment.
• Leaders need expertise in coaching and mentoring.
• Not all employees may respond positively to this approach.

Why is it important to know your own leadership style?

Understanding your leadership style is a crucial step in your journey as a leader. It allows you to leverage your strengths and mitigate your weaknesses, ultimately leading to improved performance and organizational success. Here's why it's essential:

• Self-Awareness: Identifying your leadership style helps you recognize your natural inclinations and tendencies, enabling you to make informed decisions about how you lead and interact with your team.
• Optimized Decision-Making: By knowing your leadership style, you can make better choices about which style to employ in various situations, ensuring that your approach aligns with your team's needs and the organizational context.
• Leveraging Strengths: Awareness of your leadership style enables you to capitalize on your strengths, enhancing your effectiveness as a leader. For instance, if you have a natural inclination towards coaching, you can use this to create a dynamic, high-performing team.
• Addressing Weaknesses: Recognizing your leadership style's limitations allows you to address areas where improvement is needed. You can take steps to develop the skills and knowledge required to overcome these limitations.

Effective leadership is the linchpin for success. The ability to adapt and apply different leadership styles is paramount. By understanding the nuances of various leadership styles, you can become a more versatile and influential leader, capable of driving your team towards excellence.

For those seeking further insight into leadership styles and personal development, leadership coaching is an invaluable resource. It provides tailored guidance and support, helping individuals uncover their unique leadership styles and harness their full potential.

Embark on your journey of leadership development with Valor Performance . Explore resources, articles, and programs to take your leadership skills to new heights, and begin your transformation into a modern leader who can make a lasting impact on your organization and its people. 

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Self-Assessment • 20 min read

What's Your Leadership Style?

Learn About the Strengths and Weaknesses of the Way You Like to Lead

By the Mind Tools Content Team

When we lead for the first time, we might adopt a style of leadership that we've experienced from someone else, or that we've heard or read about. If it seems to work, we'll likely stick with it – in effect, it becomes "our" style.

But there are many approaches available to us, and a good leader is able to adapt their style according to the situation and the people involved.

This quiz will help you to identify the style that you naturally lean toward, and introduce you to alternative approaches that you might find it helpful to develop, and the occasions when they may be appropriate.

We've based our questions on psychologist Kurt Lewin's Leadership Styles Framework – a model developed in the 1930s that is still popular and useful today.

Instructions

For each question, complete the statement by choosing one of the three options: A, B or C. Please answer according to how you would behave in reality , rather than how you think you should behave . When you're finished, please click the "Calculate My Total" button at the bottom of the test, and go on to read the guidance that follows.

Do you believe that you can adapt your style? Harvard University professor Ron Heifetz and leadership experts David Rooke and William Torbert say that you can. So let's look in more depth at Lewin's leadership styles, their strengths and risks, and how you might become more skillful in using them.

Authoritarian, Autocratic Leadership

This approach is helpful when your team needs to follow a process "to the letter," to manage a significant risk. It's also effective when you need to be hands-on with people who miss deadlines, in departments where conflict is an issue, or in teams that rely on quick decisions being made.

But you need to be aware that relying on control and punishment to maintain standards will likely drive people away. Similarly, if you always demand that your team works at top speed, you can end up exhausting everyone.

Instead, you can show respect for team members by providing the rationale for your decisions. And they will more likely comply with your expectations if you take the trouble to explain Why the Rules Are There .

You can improve your ability to "lead from the front" by Planning for a Crisis , Thinking on Your Feet , and making good decisions under pressure. But be sure to balance these skills with an awareness of their potential negative impact on creativity, ideas gathering, motivation, and trust within the team.

Being too autocratic can also mean that you'll find it hard to stand back from the detail and take a wider, more strategic view.

Did you achieve your leadership role thanks to your technical expertise? If so, you'll likely be used to getting things right, adding value, and having people's respect. But your soft skills might be lacking, so don't be afraid to listen and collaborate more.

Democratic, Participative Leadership

With this approach, you set goals, guide team discussions, and make the final decision. But you also acknowledge that your people can have valuable insight into a problem or process, so you actively consult them . As a result, you'll likely gain creative input and fresh ideas that you wouldn't have come up with if you were working alone.

You might wonder how to manage differing opinions in the team, once you've invited participation in this way. Your goal is to build a culture in which people can have healthy debates with one another. So:

• Set an example by being open and flexible yourself.
• Make mutual respect a priority, to ensure everyone's participation.
• Learn some Conflict Resolution skills.
• Read our article on Managing Emotion in Your Team .

Be aware that processes could become dangerously slow if you involve your team members in every decision. You'll need to judge carefully whether you need to adopt a more autocratic approach, even if it's only briefly.

The Delegating, "Laissez Faire" Leader

"Laissez faire" is a French phrase adopted into English that means, "Let (people) do (as they choose)." It describes a policy of leaving situations to run their own course, without interfering.

By adopting this style of leadership, you empower your team to make decisions and to organize its own processes, with little or no guidance. The danger of this approach is that situations can collapse into chaos if your people have low motivation or poor skills. It can work, however, if they are experienced, knowledgeable, confident, creative, and driven, or if deadlines are flexible and processes are simple.

Be in no doubt, though, that as the leader you will still be held accountable for the outcome! So you might want to organize team decision making processes to support your people while you take a "hands off" approach. Just be sure to delegate the right task to the right person, as a mismatch could mean that the whole team fails.

Avoid becoming too remote, even with a high-performing, highly autonomous team. Change can occur at any time in business, so your organization's requirements for your team might shift after your initial brief. If this happens, stay in touch with your people, and communicate clearly and promptly. Remember, you can offer your support without becoming a micromanager !

Consistently excellent and long-lasting teams tend to have transformational leaders . These leaders have high expectations for, and set a fine example to, their people. And they inspire them to reach for the seemingly impossible.

Further Reading:

We have numerous resources on leadership styles and approaches in our Leadership Skills toolkit. You might find the following articles helpful:

Eric Flamholtz and Yvonne Randle's Leadership Style Matrix .

The Blake-Mouton Managerial Grid .

Robert House's Path-Goal Theory .

Goleman et al's Six Emotional Leadership Styles .

Tannenbaum and Schmidt's Leadership Continuum .

Rath and Conchie's Strengths-Based Leadership .

Greenleaf's Servant Leadership .

Collins' Level 5 Leadership .

We all tend toward one leadership style more than another, due to our personal preferences, abilities, role models, and more.

But one approach doesn't fit all scenarios: some situations and people call for a fast, firm, top-down approach, while others flourish with shared responsibilities and the freedom to plan, decide and act.

You and your team will likely perform better if you develop a wide set of styles to apply as appropriate.

Kurt Lewin's model expresses this range of styles in relatively simple terms, from Authoritarian or Autocratic, through Democratic or Participative, to Delegating or "Laissez Faire."Transformational leadership is the best approach for most situations.

This assessment has not been validated and is intended for illustrative purposes only. It is just one of many that help you evaluate your abilities in a wide range of important career skills.

If you want to reproduce this quiz, you can purchase downloadable copies in our Store .

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Denise Beckles

Great materials and well researched. Video reinforcement on topic is well explained. It would help to use models which imbed diversity.

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By Hannah L. Miller Leaders Staff

Hannah L. Miller

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Hannah L. Miller, MA, is the senior editor for Leaders Media. Since graduating with her Master of Arts in 2015,...

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Updated Dec 16, 2022

Learn the 7 Distinct Leadership Styles

• Style #1 - Servant Leadership
• Style #2 - Democratic Leadership
• Style #3 - Autocratic Leadership 
• Style #4 - Transformational Leadership 
• Style #5 - Transactional Leadership
• Style #6 - Laissez-Faire Leadership
• Style #7 - Charismatic Leadership

Using Different Leadership Styles

When it comes to common leadership styles in management, there’s no “one-size-fits-all.” Effective leadership begins with identifying your strengths and then using the unique advantages of your style of leadership to drive growth within your organization.

For example, Elon Musk uses the autocratic leadership style, labeling himself as a perfectionist and “ nano-manager .” However, this same leadership style makes him decisive, clear about what he wants to achieve, and motivational. On the flip side, a charismatic leader like Richard Branson has found success by leading in a much different manner. He tackles challenges with positivity, obsesses over building a strong team culture, and uses emotional intelligence to develop businesses people love working for. 

This goes to show different styles work for different people. Nevertheless, each leadership style does have both its advantages and drawbacks. Learn which leadership style you have below and how to implement the others so you become more effective at leading your team and growing your business.

Style #1 – Servant Leadership

What is servant leadership.

Servant leadership is leading with a servant’s heart. In essence, this type of leader focuses primarily on addressing the needs of their employees and customers. When serving teams, they operate with a heavy emphasis on learning and growth, practicing coaching leadership. For this reason, those under the guidance of servant leaders can expect to be nurtured but also challenged into achieving their full potential.

Being a servant leader goes far beyond oneself. So much so, that the goal is to multiply more autonomous leaders at every level. Furthermore, organizations operated by servant leaders ensure those joining in fulfilling the business’s endeavors align with the company’s core values. For example, the process of becoming a franchise owner at Chick-fil-A is rigorous and intensive. Approval can take up to a year, while only 5% of applicants are accepted. Owners must demonstrate, “humility, passion for service, compassion, and genuineness,” says CEO and servant leader Dan Cathy.

Examples of Servant Leaders:

• John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market
• Cheryl Bachelder , former CEO of Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen
• John C. Maxwell, Co-founder of EQUIP® and author of 5 Levels of Leadership

Attributes:

• Leads to serve
• Naturally develops a following
• Calls others to join their cause or mission
• Practices altruism
• Is a strong positive influence on people’s lives
• Spends time teaching, empowering, and caring for team members
• Strengthens communities
• Fosters personal and professional growth through a coaching leadership style
• Develops a trusting team
• Exhibits a high level of emotional intelligence

Potential Weaknesses

Rather than lead with force, those who practice this style gain followers by being a positive influence. While people can work on servant leadership skills, they must have the heart for it. For instance, out of all the leadership styles, those who are money-driven or egocentric will find this particular one impossible to authentically implement.

Additionally, they must be careful to keep a balance between serving others and taking care of themselves. Without the latter, burnout can quickly ensue, thus affecting the company and its people in a variety of negative ways.

Style #2 – Democratic Leadership

What is democratic leadership.

