How to Be a Good Leader: 8 Leadership Styles

At some point in their lives, most people take on a leading role, whether at work, on a team project, or even in a social setting. Knowing how other people lead can help you figure out your own skills and weaknesses and make you a better leader. Leadership is a pretty flexible idea in and of itself. In general, most leaders change how they lead to fit the situation. This is especially true the longer they have been in charge. As they learn and work with their workers, they change how they lead.

What is it to lead?

Leadership is the ability to get a group of people to work together to reach a shared goal. Leadership is not based on strict hierarchy or seniority, but on the ability to affect other people. Anyone with the right skills can be a leader, no matter what their job is or where they work.

Why is it important to know about the different ways people lead?

You can be a better leader if you know about the different ways people lead. Different ways of leading get different results, and different types of people are better at different ways of leading. Once you know what kind of leader you are, you’ll have a better idea of your skills, weaknesses, and the best way to communicate to be the best leader you can be.

Even though there is no one right way to lead a team, there are some traits that all good leaders and managers have in common that you should think about as you build your leadership skills.

If you develop these skills as a professional, you’ll be able to make tough choices, get your organization to work toward the same goals, and lead your team to success.

WHY GOOD LEADERSHIP IN BUSINESS IS IMPORTANT

Companies can lose more than just confidence because of bad leadership. Gallup study shows that 24 percent of employees are actively disengaged because of bad management. This means that teams are less productive, make less money, and are more likely to have employees leave. And the cost of replacing employees quickly adds up to almost twice the annual salary of each worker who quits.

This is why it’s important to have good leading skills. You need people who can successfully share the company’s vision, lead teams, and bring about change if you want to keep employees, keep customers happy, and make the company more productive.

Because each leader is naturally interested in different things, more standard ways of dividing up leadership styles may leave you feeling confused. Instead, answer the questions given by the four areas of leadership below.

Here’s how you can become a better boss if you want to be that person.

The 8 Most Successful Ways to Lead

There are many ways to lead that can help you reach your goals and keep your team members motivated. Here are some usual ways to lead that work well:

1. Leadership by the people. In a democratic leadership style, also called a “participative” leadership style, the boss asks each team member for their opinion and considers all of them before making a final decision. This type of leadership involves everyone in making decisions, which can boost morale, job satisfaction, and engagement in the group.
2. Leadership by autocracy. In an autocratic type of leadership, the leader makes decisions on his or her own, without asking anyone else in the group. The autocratic style of leadership, which is also called an authoritarian style, can be helpful when quick choices need to be made.
3. Laissez-Faire Leadership. The laissez-faire leadership style is a “hands-off” way to lead, in which the manager gives team members authority and lets them make decisions with little interference and oversight. This model of leadership can spur innovation by giving self-motivated employees the freedom to pursue their own hobbies and passions.
4. Leadership based on transactions. A transactional leadership style involves giving rewards for good performance and punishments or other forms of discipline for bad performance. When you want to reach certain benchmarks for success, transactional management can be a very strategic way to lead.
5. Leadership with charisma. Leaders who are charismatic use their charm and personality to share goals and push people to do their best. These leaders are especially good at getting their teams to work together to reach a common goal, often by giving a rallying speech or showing a lot of energy.
6. Leadership that changes things. Transformational leadership means that the boss wants to make the business or company they work for better, or “transform” it. Great leaders who use the transformational style try to give their team members more power so that company standards can be made easier or better. This method puts organizational growth above all else, and leaders who use transformational leadership tend to spend a lot of time on “big picture” goals instead of the small details of management.
7. Serving as a leader. The happiness of their workers is the most important thing to servant leaders. They think that if their team members are happy professionally and personally, it will lead to better work, and servant leaders put the needs of others ahead of their own.
8. Leadership in a bureaucracy. A boss who follows the rules is bureaucratic. They follow business policy and tradition to the letter and tell their team members exactly what they should do. This is a stable and systematic way to lead, which can work well in areas with a lot of rules.

It doesn’t happen overnight that you become a good boss. It takes some work. But don’t let that stop you. Go through this list and start doing the things on it. Above all, be able to change to fit your own needs and those of your team.