Leadership Styles

Autocratic

Autocratic leadership is control over all individuals and decisions with little input from group
members. Autocratic leaders usually tend to make choices based on their own ideas and
rarely accept advice from other members. This type of leadership style is quick and strict
with receiving very little input from others. Its also about using discipline, respect and fear to
order your members. The advantages of this leadership style is that its very easy to learn
and does not require any specialized training. This is because autocratic leaders dont have
to worry about about recognizing or responding to their members emotions. Another
advantage is that its very controlling thus allowing a leader to make capable and safe
decisions that will complete their tasks correctly. Although, there are a few disadvantages.
An autocratic leader takes full responsibility for any mistakes done and review of a teams
work. Thus, autocratic leaders are busy, which can lead to high stress and even future
health problems. Another disadvantage would be that this type of leadership style is bad for
highly skilled or motivated work. This is because some employees dislike being told what to
do and this even more the case when they already know and understand the task at hand.
An example of this would be the president of the United States: Donald Trump. Before Mr
Trump was the president he ran a company and in his company he was a typical autocratic
leader. He was the head of any decision-making, applied absolute power. He was involved
with any of the smallest details and limited the input from everyone and only accepted input
from a very limited about of people.

Democratic

Democratic leadership is also known as participative leadership. This is because this

leadership style is more participate, which allows the members of the group to take a more
participative role when decision-making. This is because it allows two-way communication
amongst the group members and the manager. This leadership style makes members feel
like part of a team and the process. Although, the disadvantage to this is that it takes a lot of
time due to fact that you have to receive everyones input. Therefore when a group has to
come to a quick conclusion there may not be one agreed output. An example of this would
be the government. When discussing any new laws or legislations need be implemented. Its
very time consuming when it comes to discussions so its usually used in offices in more
places than others.
Laissez-Faire

Laissez-faire leadership is about giving freedom to the members of your team. Its very
hands off and allows the group members to make their own decisions. This allows people to
drift in and out of their tasks and usually there is little guidance from leaders. Leaders take
full responsibility for the group decisions and actions in the end. There are some advantages
to the leadership style. It allows the members of the group to empower themselves,allows
the members of the group to connect with one another and engage with one another.
Although, there are some disadvantages. This leadership style can be difficult especially if
individuals procrastinate or dont want to participate with the team. An example of this would
be if there was a group of educated and highly skilled employees who are used to working
within a team environment. Lets say this team is working on selling cars and each employee
has is specialized in a single part of the car industry. An autocratic approach wouldnt be
very appropriate since these employees know what they should be doing.

Situational

Situational leadership involves a leader of an organization or group adjusting his/her style to

fit into the development level of the members they are trying to influence. There are a few
advantages to using this leadership style. For example, allowing flexibility of the leadership
style a leader uses can be used in different situations and with different groups of people,
which allows the leader to bring out the best out of their members and receive the most
output. Although, varying the style of leadership may be difficult for some members to accept
and they may become confused and/or unsure of how they will be led in different situations.
This is because different members have different preferences when it comes to being led.
Some will like the idea of being told what to do and how they are supposed to do a task
while others will dislike it. This all depends on how a team cooperates. An example of this
would be in a sales team. The leader will come in the morning and give a speech to motivate
his employees. During the day, they will then call in their employees one by one and they
may question them to why they havent done their work with an autocratic approach. Then,
when they call in the next employee they may tell them that they are doing a good job and
should improve by doing a certain task. A leader like this is situational because they have to
know all their employees and how they respond to different styles of leadership to receive
the best conclusion.
 Leadership Skills

Being a leader can require a lot from individuals, especially with more difficult teams.
Therefore, leaders are required to have different skills to be able to lead a group of
individuals/employees as well as support them within the correct way. Leaders need to be
able to have a armory of skills, which include: planning, communication, problem solving,
teamwork and a variety of other skills. Leaders must be able to stay disciplined and
organised in order to successfully plan what each member within a team needs to do for
when if it involves a group effort or how to start/pursue a task. An example of this would
when leaders are to identify a members strengths as well as weaknesses. With this
information, leaders are able to accurately plan on how they can turn a members weakness
into one of their strengths or how to improve them. After working with the team, leaders
should be able to take notes and the experiences from interacting with them. Thus, for next
time leaders meet with their team they are able to provide feedback to everyone or adapt to
their behavioural styles.