One of the most popular types of leadership styles is the democratic leadership style. This approach encourages participation and collaboration among team members. The key to being a democratic leader is creating a team culture where individuals feel they are valued and important. Providing an open environment that prompts discourse through the exchange of ideas helps those practicing this style of leadership keep team members feeling engaged and motivated. Democratic managers and executives let people of all levels know their participation makes a difference in shaping the organization. In doing this, they develop a culture of voluntary contribution.

Examples of Democratic Leaders:

• Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos
• Larry Page, Co-founder of Google
• Indra Nooyi, former CEO of PepsiCo
• Encourages idea-sharing and creativity
• Facilitates open communication  
• Lets employees problem solve
• Supports collaboration
• Develops an environment of mutual respect
• Provides team members with an equal chance to provide insight no matter their job
• Brings individuals’ talents to light through coaching leadership
• Listens when others speak
• Responds with emotional intelligence  
• Takes time to acknowledge and reward participation

While democratic leadership can be one of the most effective leadership styles, it isn’t always a great way to manage time-sensitive decisions. In addition, this approach can potentially create tension between those with differing perspectives and opinions. Regardless of these factors, the pros typically outweigh the cons, resulting in an environment full of dynamic individuals who feel engaged at work.  

Style #3 – Autocratic Leadership 

What is autocratic leadership.

The authoritarian (or autocratic) leadership model requires explicit power over an organization or group. For instance, during the decision-making process, they rarely involve others. Due to high levels of isolated control, authoritarian executives are commonly associated with dictators. While decisiveness is one of the strongest characteristics of authoritarian, bureaucratic leadership, most companies with these leaders need a system of checks and balances that allows for a sustainable workplace.

Although this management style gets a bad rap, “Autocratic or authoritarian leadership is sometimes necessary, especially in situations where rapid, decisive action is required under pressure,” says CEO of Tribe Builder Media, Danielle Sabrina, in an article for Entrepreneur.com . 

Examples of Autocratic Leaders:

• Martha Stewart, Founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia
• Henry Ford, Founder of the Ford Motor Company
• John Chambers, former Executive Chairman and CEO of Cisco Systems
• Shows an aptitude for efficiency and decisiveness
• Favors bureaucratic leadership where they dictate processes, systems, and operations
• Acts as the top commander
• Controls decision making
• Separates themselves from employees
• Struggles to respond positively during personnel challenges
• Less receptive to other’s thoughts, opinions, or ideas
• Expects compliance and respect from those doing their job
• Establishes structure, rules and forms of discipline 

While traits like quick thinking and decision-making benefit companies, working solely within this framework is not an effective long-term way of managing people. “Autocratic leadership only works until it doesn’t work . . . There needs to be a balance between strong leadership, autonomy, and empowerment of employees,” Vivek Wadhwa for Inc.com explains.

With this in mind, incorporating qualities from the other less bureaucratic leadership styles helps instill a sense of balance. Similarly, business owners and CEOs who recognize an inclination toward authoritarianism can keep themselves in check by including diverse leadership styles on their teams.

Style #4 – Transformational Leadership 

What is transformational leadership.

Leaders using the transformational leadership style inspire people through their clear vision. Additionally, they tend to excel in effective communication and focus on instilling purpose in employees and customers alike. Through the words they speak and the example they set, they motivate their team toward being changemakers. Most of all, they are purpose-driven individuals who believe in maximizing positive outcomes in others’ lives. Because they understand they cannot achieve their mission without their employees, they are also experts at developing excellent team cultures with high levels of job satisfaction.

Because of these factors, spiritual leaders such as pastors Steven Furtick, Craig Groeschel, and Andy Stanley serve as great examples. Additionally, co-founders of Ancient Nutrition, Josh Axe and Jordan Rubin serve as transformational leaders who help customers and employees make positive shifts in their lives. For instance, at Ancient Nutrition, there’s an established leadership growth model for all, plus health and lifestyle benefits.

Examples of Transformational Leaders:

• Nelson Mandela, the former President of South Africa
• Malala Yousafzai, founder of the Malala Fund
• Reed Hastings, Co-founder and CEO of Netflix
• Speaks with conviction and charisma
• Describe overarching vision when communicating
• Delivers purpose-driven objectives targeting the company’s mission
• Creates an atmosphere of creativity and innovation at work
• Implements a strong set of organizational values
• Develops work cultures that individuals love being part of
• Helps employees feel confident to experiment, make mistakes and even fail
• Values growth and development
• Encourages team spirit and working together
• Focuses on changing the world

While this type of person inspires organizational change by communicating big-picture ideas, they are typically less skilled with details and processes. Because of this, they often need logistical minds on the team who can carry out the planning and implementation of company objectives.

Additionally, some of the challenges of this style of leadership are personality-based. With generally high levels of extroversion, charisma, and influence, this type of person can potentially lead through unintentional manipulation. These types of leaders can benefit from having an accountability partner or mentor to offer insightful, balanced perspectives.

Style #5 – Transactional Leadership

What is transactional leadership.

Transactional leadership is a results-driven approach that follows a distinct organizational hierarchy. For example, this type of leader views their relationship with their employees as an exchange. Additionally, those practicing this leadership style create clear measures for success and failure. If individuals achieve the goals set by the organization, they are rewarded for a job well done. But if they fail, they will be held accountable for not meeting the determined mark. Out of all the common leadership styles, transactional leadership is most favorable within large-scale companies due to the desire to measure progress and performance.

Examples of Transactional Leaders:

• Bill Gates, Co-founder of Microsoft Corporation
• Vince Lombardi, NFL coach
• Howard Schultz, former CEO of Starbucks
• Holds an upper-level ranking position in the organization
• Creates short-term and long-term performance measures such as KPIs
• Sets goals and delegates tasks
• Communicates with the team about what work needs completion
• Monitors the progress of goal achievement
• Conducts employee reviews
• Provides rewards for hard work such as raises, promotions, time off, and bonuses
• Holds employees accountable for not reaching anticipated results

Transactional executives and managers tend to create work environments that are too rigid. When results are the sole focus, those on the team suffer. For instance, people need a working environment that allows room for mistakes, creativity, and innovation. While business leaders should be concerned with the overall health of the organization, this also includes employees’ well-being. Also, putting too much weight on predetermined measures of success doesn’t leave much room for growth and development.

Those practicing this leadership style can improve by seeking to align employee motivating factors with rewards. Emily Lundberg, marketing manager for Prialto adds in a blog : “Research shows that goal commitment increases when managers ask for employee input. Before launching new performance objectives, have a meeting with your employees where you discuss what you want them to achieve and give them an opportunity to share their ideas.” Including employees in the goal setting and performance measuring process helps people feel empowered, rather than controlled.

Style #6 – Laissez-Faire Leadership

What is laissez-faire leadership.

Laissez-faire, or delegative leadership, is a “hands-off” style that gives individuals freedom and control over their job. In French, the term roughly translates as “let it be.” Because of laissez-faire leaders’ belief in minimal regulation, employees within the company make their own choices with minimal input from the person guiding them. For example, under laissez-faire leadership, workers might decide they don’t need to come in on Fridays as long as they complete their work on time. Due to their choice of limited interference, a laissez-faire leader likely wouldn’t intervene. In essence, this leadership is the opposite of autocratic.  

Examples of Laissez-Faire Leaders:

• Queen Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
• Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway
• Andrew Mellon, former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury
• Grants employees a high level of freedom when working
• Instills a sense of trust into the team
• Encourages problem solving and decision making
• Provides any resources or tools needed
• Limits input and guidance 
• Decreases pressure on work production
• Encourages team to take responsibility for unsuccessful choices and actions

Laissez-faire leadership can be good for those who have employees with a track record of great self-management, but it isn’t suitable for all business models. Furthermore, if the team isn’t full of highly-driven, qualified self-starters, the company will suffer. In fact, some people do not consider laissez-faire as a style of leadership at all.

Style #7 – Charismatic Leadership

What is charismatic leadership.

Those who exhibit this dominant style are driven, influential, and determined to see their life mission come to fruition. As skilled orators with a distinct vision, they inspire the mobilization of efforts toward a collective cause. While very similar to the transformational style, the charismatic style primarily motivates others through emotional connection. Dr. Ronald Riggio for Psychology Today explains, “Charismatic leaders are essentially very skilled communicators . . . They are able to articulate a compelling or captivating vision, and to arouse strong emotions in followers.”

Examples of Charismatic Leaders:

• Martin Luther King, Jr., minister and civil rights activist
• Oprah Winfrey, chairman and CEO of OWN
• Winston Churchill, the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
• Communicates a powerful vision
• Connects to their audience’s emotions when speaking
• Uses storytelling and persuasion when sharing their message
• Creates positive beliefs
• Inspires action
• Focuses on outcomes
• Keeps employees engaged by asking questions
• Listens intently

One drawback of this leadership style is that it can quickly burn out employees. Charismatic executives’ dedication and resolve to their mission will likely never match those being managed. This is why it’s important to keep employee recognition and appreciation at the forefront of interaction with employees. For example, create a system of rewards for achieving short-term and long-term milestones that makes people feel acknowledged for their work. Additionally, launching initiatives in realistic, measured steps also prevents burnout , fatigue, and disengagement.

When emulating charismatic leadership , understand this might be a challenge for those who don’t naturally have this personality trait. Regardless, it is a learned behavior people can develop by having charismatic influences in their lives and educating themselves about it.

Even though Elon Musk’s leadership style is autocratic, he isn’t just a rigid, controlling, one-dimensional leader. He shows other types of leadership, carrying many of the traits of a transformational leader who inspires his team to reach huge goals and change the world. It goes to show, the best leaders are ones who use the top characteristics from all of the common leadership styles.

Understanding the seven leadership styles above helps business owners, executives, and managers recognize their strengths and weaknesses. This can be done through leadership coaching or personal studies—either way, make it a point to learn other ways of leading.

Start expanding your leadership skills today by:

• Writing down a list of areas requiring progress within the company.
• Looking through the bullet points of each of the dominant leadership models.
• Classifying each issue with a leadership style that could help.
• Analyzing any patterns. For example: Are there several problems tagged “transformational leadership” or “delegative leadership”?
• Once realizing where you could improve, make it a point to learn more about these individual types of leadership.
• Finally, practice emulating them with your team.

Want the CEO title like Elon Musk? Find out how to become a CEO .

Interested in learning more about effective leadership? Check out these articles next:

The Difference Between Leadership and Management

What is Leadership, and How is Influence the Answer?

