Many leadership styles exist in business today, with some people displaying a mix of different styles. When screening for leadership positions, you’re bound to encounter several. Thus, it’s important to assess and choose a candidate with a style that aligns with your company’s values or goals.
There’s no one-size-fits-all selection, so the ideal leadership style or mix of styles differs depending on the organization and its specific needs. But, making a wrong choice can negatively impact your organization’s culture, demotivate employees, and cause friction. In this article, we’ll delve into leadership styles in business and guide you in choosing the best leaders for your team. Let’s get started.
How do you define a leadership style?
A leadership style is essentially a leader’s preferred attitude or method of managing their team and making decisions. It refers to their technique of directing, guiding, and motivating people under them toward achieving the organization’s stated goal. Moreover, it determines how the leader associates with each person, how they handle interpersonal relationships within the team, and their overall organizational fit.
10 common management styles
There are various leadership styles in business that a leader can adopt depending on their personality, communication style, and personal values. No style is strictly above others, as each has its advantages, disadvantages, and best-use cases. Below, we’ll review 10 common management styles, including their characteristics, strengths, and weaknesses.
1. Autocratic leadership
An autocratic leader exerts total control and dominance over subordinate team members and employees. Under this leadership style, decision-making primarily takes place at the top levels, with minimal input or contribution from team members in lower positions.
Besides an aversion to input, autocratic leaders also tend to overlook criticism or feedback, insisting that employees follow their orders without question. These orders are usually precise, clear, fast-paced, and have clear-cut expectations.
- Strengths: Autocratic leadership involves quick, efficient decision-making, which is highly valuable in crises that require instant action. Due to time or information constraints, leaders can’t afford to depend on input and feedback from subordinates in such moments. As a result, decisively taking knowledgeable, strategic, and immediate action would be in the company’s best interests.
- Weaknesses: People always want to be seen, valued, and feel a sense of belonging, and autocrats are insensitive to these emotions. As a result, this style of leadership can be discouraging, lower the team’s morale, and create an unwelcoming work environment, all of which lower productivity.
Moreover, by completely centralizing decision-making, other team members have no chance to sharpen their skills, which impedes growth and creativity.
2. Democratic leadership
Democratic leadership stands in stark contrast to autocratic leadership, as it values and encourages employees’ input in decision-making. Instead of making decisions in isolation, a democratic leader promotes team participation, allowing employees to share their ideas, thoughts, and suggestions. This approach not only fosters creativity and a sense of belonging but also makes employees feel heard and valued for their contributions.
- Strengths: When leaders positively engage their employees, seek their opinions, and implement consensus, they’re more motivated to work for the company’s development. With democratic leadership, there’s higher employee satisfaction, team commitment, opportunities for growth, and a productive, favorable atmosphere, making this leadership style particularly effective.
- Weaknesses: Gathering feedback from team members can be slow and time-consuming, not to mention risky in teams with less experienced employees. Moreover, some teammates may struggle with compromise or concession, which could affect the team’s synergy and lead to conflicts or indecisiveness.
3. Laissez-faire leadership
Laissez-faire leadership, as its name suggests, favors a laid-back, hands-off approach. In this leadership style, leaders mostly delegate tasks to employees and let them handle issues as they see fit.
Whereas autocratic or democratic leaders oversee and spearhead day-to-day activities, laissez-faire leaders hand the reins to their subordinates, allowing them high autonomy in problem-solving. This doesn’t mean they don’t offer support when asked, but in general, laissez-faire leadership promotes independence and minimal intervention or guidance.
- Strengths: Allowing employees creative freedom to make decisions creates a relaxed environment and communicates trust in their capabilities. Such an atmosphere catalyzes fast growth, giving people the space to develop their problem-solving skills with little dependence on the leaders. In return, they feel more valued, pumped, and motivated to produce quality results.
- Weaknesses: Although independence can be great, its downside is that it leaves employees with little to no direction, accountability, or structure. This may not be an issue in teams with self-motivated, efficient, and highly skilled employees. However, for newer, less-experienced hires, laissez-faire leadership can be detrimental to their productivity and lead to inconsistent performance or slacking.
4. Transformational leadership
Every employee should be driven to evolve and produce their best constantly, and this summarizes transformational leadership. Transformational leaders encourage employees to work towards personal and professional improvement while achieving the company’s goals in the process.
By taking this approach, leaders gain their subordinates’ trust, inspire them, and motivate them to reach set expectations with the goal of positive impact and change. Similar to the laissez-faire style, transformational leaders also promote individual thinking and innovation but provide hands-on guidance and direction.
