Different management styles

Leading and managing teams is not easy. Understanding and developing your leadership style is crucial for effective leadership that helps you to consistently motivate your employees and deliver team performance at 22casino.

Each leadership style is unique and based on the personality, experience, and situation in which the leader operates. However, research shows that the different leadership styles can be categorised into certain broad categories based on the characteristics that a leader exhibits. By understanding this and developing your style and behaviour, you can significantly improve your performance. This blog therefore, explains a number of leadership and management styles that you should explore and try out – and also some that you should normally avoid.

Factors that influence your choice of leadership style

Before we begin, there are two important points to consider when it comes to developing your leadership style.

Firstly, most great leaders don’t follow a single style, but combine elements of several, depending on the circumstances and the people they are dealing with. For example, when an important deadline is looming, even the most democratic leader might crack the whip and adopt a more autocratic leadership style to get things moving. Alternatively, you can use different styles with different team members if you know what best motivates them to give their best.

Secondly, the leadership style that works best will depend on the organisation, culture, and environment in which you operate. If you work in a highly regulated industry such as financial services or healthcare, you will need to have more control over the way your team works than in a more creative sector where you can give people a free hand to do their jobs. Professionals develop their own style and leadership skills based on these factors.

Exploring the range of leadership styles

A quick search on the internet will lead to hundreds of books, articles, and blogs presenting a variety of management styles and leadership approaches, many of which appear very similar. Management expert Daniel Goleman, for example, has identified six leadership styles: Visionary, Coaching, Partnership, Democratic, Pacesetter, and Commanding. So, how do you decide which one is best for you?

A useful way to cut through the confusion is to think of the leadership styles as being aligned. At one end are the autocratic leadership styles, which rely on command, control, and micromanagement through fear. At the other end is the laissez-faire approach, where managers simply let employees do their jobs and trust them to fulfil their tasks.

Based on this concept, we will explain the advantages and potential disadvantages of different types of leadership styles.

1. Democratic leadership

Also known as participative leadership, teams and organisations are run like a democracy. Everyone has a voice, and managers endeavour to involve everyone in company decisions. This style of leadership is all about fostering team cohesion and ensuring that everyone feels valued. The only downside is that it takes time to discuss everything. This can make democratic leaders appear indecisive and unable to make decisions themselves. This means that while this style of leadership can be used effectively most of the time, in critical situations it must be switched to more autocratic and commanding methods.

2. Visionary leadership

In a visionary leadership style, leaders have a clear picture of what needs to be done at a strategic level and have the communication skills to get their team on board. Through early involvement, employees feel motivated and inspired to do their best to turn the vision into reality. However, it takes a great deal of charisma and strong communication skills to be successful. If you fail to convince your employees of the meaning and purpose of your vision, they will not engage or help you realise it.

3. Coaching leadership

Coaching leaders focus on supporting their employees, helping them to develop their talents and realise their potential. They have the empathy to recognise their employees’ strengths and weaknesses and can provide regular, constructive feedback and encourage growth opportunities. Whilst this will undoubtedly produce results in most circumstances, employees need to be open to change and improvement. This style is not effective if employees see the job as just a task to be done rather than a career to be developed. Coaching also takes up a lot of time and prevents managers from attending to other areas of their role.

4. Servant leadership

Servant leaders put their employees first. They focus on building harmonious teams where everyone has a working environment that supports their needs. The idea is that this leads to motivated employees and better performance. It is a positive trait to pay close attention to employees’ wishes.