Leadership Qualities: 25 Traits of Effective Leaders

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• Your leadership style: why understanding yourself matters
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• http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0110-2378 Clare Felicity Jane Price-Dowd
• People Directorate , NHS England and Improvement , Leeds , West Yorkshire , UK
• Correspondence to Dr Clare Felicity Jane Price-Dowd, People Directorate, NHS Improvement, Leeds LS1 4HG, West Yorkshire, UK; clare.price-dowd{at}improvement.nhs.uk

Understanding of personal leadership style has been shown to be a key part of effective leadership practice. It has been a topic of interest for many decades as we have tried to understand, and replicate, what makes those considered to be ‘great leaders’ so successful. This article gives a brief introduction to different leadership ‘theories’, leadership ‘styles’ and the effect they have on the ‘climate’ in organisations. Having an understanding of the different approaches can help leaders be more effective through comprehending how and why they do what they do, as well as helping them identify where and when they need to adapt their style. By considering how our understanding of leadership has evolved, it is possible to show how effective leadership is not linked to one approach. It is a combination of knowledge, attitudes and behaviours with a focus on both the task in hand and concern for those undertaking that task. Furthermore this understanding supports impactful personal development, which creates positive climates in organisations where compassionate and inclusive leadership behaviours can, and do result in better outcomes for staff and patients.

• effectiveness
• leadership assessment
• role modeling

https://doi.org/10.1136/leader-2020-000218

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Introduction

Who, when flipping through a publication has not been tempted by the ‘personality quiz’, hoping to get the ‘mostly A, B or C’ that indicates we have the attributes for long and successful careers or lots of friends? While this level of ‘knowing how we are’ could be dismissed as flippant, when it comes to leadership, understanding our personal approach can be invaluable. If you asked people around you ‘what sort of leader do you think you are?’ they would most likely answer in the singular ‘I lead by example,’ ‘I build relationships with people,’ or ‘I don't tolerate underperformance’. They are unlikely to say ‘I do this here, and that on other occasions’ yet the most effective leaders are those who attune to their context, consciously adapt their practice and have an awareness of how their own style effects others. This article introduces the different theories and styles of leadership and how they can be used to create positive work climates. The key terms are given in table 1 .

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Evolution of leadership theory and understanding of style

A desire to understand what makes a successful leader is not new. For centuries there has been debate about what differentiated leaders from non-leaders, and leaders from followers. In a comprehensive review of leadership theories by Stogdill, 1 a number of categories were identified and in the 80+ years since Lewin et al 2 published their theory on patterns of behaviour in 1939, we have seen an evolution from trying to identify ‘common traits’ based on inherent characteristics of ‘great men and women’ through to the what we now understand to be the successful combination of person, place and approach. Looking further into this evolution, although this is not a comprehensive list, it is possible to group the stages of development as follows:

Trait theory—for example as seen in the work of Carlyle 3 and Stodgill 1 is concerned with the type of person that makes a good leader and the innate qualities and associated leadership traits they have. A meta-study by the Centre for Excellence in Management and Leadership 4 identified over 1000 leadership traits in the literature, which they distilled to 83 more or less distinct attributes. While no specific trait or combination was found to guarantee success, trait theory did help in identifying qualities that are helpful when leading others such as integrity and empathy.

Later, behavioural theory identified what good leaders do—effectively how they ‘lead well’. Examples include the Tannenbaum and Schmidt continuum 5 —seven stages of reducing control namely Tells, Sells, Suggests, Consults, Joins, Delegates and Abdicates; the Action-Centred Leadership Model of Adair 6 which sets out the three responsibilities of the leader—‘achieving the task, managing the team and managing individuals’ and the Blake Mouton Managerial Grid 7 also referred to as ‘The Power to Change’ which outlines two behavioural dimensions: Concern for Results and Concern for People.

Situational and contingency theory: looks at the leader in the context of where they lead. By considering how the leader’s success is directly influenced by their environment, it became possible to identify the conditions that support or constrain leaders as seen in work including Feidler 8 Vroom and Yetton 9 Yukl 10 ; Hersey and Blanchard 11 ; Thompson and Vecchio. 12

Transactional theories—as seen in the work of Weber 13 and later by Bass, 14 focuses on the leader getting results by using process and structures while applying reward and penalty in response. Within this are power and influence theory, exchange and path-goal theory by House 15 16 which concentrate on the relationship between leader and led as a series of trades or ‘leader-member exchanges’.

In more recent years, while the transactional and positive view of hero leadership has never entirely gone away, the notion of ‘Hero to Host’ 17 which describes the move to transformational and ‘new wave’ styles outlined by Burns 18 Bass 14 and Kouzes and Posner 19 among others. Transformational leadership not only serves to enhance the motivation, morale, satisfaction and performance of followers, but also sees the leader role model compassionate and inclusive behaviours, which are valued. In ‘Good to Great’ by Collins, 20 the Level 5 leader is described as possessing both indomitable will, but also humility and is often self effacing and shy, the opposite of what we might have previously described as leadership traits!

Relevance for leaders

Every day, leaders in healthcare must constantly analyse complex situations, engage, motivate, empower and delegate. Many leaders now operate within complex adaptive systems—organisations that are an interconnected whole of many parts, which may and may not function effectively together depending on changing circumstances. This calls for leadership skills and behaviours that can move between each required activity with seemingly effortless ease and without loss of effectiveness.

Having an appreciation of different theories and styles also helps us identify our reaction to these changing situations. In considering the global COVID-19 pandemic, the leadership behaviours required, and experienced, may be different to anything encountered before. The effect of leadership in this situation is profound and will have a lasting impact. Displaying command behaviours may be necessary but uncomfortable, while teams may not be used to being directed with minimal consultation. Sustained pressure may have a negative effect, but it does not follow that leadership behaviours slide into being disrespectful or non-inclusive—it is about the leaders focusing on the task and ensuring individuals and teams are clearly instructed on the part they have to play; consulted where possible and informed of when and when they need to do as instructed.

However, knowing about ‘how we are’ is only part of the picture, equally important is understanding the effect we have on other. Goleman 21 found that the one of the biggest mistakes leaders make was to default to a style of personal choice rather than responding with the most appropriate in the situation, while Blanchard 22 suggests that 54% of leaders only ever apply one preferred leadership style regardless of the situation. The result is that almost half of the time, leaders are using the wrong style to meet their current objective or lead the people around them well.

The danger here is trying to be the most popular leader and everyone’s favourite, rather than developing an authentic repertoire of skills. If you have never considered your leadership style or the types of leadership behaviours you have there are a number of tools to help such as the National health Service Healthcare Leadership Model. Based on research of the behaviours of effective leaders, Storey and Holti 23 defined nine domains (Inspiring shared purpose: leading with care: evaluating information: connecting our service: sharing the vision: engaging the team: holding to account: developing capability and influencing for results) against which can leaders can self assess and gain pointers on how to strengthen their style.

Relevance for the work environment

Research by KornFerry Hay Group 24 shows an up to 70% of variance in climate and an up to 30% increase business performance can be directly attributable to the climate leaders create through their style of leadership. This includes feeling included, supported and having a role that is meaningful. To help leaders create a positive climate, Goleman 21 defined six leadership styles—see table 2 —which he then correlated with the type of climate each created for those around them. Those able to deploy the styles in the left column have been shown to create high performing teams in positive climates.

Leadership Styles and the climate they support (adapted from Goleman 21 )

These are not the only leadership styles: others include Autocratic leadership where leaders/managers make the decisions and employees follow orders as previously stated; laissez-faire leadership where the manager empowers employees but gives them few rules to follow with little oversight or direction: bureaucratic leadership where hierarchies and job titles to determine responsibilities and rules and servant leadership which focuses on the needs of employees, seeing them as the organisation’s most important resources and often treating them as clients, but only the six here were included by Goleman.

The effects of the leadership styles displayed and the effects they have on the climate within organisations has far reaching impact for team members. The ability to flex your leadership style and create a positive climate has been shown to create greater job satisfaction and pride in work, greater collaboration and creativity. Having an awareness of the effects of personal style, is therefore an essential part of a leaders toolkit and something every leader should have awareness of

In practice

Delivering health and care is highly complex and effective leadership calls for a match of style and approach to context and presenting challenge. Leadership styles is not a neat category of things, the increasingly interconnected world with ever-evolving technology has dictated a need for leaders who can adapt effortlessly as the situation dictates. Daniel Goleman 21 likens leading to being a golfer—one game but choosing the right club, at the right moment, for the next shot. Lets think about what this could look like: again, thinking about the COVID-19 pandemic the deteriorating clinical condition requires a leader who draws on all their experience, interprets the situation, takes control and ‘tells’ in order to get the best outcome for the patient—transactional and it’s wholly appropriate. At other times, that same leader will need to take time to build relationships and coach others in order to give the best care possible.

We all have a natural tendency towards our preferred style and when under pressure, there is evidence that we ‘revert to type’, relying on the most comfortable part of our personality to see us though. Unfortunately this means using fewer of the leadership skills that usually provide balance. Skilful, mature leadership is about leading ourselves as much as leading others. This level of understanding our style helps us recognise triggers that support adopting the right style for the given situation.

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Different situations require different leadership style and each style can be considered a tool in itself. How we lead needs to be a combination of concern for the task in hand and also the people undertaking it, as both individuals and collectively as teams. We have looked briefly at small number of the plethora theories and styles that can help us understand how we lead. Leaders who understand themselves and can move effortlessly between a range of styles in response to changing situations have been found to have more positive outcomes for their teams and patients.

• Stogdill RM
• Lippitt R ,
• Carlyle T ,
• Tannenbaum R ,
• Blanchard K
• Thompson G ,
• Wheatley M ,
• KornFerry Hay Group
• Newstrom JW ,
• Griffin MA ,

Twitter @clarepricedowd

Contributors CFJP-D completed all part of this paper:

Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

Competing interests None declared.

Patient consent for publication Not required.

Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

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Business Advisor

How to Make Different Business Leadership Styles Work (With Case Studies)

Several thought leaders have referred to 2020 as the year of great reset. But if you want to be really strict about it, most of the biggest business shifts started way back at the onset of the 21st century. 

Traditional business leaders who are banking on traditional business leadership styles in this new century needlessly risk losing their businesses to unhealthy age-old leadership practices.