- Strengths: A 2021 study from the Department of Public Health, Adama Hospital Medical College, Adama, Ethiopia, stated that employees had increased odds of being high performers when they experienced transformational leadership with idealized influence.
Under a transformational leader, there’s no chance of stagnation, as they always see room for improvement and encourage their followers to align with this vision. Additionally, these leaders guide each employee, see their individual struggles, and provide support and resources to help their growth, fostering stronger bonds and loyalty.
- Weaknesses: Transformational leaders tend to focus on the big picture and vision, which may make them insensitive to smaller details or murmuring within the team. The constant push for change and improvement could lead to worn-out, destabilized employees if not carefully handled.
5. Transactional leadership
Transactional leadership provides structure and ensures employee compliance through close monitoring and rewards. Unlike transformational leadership, transactional leaders focus on routine and stability, with clearly stated and communicated goals and objectives each employee is to accomplish.
Based on these directives, leaders track each employee’s performance, and high-performing employees receive an incentive, usually monetary compensation or public recognition.
- Strengths: With transactional leadership, the team’s targets are clearly detailed. As a result, team members always have a sense of direction and guidance, which can boost their efficiency and productivity. Also, incentives and rewards motivate employees and encourage healthy competition among them, consequently increasing the team’s overall efforts and results.
- Weaknesses: As with any routine activity, working under strict transactional leadership may bore employees who need constant change and can be quite rigid and unexciting. Coupled with its disinterest in innovation and independent problem-solving, the inflexibility of this leadership style in business stifles creativity.
Moreover, it’s generally ineffective for organizations that prioritize a warm, friendly work environment and culture, as managers rarely show personal interest in their employees.
6. Bureaucratic leadership
This leadership style is extremely formal and demands strict compliance with stipulated guidelines, policies, instructions, and chains of command. Leaders who prefer a bureaucratic style insist that employees follow the company’s standard methods of performing tasks without deviation.
A bureaucratic leader is predictable and doesn’t allow for autonomy or inconsistency in decision-making, especially when the company has clearly documented rules on the matter.
- Strengths: The tight control, predictability, and clarity in bureaucratic leadership allow for safety and efficiency, especially because there’s little to no risk or exploration involved. If a dependable outcome is a must in your firm, then bureaucratic leadership is an excellent choice.
For example, in huge corporations or companies with safety regulations, adhering to documented procedures under a strict hierarchy will prevent accidents or sub-standard, inconsistent results.
- Weaknesses: Bureaucratic leadership’s restrictive nature hinders creativity and flexibility, directly discouraging unconventional thinking. That said, employing this leadership style alone may leave the leader with employees who struggle to adapt and have little problem-solving ability.
Moreover, by judging all employees and circumstances according to equal pre-documented criteria, the leader is likely to overlook unique nuances and make wrong decisions.
7. Servant leadership
You’ve probably heard that leadership is service, and this statement is the fundamental principle of the servant leadership style. Here, the leader’s priority is their followers — their needs, challenges, and interests — rather than hitting targets or goals.
Servant leaders are generally more concerned with their subordinates’ well-being, happiness, and development than with the company’s needs. To such leaders, soft skills like listening and empathy are paramount, and maintaining friendships with their followers is highly necessary.
- Strengths: As expected, servant leadership is unmatched in building bonds and relationships among team members. Under a servant leader, you’ll find a very warm, positive work atmosphere full of smiles, warmth, loyalty, and trust. Naturally, employees with such leaders feel seen, valued, and understood, which could boost their morale and encourage hard work in return.
- Weaknesses: Unfortunately, business isn’t always rosy, and in such moments, particularly those that require discipline, servant leaders find it difficult to make tough choices. Moreover, prioritizing the employees’ interests could backfire in terms of the company’s goals and targets, leading to inefficiency, stagnation, and poor growth.
8. Visionary leadership
Visionary leaders are all about futuristic success; they conceive a vision, lay out a definitive plan, and guide the team toward it. A visionary leader is always one step ahead in the game, never afraid to think outside the box, and envisions the company operating more efficiently. Careful not to leave the employees out, these leaders share their vision and the purpose behind it, drive enthusiasm in the employees, and unite them towards pursuing it.
- Strengths: A visionary leader is perfect for navigating a company through a difficult season. Their capacity for long-term thinking lets them strategically overcome roadblocks that could jeopardize their carefully considered plans for the business. They’re also inspirational and innovative, able to encourage their team to look past immediate hardships and devise quick solutions to problems.