The pandemic just helped reiterate the need for business leaders to change the way they approach business problems primarily due to the following reasons:

• New technologies
• Pace of change
• Changing demographics and employee expectations
• Changing customer expectations

The chart below gives you a better glimpse of the reasons why there is a difference in the requirements for the kind of leaders we need to have in this era. The data depicted is from Deloitte’s Human Capital Trends Survey .

What are these particular requirements? According to the same study by Deloitte, business leaders need to have the following abilities:

• lead through more complexity and ambiguity
• lead through influence
• manage on a remote basis
• manage a workforce with a combination of humans and machines
• lead more quickly

See this second figure below.

According to Forbes , there are three notable leadership skill shifts for 2021 and these are the following:

• Communication to Empathy 
• Emotional Intelligence to Emotional Agility 
• Time Management to Context Management

Leaders are expected to be effective communicators, but the shift is now focused on empathy as a priority for business leaders this year. The Management Research Group found empathy to be the leading positive leadership competency and one of the biggest predictors of senior executive effectiveness . This makes a lot of sense especially now that the recent challenges brought about by the pandemic have highlighted the value of caring while communicating.

Emotional intelligence to emotional agility is another important shift. Susan David , a psychologist and the author of the book “Emotional Agility: Get Unstuck, Embrace Change, and Thrive in Work and Life” describes emotionally agile people be the type of people who are not only aware of their feelings but also know how to navigate through them.

Now the shift from time management to context management gives emphasis on how the change in the context of how and where we work requires realignment in managing our time and designing our days around how we work. 

While there are several leadership styles and the specific strategies vary depending on the field or industry, the concepts are basically the same. Let’s take note of these leadership skill shifts mentioned earlier in studying how we can better tailor the different leadership styles to suit the changing times. 

The following are six of the different leadership styles we will tackle further:

• Autocratic Leadership Style
• Democratic Leadership Style
• Laissez-Faire Leadership Style
• Situational leadership style
• Transactional Leadership Style
• Transformational Leadership Style

First off, let’s start with the traditional business leadership styles.

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1. autocratic leadership style.

Case Study: Howell Raines of The New York Times

The New York Times under Howell Raines as the Executive Editor decided at one point to only put resources on the stories that he deemed as worth covering. While this led to The New York Times winning a record-breaking seven Pulitzer awards in a single year, several staff members got demoralized.

There is no known theorist behind autocratic leadership so it is considered as an organic leadership style that has developed over the course of time that it has been used. 

Basically, an autocratic leader is the type of leader who would make decisions without proper consultation. You may think that this leadership style is unacceptable for who decides on his own especially if the decision concerns an entire organization, right? 

But, Cleverism articulates three situations where the autocratic leadership style can be used and these are the following:

• The situation requires fast and immediate decision-making
• There is no clarity in the process of the procedure and pushing ahead might only lead people to danger
• There are more inexperienced people in the group and most of them are demotivated

The tendency of most businesses with an autocratic leader is that the subordinates will become passive and mediocre, or conflicts may arise.

In these situations where a business leader must step up and use the autocratic leadership style, it is important to take note of communicating openly and regarding others with respect the entire time.

2. Democratic Leadership Style

Case Study: Sergey Brin and Larry Page of Google

Founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page hired Eric Schmidt to jump-start the Internet search engine. Blending autocratic, laissez-faire and democratic leadership styles, they allowed someone knowledgeable and experienced into Google which would then lead to more democratic teams composed of experienced talent. 

Also known as the participative leadership style, the democratic leadership style in business management is often characterized as the style that encourages collaboration with fellow leaders and team members. In other words, everyone is allowed to participate in the decision-making process. 

While this style of leadership is very motivating for most people as compared to the autocratic leadership style, it works best for businesses that employ experts in their departments so little supervision is required. 

According to St. Thomas University , the following organizations can take advantage of this:

• Biotech R&D divisions
• Housing construction sites
• Universities
• Information technology companies

Furthermore, the university lists the following as the disadvantages of this leadership style:

• Business leaders may become too dependent on their subordinates
• Getting everyone’s input may take a lot of time 
• Missed deadlines are possible 
• Consulting with people who lack accurate data or sufficient knowledge
• Too much burden for business leaders to oversee collaboration

The democratic leadership style can bring forth massive business growth if business leaders are willing to take responsibility for the decisions made and provide support and expertise during collaborations.

Such requires highly productive leaders who know what they do and will take action.

3. Laissez-Faire Leadership Style

Case Study: Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway

Warren Buffett is known for exemplifying the laissez-faire leadership style as he allows people he works with to do their jobs without his supervision or intervention. His great success over several years has been attributed to his style of leadership which allows a culture of motivation and confidence. He, however, sees to it that he only hires people he can trust to do their jobs.

The laissez-faire leadership style emerged from the French word laissez-faire which means “leave alone”. Also called the hands-off approach, this style is based on the concept that leaders can leave their employees or teams alone in coming up with ideas or decisions for the business departments they are part of. 

This used to be a very popular style before the 19th century, but as modernization started, more and more business leaders find the disadvantages of leading teams with no supervision to be detrimental. This is particularly possible for companies that lack expert talent.

What business leaders who employ this leadership style should note is that assuming that subordinates must be free from accountability. This only encourages the company’s people to be complacent.

The business leader must ensure that teams are composed of highly-skilled individuals who can be reliable in achieving business goals under their responsibility.

At this point, we’ve already discussed the three leadership styles that can be highly traditional unless approached with a fresh perspective that takes into account the new leadership needs and skill shifts.

How these three business leadership styles work is illustrated below.

Which leadership style can you resonate with the most?

We now have what we call modern leadership styles or approaches. These styles have emerged as a response to the traditional styles that do not allow much room for innovation. 

Although most of these new approaches are modified versions of the traditional leadership styles, they are identified mainly based on the following types of categories:

• Situational leadership
• Transactional leadership
• Transformational leadership
• Innovative leadership

4. Situational Leadership Style 

This leadership style follows the contingency-based leadership model when responding to situations or making decisions. Business leaders who employ this style are flexible and would normally use varying leadership strategies depending on the situation.

Goleman believes that a situational leader must be able to incorporate the six specific leadership styles given the right circumstances.

5. Transactional Leadership Style

Also known as managerial leadership, transactional leadership is a style that focuses on supervision, organization, and group performance.

Business leaders under this style use rewards and punishments to motivate subordinates in a given task.

According to Verywell Mind , the basic assumptions of transactional leadership are the following:

• When the chain of command is clear, your workforce performs their best
• Rewards and punishments are effective agents of motivation
• Obeying the leader is the most important goal of the subordinates
• Careful monitoring is a must

When giving assignments, the business leader must be clear when it comes to the instructions, rewards and consequences, as well as giving feedback. 

6. Transformational Leadership Style

Business leaders who subscribe to the transformational leadership style serve as inspirations to their subordinates.

They inspire as they lead by example and as they cultivate an environment that welcomes creativity and innovation. This suits employees who have entrepreneurial minds as transformational business leaders seek to inspire just the right amount of intellectual independence in the workplace.

In a roundup article, Harvard Business Review lists the following as the best examples of transformational leadership:

• Jeff Bezos , Amazon
• Reed Hastings , Netflix
• Jeff Boyd and Glenn Fogel , Priceline
• Steve Jobs and Tim Cook , Apple
• Mark Bertolini , Aetna
• Kent Thiry , DaVita
• Satya Nadella , Microsoft
• Emmanuel Faber , Danone
• Heinrich Hiesinger , ThyssenKrupp

The Harvard Business Review refers to this group as the Transformation 10 for exemplifying transformational leadership.

Strengthening Your Leadership Mindset

About 60% of the executives who participated in the 2021 Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends said that what prepared them for the unknown is leadership . This is the kind of leadership that takes into account the unpredictable and incorporates strategies surrounding that through coaching, teaming, and fostering.

But did you know that based on the research of the Corporate Executive Board , about 50%-70% of the new business executives or leaders fail within the first 18 months? Unless you have the right leadership mindset and you solidify that mindset, you will become part of this figure. 

Whenever a major business problem happens, you can either succumb to the pressure and give up, or find a solution to the problem . The most successful business leaders try their hardest to never give up.

Most business leaders would rather grind than get back to their regular jobs of 9-to-5.

In 1519, a Spanish explorer and conquistador Hernán Cortés pursued the treasures of the Aztecs with 11 ships and a crew of 100 sailors and 500 soldiers. His army was vastly outnumbered and some soldiers tried to escape. Cortés gave the order to burn the ships and left no choice but to fight until their last breath.

That wasn’t the end for everyone. Part of the army survived and they got a hold of the treasure.

At first, calmness is a myth. People are emotional by nature and react to any deviations from their plans. With time, those who choose to be in the captain’s spot until the end see problems that have to be solved and suppress the emotional part that is dragging them down.

The role of a business leader isn’t easy in the first place. Constant changes and surprises are not abnormal and at some point, they become a daily routine.

Plenty of problems appear to be critical, but in the end, they should be solved. You don’t run away from them. You step up as a business leader and inspire your teams to follow through.

The most effective leadership style for business is the leadership that inspires.

If being a business leader of a successful company is among your highest priorities, work on your leadership know-how, develop your management soft skills , and make it work for your people.

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83 Leadership Activities, Building Games, and Exercises

Leadership activities are associated with benefits to business, including increased performance and productivity.

However, perhaps the sign of a truly successful leader is a happy, healthy workplace. Interested in what leadership activities can do for your workplace or school? Read on.

With the activities below, there may be some overlap with activities found under certain headings – for example, activities suitable for adults may also be useful for groups, or with employees.

Before you continue, we thought you might like to download our three Positive Leadership Exercises for free . These detailed, science-based exercises will help you or others adopt positive leadership practices and help organizations thrive.

This Article Contains:

What are leadership activities, what are they used for, 8 examples of leadership activities, 4 leadership workshop ideas, 2 activities that showcase different leadership styles, 3 situational leadership activities and scenarios, 8 games and activities for kids to learn leadership skills, 6 leadership development activities for teens and youth (pdf), 3 classroom leadership activities for students in elementary and middle school, 6 leadership activities and games for high school students, 3 activities and exercises for college students (pdf), 7 leadership games and activities for adults, 5 leadership group and team activities, 8 leadership training activities for employees, 5 leadership building exercises for managers, 11 leadership exercises for team building in the workplace, a take-home message.

Increasingly, people are assuming positions of leadership in the workplace (Cserti, 2018). However, the journey to becoming a leader is lengthy (Cserti, 2018). Leadership activities are valuable on the journey to becoming an effective leader , and also develop confidence in leadership teams (Cserti, 2018; Stepshift, 2016).

Leadership activities may be conducted on or off site, and be physical or sedentary (Stepshift, 2016). Leadership activities can either be performed by a leader in their own team, or with an external facilitator (Cserti, 2018). They may take the form of specially organized themed events, such as scavenger hunts (Stepshift, 2016). Or, they may be smaller, office-based tasks built into an ordinary workday.

For example, leadership activities could consist of meeting openers or conference break activities (Stepshift, 2016).

Leadership activities can be an effective way for individuals to practice and strengthen their leadership and team-building skills (Cserti, 2018). They can also be fun!

The structure of leadership activities is essential. It is important that the participants can relate the activity to the workplace setting (Stepshift, 2016).

The working style, principles, and values of a leader is a crucial aspect in determining the behavior within an organization (Cserti, 2018). Leadership training can help leaders become role-models (Cserti, 2018). The behavior of leaders and what they consider the “norm” determines which behaviors are enforced and those which are punished (Cserti, 2018).

Given the importance of a leader’s behavior, it is also essential that they learn skills, such as:

Communication

Leaders need to develop the ability to clearly, succinctly explain to employees everything from the goals of a company to the details of specific work-tasks (Doyle, 2019). Many components are important for effective communication , including active listening, reading body language and written communication such as emails (Doyle, 2019).

Leaders need to inspire employees. They may do this by increasing worker’s self-esteem , by recognizing effort and achievement, or by giving a worker new responsibilities to further their investment in the business (Doyle, 2019).

Leaders can achieve this by identifying the skills that workers have, and as such assign tasks to each worker based on the skills they have (Doyle, 2019).

Being positive helps develop a happy , healthy work environment, even when the workplace is busy or stressful (Doyle, 2019).

Trustworthiness

By demonstrating integrity , workers will feel at ease to approach their leader with questions or concerns (Doyle, 2019). Building trust is one of the most essential leadership skills.

Good leaders are willing to try novel solutions or to approach problems in a non-traditional way (Doyle, 2019).

Leaders are constantly on the lookout for opportunities to provide team members with information about their performance, without ‘micromanaging’ their work (Doyle, 2019).

Responsibility

A good leader accepts mistakes or failures and instead look for solutions for improvement of a situation (Doyle, 2019). This skill also includes being reflective and being open to feedback (Doyle, 2019).

A leader should strive to follow through with everything that they agree to do (Doyle, 2019). It also involves applying appropriate feedback and keeping promises (Doyle, 2019).

Flexibility

Leaders need to be able to accept changes and creatively problem-solve, as well as being open to suggestions and feedback (Doyle, 2019).

While these skills are explained in a workplace context, they can easily be applied to other leadership situations such as sports or community groups.

Now that you have more clarity as to what leadership activities are, and what they are used for, let us look at a wide selection of activities. While some of the activities and games may not immediately appear to be ‘leadership activities,’ the chosen activities might develop and promote the leadership skills outlined above.

Here are eight such activities:

• Sports Sports provide the experience of being a team member and developing leadership skills (Flavin, 2018).
• Cross-cultural experience Experiences with a different culture provide new, potentially uncomfortable situations and help develop communication skills that may not be learned elsewhere (Flavin, 2018). Overseas travel, or working with a different cultural group within your community can provide an opportunity to learn new skills, or may involve barriers that must be overcome – all teaching leadership (Flavin, 2018).
• Social groups Involvement in social activities helps potential leaders develop a well-rounded, confident personality which enhances their capacity to lead a team (Flavin, 2018).
• Internships Taking an internship position demonstrates initiative in finding opportunities to learn and seeking practical work – valuable skills in leadership (Flavin, 2018).
• Volunteering As well as showing ambition, volunteering shows that you are willing to commit yourself to something that you are passionate about (Flavin, 2018).
• Student government and organizations Specifically considering students, being involved in co-curricular organizations help individuals develop leadership (Flavin, 2018). Being involved in student government or organizations can provide opportunities to demonstrate leadership and have an impact on those around you (Flavin, 2018).
• ‘Passion projects’ Showing commitment to a passion for better communities; for example, mentoring shows that you are likely to focus on the greater good for a team (Flavin, 2018).
• ‘Teamwork’ This can be anything at all, from helping out with planning a family event or participating in a volunteer day, will demonstrate and develop leadership skills (Flavin, 2018).

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Effective leaders are aware that continuing professional and personal development is the key to ongoing success (Higgins, 2018). As such, they recognize that leadership workshops are important (Higgins, 2018). What activities can be used in such a workshop?

Here are four suggestions:

Idea 1: ‘Tallest Tower’ (from Stepshift, 2016)

Participants are provided with everyday items such as toothpicks, wooden blocks, uncooked pasta and so on. The task is to build the tallest possible free-standing structure from the materials provided. This activity is designed to encourage creative problem-solving and developing collaboration skills.

Idea 2: ‘Centre Stage’ (from Higgins, 2018)

Select four team members as volunteers. One team member plays the role of an employee who has missed meetings or been late to work in recent times. Each of the other three participants demonstrates a different style of leader (to save time, nominate the particular personality trait). Ask all participants to form a circle, and put two chairs in the middle of the circle.

After each demonstration of how to deal with the employee, ask the whole group to reflect on the different leadership approaches. For example, the group could consider what worked and what did not. Finally, to conclude this activity, ask the group to consider what the ‘ideal’ leader would do in the scenario.

Idea 3: ‘Minefield’ (from Stepshift, 2016)

This activity helps build trust and improve communication skills. It involves participants working in pairs, with one team member being blindfolded. Then, using only specified communication techniques, the pair negotiate their way around or over a ‘minefield’ of obstacles.

So, for example, the participants may be told they are only able to use commands such as the words ‘left’ or ‘right,’ ‘forwards’ or ‘backwards.’ The aim is to help the blindfolded team member to navigate the ‘minefield’.

Idea 4: ‘Magic Carpet’ (from Higgins, 2018)

Provide a small tarp or rug, which has enough room for all workshop participants to stand within its boundaries. Then, inform the group that their task is to work together to flip the rug or tarp over without any participant stepping off. If (or when) a participant steps off the teams have discussed all of the paragraphs or tarp, the team must begin again.

These are: autocratic (also known as authoritarian), delegative (also called ‘free reign)’ and democratic (which is also called participative) (Clark, 2015; Johnson-Gerard, 2017).

An autocratic leader makes decisions without first consulting others, while a delegative leader allows the staff to make the decisions (Johnson-Gerard, 2017). Finally, a democratic leader consults with the staff in making workplace decisions (Johnson-Gerard, 2017).

Here is an excellent resource for exploring different leadership styles.

The workbook also provides some helpful worksheets.

The following two activities help participants think more deeply about styles of leadership. The group should be divided into small groups of 3 – 4 participants. The participants work in groups for the first activity, and then they work individually on the second activity.

Activity One (Clark, 2015)

Provide a list of approximately 10 – 12 scenarios displaying the three different leadership styles. For example, “a new supervisor has just been put in charge of the production line. He immediately starts by telling the crew what change needs to be made. When some suggestions are made, he tells them he does not have time to consider them”.

The group then works together to figure out which leadership style is used in each scenario and to talk about whether it is effective, or if a different style could work better.

Encourage participants to think about themselves in a similar situation and their reaction to the particular leadership style.

Activity Two (Clark, 2015)

Provide participants with the statement ‘consider a time when you, or another leader, used the authoritarian (autocratic), participative (democratic) or delegative (free reign) style of leadership’.

Ask participants to reflect on the statement and make a few comments, such as: was it effective? Would a different leadership style have worked better? What were the employees’ experiences? Did they learn from the leadership style? What was it they learned? Which style is easiest to use (and why)? Alternatively, nominate the style which the participant prefers (and why).

To conclude these two activities, come together as a whole group and discuss what was learned about the three styles of leadership.

Leadership building activities – Project management training – ProjectManager

Situational leadership is when a leader is flexible in their approach and uses different leadership strategies depending on the situation (Johnson-Gerard, 2017). The following three games, from Johnson-Gerard (2017) provide an opportunity to explore situational leadership:

1. ‘Jumping Ship’

The aim of this game is for participants to reflect upon different leadership styles and come up with a list of actual workplace scenarios which would need a leader to abandon a natural leadership style for one that is more effective (i.e., to ‘jump ship’).

Each group is given three large pieces of paper. Ask the teams to write one style of leadership on each (i.e., autocratic, delegative, democratic). Then, allow the groups 45 minutes to come up with real work situations for which employing the particular leadership style would be disastrous.

Ask the groups to place the sheets of paper up on the wall, and to discuss the sheets as a team. As a whole group, review the posters.

2. ‘Who Ya Gonna Call’

Each participant begins by writing a one-paragraph description of a work situation that is not going well. Collect these, and at the top of each page, number them in consecutive order. Then, divide the participants into two teams.

Give each team half of the paragraphs. Then, ask the teams to choose the style of leadership that would be the least and the most effective in solving the problem. Have the teams note their answers on a piece of paper, being sure to identify the paragraph number on the top of each page, and their choices.

Then, ask the teams to swap paragraphs and repeat the activity.

When the teams have discussed all the paragraphs, discuss the scenarios and review the choices as a group. Where the team’s choices are different, discuss as a group.

3. ‘Ducks in a Row’

This particular activity enables participants to devise a 3-to-5 step decision-making process they can use when challenging leadership situations occur.

Ask participants to form pairs. Then, ask them to come up with the steps that an effective leader goes through in order to work out how to manage a difficult situation. After about 30 minutes, ask each pair to review the steps they have come up with for the group, and to write them on a large piece of paper.

Ask every pair to review their process, and after all the pairs have done so, have a group discussion that enables a consensus to be reached about the three to five most effective steps to take in a difficult leadership situation.

Edsys (2016) provides eight suggested activities for children to learn leadership skills:

1. ‘Create a New You’

Provide children with materials such as textas, crayons, poster/construction paper, magazines, and scissors. Then, ask them to draw themselves, using things that clearly show that the picture is theirs – such as using cut-outs of their most favorite things to do, foods they like, pets, and whatever else makes them unique.

Once the children have finished their posters, they can show their completed work to the other children – helping kids to improve their confidence to lead.