- Weaknesses: In their quest to achieve greater dreams, visionary leaders can be over-ambitious, paying no heed to issues that present huge challenges and require immediate attention. Ignoring these tiny details and short-term needs could threaten the company’s stability and damage team dynamics if not properly managed.
9. Charismatic leadership
Most people are drawn to charm, charisma, and eloquence, which form the basis of charismatic leadership. Charismatic leaders captivate their followers by relating to them on an emotional level, earning their trust, and igniting a passion within them. Additionally, they’re fun, exude confidence, brim with boundless energy, and have a clear, compelling vision that earns them loyalty and trust.
- Strengths: Charisma is generally a winning trait in leadership, as it helps draw a team together, inspires change, and boosts the team’s morale. A charismatic leader unites the team, improves the employees’ disposition, and promotes a healthy work culture where employees feel valued and needed. With high morale, the team will be more engaged and, inadvertently, more productive.
- Weaknesses: Charismatic leadership is often centralized, which means the team could struggle and lack purpose or direction in the leader’s absence. Also, while it’s true that most people respond to these leaders, the more introverted employees may find it difficult to keep up with their bubbly personalities.
10. Situational leadership
Situational leadership is a flexible and adaptive approach in which leaders adjust their style based on the team’s and situation’s specific needs. It combines the strengths of all leadership styles, evaluating and deciding when to apply each one based on the problems faced and the business goals.
- Strengths: Situational leaders are proficient at reading context, understanding their team’s capabilities, and dynamically adjusting their behavior. This allows them to maximize effectiveness in several situations, lead a variety of teams, and accomplish their goals no matter the hurdle.
- Weaknesses: Situational leadership can be very taxing on the leader and confusing for team members. Although switching character traits to suit a situation is effective, it’s not always easy, especially as it demands high observation skills, analytical abilities, and emotional intelligence. Without due diligence, it could lead to inconsistency and burnout among both the leader and other employees.
How to identify leadership styles as part of the hiring process
Considering the sheer number we’ve listed above, noting the leadership styles of every candidate during the hiring process can quickly become overwhelming. So, what’s the best way to identify a candidate whose leadership style is a fit for your firm?
By incorporating Vervoe in your recruitment process! Using Vervoe, you can ensure candidates aren’t just a cultural fit, but actually possess the skills needed to be a great leader.
Vervoe is an AI-powered recruitment platform that improves hiring success by assessing candidates’ job-specific skills instead of resumes alone. With Vervoe’s advanced features, you can recruit candidates who are well-equipped to perform the job and meet your company’s specific needs.
Our assessment library contains over 300 ready-to-use job assessment tests and over 300,000 questions from which you can create your custom tests. By asking specific questions that probe candidates’ leadership skills and evaluating their responses, you can see which candidates would make splendid additions to your team.
Vervoe also offers job simulations that provide candidates with realistic, immersive experiences that replicate the day-to-day activities and tasks they’ll likely face on the job. Using this feature, you can present unique challenges that gauge their leadership style and see how their response aligns with your organization’s preferences.
Meanwhile, our AI grading and optimization tool reduces hiring bias by automatically evaluating the candidates’ responses and ranking them based on their demonstrated skills. It finetunes this ability by learning from previous data, ensuring accurate evaluation criteria that match your job requirements to get you the best leaders available.
Our platform boasts anti-cheating features like question randomizers and multiple question types to help you get a full view of your candidates’ abilities. You can also take advantage of our branding options and candidate support resources to ensure they have an enjoyable hiring experience.
Why is it important to get this right?
A 2024 Gallup article stated that managers account for at least 70% of variance in employee engagement scores across business units. A fresh hire today is likely to become a manager in your company sometime in the future, and you don’t want a leader who clashes with the company’s existing work culture and values. Knowing your candidate’s leadership style beforehand helps you predict and judge how they’ll manage subordinates and resolve difficult situations.
Armed with this information, you can discern if they’ll be a good addition to your team, ensuring employee engagement, harmony, and synergy. Additionally, understanding leadership styles allows for better placement of candidates in roles where their strengths can be maximized, enhancing overall organizational performance and employee satisfaction.
Find your next great leader with Vervoe
A leader whose style is a good fit for your company can create an accommodating environment, boost team morale, and increase productivity. However, finding such a leader isn’t a walk in the park, and traditional interviews aren’t reliable as a standalone option.
With Vervoe, you can tackle this challenge using a suite of easy-to-use, intuitive, and interactive recruitment features. From skills assessments to job simulations and detailed grading, Vervoe identifies and shows you candidates whose leadership abilities are sure to transform your organization.
So, schedule a demo with Vervoe and enjoy the power of smooth, seamless AI-powered recruiting today.