2. ‘Same or Different’

The children sit in a circle. Ask the first child to point to another child in the circle who is similar to them, either in appearance, hair-style or clothing color. Then, when the child has chosen someone, ask them to note other differences and similarities they have with the child they have chosen.

3. ‘Move the Egg’

Ask children to form groups of four or five. Then, have the children select a leader for their team. Each participant is given a spoon and an egg. The leader has the task of finding an effective way to move the eggs from one point to another. For example, one option may be for children to form a line to pass each egg along.

Another leader may suggest forgetting about the spoons altogether and merely tell their group to make a run for it. The winner of the game is the group that can get their egg safely across the finish in the most creative way.

4. ‘Lead the Blindfolded’

This game requires a large indoor or outdoor area. Divide the children into two groups and give them enough blindfolds for everyone except one member to put on. The teams are placed at opposite sides of the space. The child who is not blindfolded is required to lead their team to the other side of the designated space, using clear commands.

Ensure that each member of the team has an opportunity to lead their team. The winner is the team that sees its members successfully cross the finish line.

5. ‘Charity Support’

Help children support a charity by organizing a fundraiser. Each child can have a different task. For example, one child may select the charity, another may find a suitable space to hold the fundraising activity, and another child can collect donations.

6. ‘Planning Strategies’

Teach children to divide a large task into smaller steps. Set the children a large task, such as holding a class function. Show the children a plan that enables them to achieve the task step by step. This activity can involve a number of children sharing tasks. Suggest to the children how they may be able to improve.

7. ‘Volunteer Roles’

Volunteering plays a role in leadership. Discuss with children how they would like to help someone in need. Older children may be interested in taking a role in an organization in their community. The children should be helped to select a volunteer opportunity that gives them a chance to practice leadership and work with other children.

8. ‘A Quick Quiz’

In this task, ask students to be prepared to evaluate an experience when it is over. Then, after the experience, ask the child questions. For example, inquire “Do you remember the name of the dog we saw?”, “What was it?”, “Did you touch the dog?”, “What is the owner’s name?” and so on.

This is an excellent introduction to leadership for kids in grades 4 – 6 (children aged approximately 9 – 12 years).

The following resources are appropriate for helping teens and youth to develop leadership:

1. “Leaders are, can, and think”

This looks at what a leader is, and what their role can and should be.

2. “Who do you admire and why?”

This worksheet examines leadership role models and the qualities we see in them that we want to develop in ourselves.

3. “4 Ways leaders approach tasks: Leaders Motivation”

This handout focuses on leadership attitude.

4. “Lesson Planet”

Links to 45+ reviewed resources for teen leadership which can be accessed free by registering your details.

5. The Women’s Learning Partnership

This partnership has created a comprehensive manual for promoting leadership for teens aged 13 – 17 years. The manual outlines a number of sessions which guide leadership development activities.

6. “I Care Values Activity”

This is a fun, engaging and introspective activity . It is suitable for students aged 13 and upwards, so it can be used with older students or adults too.

Examples of such activities are:

1. ‘Just Listen’ (Edsys, 2016)

Make an agreement that you and the student(s) will refrain from talking about yourselves for a whole day. Ask them, rather, to listen to others, and if they do talk to another person, it should be about the person whom they are talking to. This game helps children to learn how important it is to focus on other people rather than themselves, which forms the basis of ‘relational leadership’.

2. Silence Classroom Leadership Game (Stapleton, 2018).

To begin the activity, the teacher divides students into two teams, and the teams move to either side of the classroom. The desks may be pushed aside to create more space. The teacher instructs the students to, for example, ‘line up according to the first letter of your surname’ or ‘arrange yourselves into age order by the month your birthday is in’. The students then follow the directions without speaking a word to one another.

Students are permitted to use hand signals, or even write instructions down on paper. The teacher’s instruction to the students is that they are not allowed to talk. The winning team is the one that completes the task successfully.

3. ‘The Cup Game’ (Tony, 2018)

Divide students into pairs and select one student to be the leader. Each team should face each other standing up, with a plastic cup in the middle. The leader calls out simple directions, such as ‘touch your knee’, ‘close one eye’ and so on.

When the leader calls out “cup” the students should try and be the first to grab the cup. The player who successfully grabs the cup should pair up with another player who also got the cup. Those without a cup sit down and watch.

Once the new teams of two have formed, the cup is put in between the players and the game begins again. This process continues until only one person is left standing – and the resulting winner becomes the new leader… and play can begin all over again.

By high school, students are more sophisticated. Here are some interesting activities for high school students to develop leadership.

1. Brainstorming for change (Stapleton, 2018)

The teacher puts students into groups of 4 or 5. The goal is for students to come up with possible solutions to social, political or economic problems. Working together, students brainstorm both small- and large-scale solutions to a given problem topic.

Once the groups have finalized their list of detailed solutions, the teacher facilitates a discussion with the whole class, and together they examine which of the identified solutions could be a viable option and why.

2. Leadership characteristics (Stapleton, 2018)

The teacher puts students into pairs or groups of three. Then, each group member shares a story about someone whom they consider to be an influential leader. After each story has been shared, students discuss the characteristics that they think made the person in the story an effective leader.

Once each student has shared a story, students compile a list of all the characteristics of an influential leader they identified. Post these characteristics on the walls around the classroom.

3. Blindfold leader game (Stapleton, 2018)

The teacher arranges the students into a single line, and comes up with a starting point and finishing point. Then, the teacher places a blindfold on every student except for the student who is at the front of the line.

The teacher tells each student to put their left hand on the left shoulder of the person in front of them. Next, the teacher says “go”. The aim is for the leader (who is not blindfolded) to walk towards the finishing point, providing instructions to students behind, who are blindfolded.

An extra challenging game sees the teacher putting obstacles in the path – the leader must direct followers on how to avoid the obstacles and successfully reach the finish line. When this goal is achieved, a different student takes a turn of being the leader.

4. Buckets and balls (Cohen, 2017)

This game aims to move all the balls from one box to another. The catch is, team members cannot use their hands or arms. In equal-sized teams, players choose one ‘handler’ per team. This is the only person who can touch the balls with their hands.

The handler must remain behind the start line throughout the game. Team members attempt to get balls from their bucket at the finish line, and get them to the team’s handler without the ball touching their hands or arms.

The handler places the balls into the empty bucket at the start line. If a team member touches the ball, they are disqualified and can no longer participate. Give teams a 5-minute time limit. All teams play at the same time, and the team that has the most balls in the handler’s bucket at the end of the game wins.

5. Team jigsaw (Cohen, 2017)

Two teams have to complete a jigsaw puzzle within a 20 – 30-minute time limit. Give each team a box containing a puzzle. At first, A body will assume that their task is to complete the puzzle. As they work on it, however, teams will realize that the puzzle is missing some of its pieces and has some additional pieces that do not fit their puzzle.

Teams then have the task to communicate with one another, and they will eventually realize that they need to work together to complete the puzzle. Teams are only allowed to exchange pieces of the puzzle one at a time.

6. ‘Sneak-a-peak’ (Cohen, 2017)

Divide participants into two teams. Build a structure out of Lego. Make it complicated, but able to be replicated. Ensure that there is sufficient Lego left to build two similar copies of the structure.

Make sure that this structure is kept out of eyesight.

A player from each team is allowed to see the structure for 10 seconds. Then, the players will return to their respective teams and have 25 seconds in which to give his/her team instruction as to how to build the structure. Then, the teams have 1 minute to build the structure.

When that minute is up, another team member takes a look at the structure for 10 seconds and has a further 25 seconds to deliver their instructions to their team.

This process continues until all the team members have had a chance to examine the structure and provide instructions. The team that successfully built the structure is the winner.

• “ The Leadership Training Activity Book ” by Lois. B. Hart and Charlotte S. Waisman (2005) contains 50 handouts for leadership activities that would be suitable for college students. Find it on Amazon .
• This resource provides helpful leadership tip sheets that are suitable for college students. Examples of tip sheets are “ten keys to effective listening” and “basic confrontation guidelines”.
• Another valuable resource that can be used to develop team-building – an aspect of leadership.

A wide range of leadership activities are suitable for adults:

1. The Marshmallow Challenge

In this activity , teams use spaghetti sticks, tape and string to construct the tallest free-standing structure. They are given one marshmallow, which must be placed at the top of the structure. Devised by Tom Wujec.

2. ‘Stand up’ (Landau, 2018)

This game is convenient in that it requires no materials. It involves two people. They sit on the floor, facing one another. They hold hands, and the soles of their feet are placed together. Then, the task is for both people to stand up at the same time. This game builds trust and teamwork, and also develops skills in problem solving and collaboration.

3. Zoom (Stepshift, 2016)

A set of randomly provided sequential pictures are given to the participants. The task requires participants to put the pictures in the correct order to recreate the story, without knowing which pictures the other participants have. This activity can be an effective way to improve communication, patience, and tolerance.

4. ‘You’re a Poet’ (Landau, 2018)

To harness creativity and reflect on leadership concepts, one activity for adults is to write a poem. This activity can be done individually or in small groups. The aim is to consider leadership in creative ways to find new perspectives.

5. ‘Leadership Pizza’ (Cserti, 2018)

This activity can help adults develop leadership. It does so by providing a self-assessment tool. People begin by identifying the skills, attitudes, and attributes that they consider being important for successful leadership. The individual then rates their own development in the defined areas. The framework can also provide a helpful tool in assisting adults in identifying their leadership development goals in a coaching session.

6. Leadership advice from your role model (Cserti, 2018)

Each participant considers a role model who they admire. They then think about a young person they know. If the young person was to ask the role model for leadership advice, what kind of advice would the role model give?

In groups, discuss and share the sort of advice identified and talk about contradicting points and how they can be reconciled. This sharing discussion may be a practical introduction to the idea of situational leadership.

7. ‘Crocodile River’ (Cserti, 2018)

This outdoor activity challenges a group to physically provide support to the group members’ behavior move from one end of a designated space to the other.

Participants are told to pretend that the whole team must cross a wide river which contains dangerous crocodiles. Magic stones (which are represented by wooden planks) provide the only supports to be used to cross the river (which has ‘banks’ that are marked out by two ropes).

These ‘stones’ only float on the water if there is constant body contact. These ‘stones’ (i.e., the wooden planks) are placed next to the ‘river bank’ – there should be one less plank than the total number of participants. As part of the game, if a participant’s hand or foot touches the ‘water’, it will be bitten off (if this happens during the challenge, the participant must hold the hand behind their back).

The facilitator then pretends to be the ‘crocodile’, keeping a close eye on the group as they attempt to cross the river. When one of the stones (the planks) is not in body contact, it is removed. When participants mistakenly touch the ground with their hands or feet, tell them that the limb has therefore been bitten off and the player must continue without using it.

This activity continues until the group succeeds in getting all group members to the other side of the ‘river’. If anyone falls in, the group is deemed to have failed, and they must begin the river crossing attempt again.

1. ‘Feedback: Start, Stop, Continue’ (Cserti, 2018)

Openness creates trust, which then promotes further openness. This activity is designed to be used by a group that has spent sufficient time together in order to have a range of shared experiences they can draw from when they are providing feedback.

Each participant takes a post-it and writes the name of the person who they are addressing on it. Then, they write on the post-it:

“To…. Something I would like you to START doing is…. something I would like you to STOP doing is…. something I would like you to CONTINUE doing is……Signed: ___________”

In groups of around 4 to 6 people, participants complete these sentences on one post-it for the other participants in their group.

If they cannot think of relevant feedback for one of the prompts (i.e., start, stop, continue), they do not need to include it. Once the group has finished writing, they provide the feedback verbally, one at a time, and afterward hand the post-it to the relevant person.

2. Round Tables (Stepshift, 2016)

Four tables are set up with different tasks. Each task has separate steps that participants can be responsible for carrying out. The group select a team member, who is only allowed to communicate and delegate tasks but not take a part in the task. Each table is timed to record how long the task takes to be completed. Round Tables improves leadership and delegation skills.

3. ‘Pass the hoop’ (Landau, 2018)

This game requires participants to stand in a circle and hold hands. One person in the group has a hula hoop around their arm. The game aims to pass the hula hoop the whole way around the circle.

As well as promoting teamwork and problem-solving, this game develops communication skills. Being able to communicate effectively is a crucial skill for any successful leader to have.

4. ‘Improv night’ (Landau, 2018)

One key responsibility of the leader of a team is to encourage team bonding. One way to facilitate bonding is improvisation. ‘Improv’ develops skills in communication – helping teams to listen and pay attention. It also builds self-awareness, self-confidence, and creativity.

Arrange the group into ‘audience’ and ‘performers’. Then, members of the audience take turns in calling out the specified location, profession, and scenario (e.g., coffeehouse, cop, and purchasing a donut). Chosen suggestions are fun and should promote creativity.

5. ‘Shape-Shifting’ (Landau, 2018)

This game requires a rope that is tied at both ends to form a loop. The loop needs to be big enough for all group members to hold onto with both hands as they stand in a circle. The group is instructed to make a chosen shape (e.g., circle, square, triangle). The group attempts to create the shape on the floor.

Progressively, ask the group to make more complex shapes – e.g., a dog, or a tree. To add another layer of difficulty, instruct the team to communicate without talking – i.e., to rely on hand gestures. Afterward, have the group reflect on their experience and discuss the importance of communication.

Leadership is an integral feature of any workplace. Here are some activities to promote leadership in employees:

1. Your favorite manager (Cserti, 2018)

To begin this activity, employees individually take the role of three different people and brainstorm the particular behaviors that each person’s most favorite and least favorite managers demonstrate, from the chosen person’s perspective. After the employees have had the chance to reflect, the participants compare their list of behaviors – in pairs, and then subsequently, in groups.

The teams then prepare a list of ‘dos and don’ts’ for developing better employee perceptions of the leader’s style.

2. Explore your values (Cserti, 2018)

The values of a leader are reflected in their organization. In this activity, each participant writes ten things that they value most in their lives, each one on a post-it. Then, ask the employees to spread the Post-its in a way in which they can see them all clearly. Then, explain to them that they will have 30 seconds to select the three Post-its that are of least importance to them.

It is essential to time strictly, so that the participants rely on their gut feelings.

Repeat the process, this time allowing participants to have 20 seconds to discard two more values. Finally, give the participants a further 20 seconds to throw another two away. Participants should have three Post-its in front of them, showing their top three important values.

Following the activity, have participants reflect individually for about 15 minutes about what was found, and then to discuss reflection questions in pairs or groups of three.

Because this activity is done quickly, participants are encouraged to follow their own intuition – rather than over-thinking and finding what they perceive to be the ‘right’ values.

3. ‘Leadership Coat of Arms’ (Cserti, 2018; Landau, 2018).

Each leader has their own values and the things that they consider valuable and important. These values guide the behavior of the leader and make up a person’s unique leadership philosophy.

This activity sees participants drawing their own ‘leadership coat of arms’ embodying their leadership philosophy.

Individuals have 10 – 15 minutes to draw their coat of arms. They can divide the coat of arms (or ‘crest’) into four sections. To fill each section, consider the categories of leadership skills, values that help influence others, recent achievements/accomplishments and what you like most about your current work.

They should be encouraged not to be overly concerned with how visually appealing their picture is but rather that it expressed what they personally believe to be important aspects of a leader.

Once the drawings are complete, the participants can show their drawings to the others in the group and explain their unique coat of arms. It is also helpful to reflect on the activity – consider which section was easiest to complete and whether your crest reflects your company’s values.

4. Communication: Coach the Builder (Goyette, 2016)

Divide employees into groups of four to seven people. Each group should be given two sets of blocks (such as Lego). Each set should have a minimum of 10 blocks.

Beforehand, you should construct a sample object (e.g., a house) from one of the sets of blocks. In each group, select a leader, a delegator, a builder and a note-taker. The note-taker watches and records the group’s behavior during the task. They take note of what appeared to be done well and how employees could improve.

The leader is given the item that you built – however, they are the only group member to see the object. Set a timer for ten minutes. To begin with, the leader describes to the delegator how the builder should build a replica of the item. However, the delegator does not see the object, and at this stage of the activity, the builder should not hear the instructions.

The delegator can speak with the leader as often as necessary during the 10 minutes. The builder attempts to build the same item that the leader can see. However, they are only relying on the delegator’s instructions. At this stage, the delegator should not see the object that the builder is constructing.

When the time is up, reveal both objects to all participants and see how closely they match. Finally, to wrap up the activity, employees can discuss what was either frustrating or easy about the process and discuss how they may do things differently in order to achieve better results.

5. Accountability (Goyette, 2016)

Begin a meeting by saying to the group – “the seating arrangement is totally wrong for today’s meeting. You have 60 seconds to improve it”. If the employees ask further questions, only repeat the instructions. While some employees may continue asking questions, others may start moving the furniture around straight away. Observe the team and what they do without giving any further information, feedback, or instructions.

After 1 minute, let the employees know to stop. Then, ask them whether the objective was achieved, and how. Discuss with employees how and why a lack of clarity makes it challenging to complete a task.

Then, discuss who asked for clarification and how they felt when the leader refused to give further details. Use this opportunity to highlight to employees how if they fail to ask questions, and when the person in charge of a project doesn’t provide the necessary clarification, the whole team is at risk of making mistakes or even not completing a task.

Finally, ask how the time pressure affected behavior. Discuss how employees may be more likely to respond to pressure, or stress, by taking action without first confirming a plan and the significant problems this approach can lead to.

6. The “what if” game (Deputy, 2018)

Present different hypothetical problematic scenarios to employees. Either individually or by providing a document that requires written answers, present situations such as “you didn’t follow the rules, and subsequently lost an important client. You have lost a lot of money for the company. How do you justify this? What is your solution?”.

The questions only need to be rough, and employees should only receive a short time with which to think of their responses. If there is a particularly challenging question, provide a time limit of five minutes.

7. ‘Silver Lining’ (Cohen, 2017)

Employees form teams of at least two people who have shared a work experience – e.g., working on a project together. One person shares an experience from working together that was negative for them.

Then, the second person reflects on the same experience but instead reflects on the positive aspects of the experience (i.e., the ‘ silver lining ’). Then this same person shares their own negative experience, and this time it is up to the other person to focus on the positive aspects of it.

Often, when people reflect on an experience, they do so with a particular perspective . By looking at the positive aspects of a ‘negative’ experience, this helps individuals shift perspectives. Furthermore, by sharing experiences, employees develop deeper relationships, and team bonding is promoted.

8. My favorite brand (Training Course Material, n.d.).

Ask employees to bring three or four printed logos/brands that they use regularly or admire most. Then, form groups of 3 – 4 people. Teams have a period of ten minutes to share and discuss their chosen logos.

Their task is to agree upon the team’s top 2 logos or brands which is their team’s choice. The team also selects a team spokesperson who will report to the bigger group about why the team chose the specific brands/logos.

Participants are encouraged to share personal experiences or stories that they had with their chosen brand. After the ten minutes elapses, each spokesperson presents the logos that the team began with as well as their two top chosen logos/brands. It is their role to explain to the group why the team voted on their top brand/logo.

1. Manager or leader? (Training Course Material, n.d.)

Small groups of managers work together to create two tables, one titled ‘leader’ and one titled ‘manager’. In each table, the group writes statements describing either management behavior or leadership behavior.

For example, the ‘manager’ table may contain statements such as “schedules work to be done” or “delegates tasks”. On the other hand, statements in the ‘leader’ table could be “motivating staff” and “creating culture”.

The purpose of this activity is to demonstrate to managers the difference between management versus leadership, and show that while ‘every leader can be a manager, not every manager can be a leader’. However, by brainstorming leadership behaviors, managers begin the process of becoming a successful leader.

2. The race of the leaders (Deputy, 2018)

This activity encourages leadership behaviors. To begin with, write a list of leadership qualities – approximately 10 – 20 statements – on a piece of paper. Describe the qualities – e.g., ‘I determine everything that happens to me’, and ‘I will not blame others for my problems’.

Read these statements out loud, and participants take a step forward if they believe a statement describes them. They must be prepared to give reasons as to why they think they possess each quality. Continue reading the statements until there is a definite ‘winner’.

3. The best team member (Training Course Material, n.d.).

Divide the group into teams of about 4 – 5 participants. Give each team a large, blank piece of paper and markers. Each group has the task to come up with as many characteristics of their ‘ideal’ team member as they can. Teams should consider what this ‘best team member ever’ would be like.

After ten minutes, the groups should examine the characteristics that they have written and work out the portion which are ‘technical’ skills and those which are ‘interpersonal’. The aim is to work out whether most of the traits can be classified as technical or interpersonal skills.

Teams usually come to realize that interpersonal skills in employees are especially critical and that these have a tremendous impact on the quality and quantity of workplace performance.

This activity can be adapted according to the setting. For example, if the focus is on leadership development, teams could discuss their ideal leader/supervisor.

4. The importance of feedback (Training Course Material, n.d.).

Divide the group into three teams. Provide each team with poster paper and markers or pens.

Team A is required to consider as many reasons as they can that would make them apprehensive to provide feedback to another person.

Team B is asked to consider what feedback can help them so, i.e., what feedback will help them accomplish.

Team C comes up with as many things as they can that would make a feedback session effective.

Each team has 15 minutes to brainstorm their ideas, then, each team can present their ideas.

Point out to Team A that the hurdles they suggested are self-imposed ideas that will lead to the manager fearing the worst. Instead, managers should be encouraged to share feedback on a more regular basis to gain the necessary experience in having such conversations. Furthermore, by having an awareness of the most effective way to prepare and deliver feedback can help a manager conquer the issues holding them back.

Point out to Team B that providing constructive feedback as needed is imperative for developing a productive work environment. A feedback discussion that is well-planned and thought out delivers an opportunity to share what you have noticed about another person’s job performance and bring about productive change.

Finally, after Team C has shared their ideas, point out that effective feedback is specific, honest, and backed up with evidence. The feedback will help others to come up with goals, make and reinforce positive changes, promote self-confidence and encourage action in the workplace.

Thank all the teams for their participation and input.

5. ‘Shark Tank’ (Deputy, 2018).

This activity is derived from a famous TV show that gives people a chance to show their entrepreneurial skills. Managers may work individually or in groups. The aim of this activity is for employees to come up with a business plan that outlines the steps of how to build a successful company from ‘startup’.

Once the managers have a plan, they can create a ‘pitch’, which should contain the brand’s name, its’ tagline (or slogan), a detailed business plan, a detailed marketing plan, financial predictions (sales, profits and market) and potential problems (competition, lack of resources).

In a role play, appoint a few chosen managers to be the ‘sharks’ (the ones who consider the projects’ merit and offer imaginary ‘investments’). The winning group, or individual, is the one who raised the most money from the ‘shark’.

17 Exercises To Build Positive Leaders

Use these 17 Positive Leadership Exercises [PDF] to help others inspire, motivate, and guide employees in ways that enrich workplace performance and satisfaction. Created by Experts. 100% Science-based.

1. The Human Icebreaker (Stepshift, 2016).

This is a simple activity that can alleviate tension and promote discussion and contribution. Participants devise a list of questions that relate to people generally – for example, “who is left-handed?”. Participants then discover which team members meet the question’s criteria. After 10 minutes, the participant who has the most answers wins. This activity promotes communication and helps team members build inter-personal skills.

2. ‘Office trivia’ (Cohen, 2017)

This quick activity can help as an ice-breaker and provides a flexible option for team building. Create a list of trivia questions that are related to the workplace. For example, “how many people named ‘John’ work in the accounting department?” or, “how many people work in the IT department?”. Read the questions out loud to the whole group. The employee with the most correct answers at the end is the winner.

3. Plane crash (Stepshift, 2016)

The participants imagine that they are on a plane which has crashed on a deserted island. They are allowed to select a specified number of items from around the workplace that would help the group to survive. Each chosen item is ranked in importance. The whole group must agree on their decision. This activity helps with creative problem solving and collaboration.

4. ‘Magazine story’ (Cohen, 2017)

Each team works together to come up with an imaginary cover story of a magazine, about a successful project or business achievement. The team designs the images, headlines, and come up with quotes.

5. The Human Knot (Stepshift, 2016)

Relying on cooperation, this is a good problem-solving and communication activity. Participants stand shoulder to shoulder in a circle. Then, they put their right hand in the hand of a person who stands across from them. They then put their left hand in the hand of another different person (but not someone standing directly next to them).

Participants are required to untangle the human knot without breaking the chain. If the chain is broken, the participants must start over.

6. Make your own movie (Cohen, 2017)

This is a fun activity that is suitable for both indoors and outdoors. Although it requires the necessary equipment (i.e., camera, tripod, and microphone), teams enjoy it. Employees should work in large groups (more than eight people) and divide responsibilities. Teams work together to come up with scripts for a 5 – 7-minute movie.

7. Radio Play (Cohen, 2017)

This activity can provide an alternative to making a movie. Employees work together, spending about one-hour planning and writing a play and taking a further 15 – 20 minutes to ‘perform’ it, keeping in mind that it is designed for radio.

Each participant places their chair, in no particular order, around the room. The room should be cleared of tables and other furniture. Each person should sit on their chair, pointing in a different direction. Then, request one manager to volunteer and come to the front of the room. Their task is to walk slowly back to their empty chair and sit down.

If their chair is occupied, they can move to the next empty chair available and sit on it. However, everyone else has the task of stopping the volunteer from sitting down.

Only one person at a time can stand and move. No one can make two consecutive moves. A person cannot sit on the chair that they have just left. Once the activity begins, the room is required to be silent. No one is allowed to touch the volunteer.

Give the managers 2 minutes to come up with their strategy. After every round, the participants should discuss what happened and select a new volunteer for the next round. The team is given 2 minutes preparation time each round. It is important that the volunteer’s movement is kept at a slow walk.

At the conclusion of the activity, it is beneficial for the team to discuss the activity. They may reflect upon whether they need a leader, what made planning difficult, whether everyone agreed on the plan, and what would make the task easier.

9. Back to back drawing (Cohen, 2017)

Provide vector shapes on separate pieces of paper (they can be shapes of signs, objects or merely abstract shapes). Participants sit in pairs, back-to-back. Employee A is given a sheet of paper and a pen, and employee B is provided with one of the printed shapes.

The aim of the activity is for employee A to draw the shape relying only on verbal instructions from employee B. Person B cannot only tell the other person what the shape is – he/she is only able to provide directions about how to draw it, or to describe its uses. Each team has two 2 minutes to draw the shape.

10. ‘All Aboard’ (Stepshift, 2016).

Teams use various materials, for example, pieces of wood or mats, to build a pretend ‘boat’. All the participants must stand on the ‘boat’ at once. Then, pieces of the ‘boat’ should be removed. The team should still strive to stand in the diminished space on the ‘boat’. All Aboard can promote communication, problem-solving and critical thinking.

11. Body of words (Cohen, 2017)

Participants are divided into teams of between four and eight people, and each team elects one leader. To prepare the activity, record words that have one less letter than the number of people in the team (i.e., if there are five people in the team, a suitable word could be ‘book’ which has four letters). Randomly select a word, and then the teams have the task of making the word using only their bodies.

Each team member moves and bends their body to form a letter. The team leader can direct their team.

What stands out to me from this article is the complexity of leadership. This article demonstrates that even if one is not a ‘natural’ leader, there are plenty of activities that can promote leadership skills. Even children can develop leadership, and what’s more, have fun with activities at the same time.

What do you think espouses leadership? Do you think that there are people who might tend to be leaders more than others? Perhaps you have a story about a leadership activity you have participated in or delivered – I would dearly like to hear about your experiences.

Thank you for reading.

We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Don’t forget to download our three Positive Leadership Exercises for free .

• ‘tony’ (2018). Leadership games and activities for middle school students . Retrieved from https://www.kidsactivties.net/leadership-games-activities-for-middle-school-students/
• Clark, Donald (2015). Leadership Styles Activity . Retrieved from www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/styles.html
• Cohen, Esther (2017). 31 Team building activities your team will actually love . Retrieved from https://www.workamajig.com/blog/team-building-activities
• Cserti, Robert (2018). 12 Effective leadership activities and games . Retrieved from https://www.sessionlab.com/blog/leadership-activities/
• Deputy (2018). 6 Impactful leadership activities to try at work . Retrieved from https://www.deputy.com/blog/6-impactful-leadership-activities-to-try-at-work
• Doyle, A. (2019). Top 10 leadership skills employers look for . Retrieved from https://www.thebalancecareers.com/top-leadership-skills-2063782
• Edsys (2016). 1 0 Activities for teachers to grow leadership skills in children . Retrieved from https://www.edsys.in/10-activities-for-teachers-to-grow-leadership-skills-in-children/
• Flavin, B. (2018). 8 Leadership Experiences You Didn’t Know You Already Have . Retrieved from https://www.rasmussen.edu/student-experience/college-life/leadership-experience-you-didnt-know-you-already-have/
• Goyette, P.(2016). 3 Leadership activities that improve employee performance at all levels . Retrieved from https://www.eaglesflight.com/blog/3-leadership-activities-that-improve-employee-performance-at-all-levels
• Higgins, R. (2018). 5 Fun and Inspirational Leadership Workshop Ideas . Retrieved from https://www.eventbrite.com.au/blog/leadership-workshop-ideas-ds00
• Johnson-Gerard, M. (2017). Situational Leadership Games . Retrieved from https://bizfluent.com/list-6762581-situational-leadership-games.html
• Landau, P. (2018). The 9 best leadership games for skill development . Retrieved from https://www.projectmanager.com/blog/the-9-best-leadership-games
• Stapleton, S. (2018). Leadership activities for High School classrooms . Retrieved from https://classroom.synonym.com/leadership-activities-high-school-classrooms-7855904.html
• Stepshift (2016). Leadership Training Activities . Retrieved from https://www.stepshift.co.nz/blog/developing-team-performance-with-senior-leadership-teams/strategic-planning-with-an-independent-facilitator/leadership-training-activities.html
• The Pennsylvania State University (2012). I can be a leader! Leadership fun for children . Retrieved from https://extension.psu.edu/programs/betterkidcare/knowledge-areas/environment-curriculum/activities/all-activities/i-can-be-a-leader-leadership-fun-for-children
• Training Course Material (n.d.). Leadership and management activities . Retrieved from https://www.trainingcoursematerial.com/free-games-activities/leadership-and-management-activities

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What our readers think.

This great. Thank you

Great ideas, thank you!

Thank you so much for providing such a useful list of activities to demonstrate and for such a varied target population. Innovative and attention-seeking exercises yet practical.

Thank you for posting this informative blog. keep sharing.

Too interesting for me to try all.

Great article! Having group activities Melbourne helps the team to enhance working together. I love how it brings people together and motivates employees to learn from each other.

Great activities. Thank you.

This is an excellent article for every manager and leader tn build successful leadership. Thank you.

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