Another skill that was mentioned was communication. Now, in my opinion, this is, if not, the
most important skill for any type of leader. Communication skills are seen everyday as we
chat with those around us and interact with even cashiers or the such. When leading a
group, leaders have to provide a good example to how others can verbally or nonverbally
communicate with body language, posture and tone. This allows team members to gain
some insight and how they could possibly improve on their own communication skills
whether it be verbal or nonverbal. Leaders should be able to approach the members of their
group to inform them of these weaknesses and what they could do to empower their voice or
the such, provide praise when appropriate and more. Communication is key to coming
together as a group whether it be in sports, workplace, schools and anything else. Along with
communication, listening is a key part to it as well. By being able to listen to how the team
members feel about the task and changing it so they can enjoy it or the such.

Another skills that leaders must possess is having the ability to problem-solve. This is for if
any problems were to arise among fellow team members, the leader must be capable of
quickly defusing the situation so that the team members can get back to working on the task
at hand. If a problem werent to be defused and left it could either possibly get worse or get
resolved on its own. Although, for both alternatives it is best to have someone who is in
charge to help resolve it. This increases the work ethic amongst the team and decreases the
amount of conflicts that arise.

The last skill I mentioned above was team work. Another important skills that is needed to be
able to lead a group of (working) individuals. Possessing the ability to work as a team allows
leaders to bring out the best of those around them. However, if leaders were unable to
provide the necessary leadership then the team would be dysfunctional, incapable of
working together or may down right refuse. Therefore, the leader may become stressed with
everyones behaviour, which will affect the group negatively.

Leadership Qualities

1. Motivation
Motivation is the key factor that allows people to perform to the best of their abilities, to
complete what they had set out to perform/make. If an individual has the motivation to work
and perform to the best of their abilities. Motivation has many benefits, for when a leader is
inspired/motivated to work it can rub off onto their team members, which results in greater
amount of efficiency and allows the whole group to become happier once progress is made
or it is complete. Through this motivation, team members can feel more closely related and
passionate about collaborating. Without motivation, a team wouldnt be able to perform to
the best of their abilities or even simply collaborate. For if there is no engine, how can a car
move? The same is with a team and the engine is what drives it forwards. What they wish to
complete as a goal or dream. That is motivation and with it, it can benefit both a teams
leader and the team.

2. Integrity
A leader who has a strong sense of integrity can conclude that they are honest with their
team members. This can be seen in any workplace, for example, if an employee had
produced a report that wasnt up to par or their part in a team presentation wasnt organised.
The leader needs to be able to be honest with them so that they may improve and see their
mistake. This allows the employees to perform better as well as receive praise and this
allows employees to work more efficiently, increase their performance etc.

3. Confidence
Confidence is key to leading a group of nervous or any team. An individual who has
confidence is someone who has faith, trust and no fear. This is the essence of being a
leader itself. For if a leader has confidence, they are able to easily lead a team of those who
are unable to perform to the best of their abilities or are scared or nervous. A confident
leaders can place down ideas and values without having the fear of getting challenged by
their team members for they are prepared to defend it or receive criticism. They arent afraid
to tell off a worker or harshly criticize their work. They know the team member will come out
of it better than before with higher morale and working standards. Leaders dont just have
confidence within themselves and their own ideas but in others. They are confident their
team members will improve and perform to their leaders standards. They are confident that
their group can get the work done. With this, team members are then confident in not only
the work produced but their leader.

4. Patience
A leader with good qualities should be able to list patient as one of them. For this means
they are capable of waiting long periods of time for an event to be triggered without causing
any arguments within the team. Patience makes a leader more capable of performing better
decision making. This is because they have the time to carefully think the possibilities out.
Patience prevents a leader from making rash or rushed ideas. Leaders need to be able to
take the time to help their team members so that they feel valued and that the plan is well
thought out. If a rash idea was thrown out into untested waters it may cause the team to
ripple or dislike the work they are performing.
 Roles and Responsibility of a Leader

John Adairs Theory

John Adairs Action-Centred Leadership Theory describes what actions a leader should take
when having to manage a team. This theory is quite useful as it already groups the
responsibilities together into three areas placed into circles (as shown in the diagram below).

These are known as task needs, group needs and individual needs. Each of them being
linked to a leadership and having their own responsibilities. Lets start off with task needs,
this area can be closely related to autocratic leadership because its about setting objectives
for the team, planning tasks for them to perform, allocating responsibilities to each member
and setting performance standards to which they should be performing to and what the
leader expects. Next is group needs, this area can be closely related to a democratic
leadership as it involves communication between members as well as the leader, performing
team building, helping to motivate the team members and disciplining them if mistakes are
made. Individual needs can also be related to a democratic leadership style because it
involves coaching, counselling, developing and helping to motivate each of the team
members. Finally, the middle of the diagram represents everything. This can be closely
related to a situational leadership style, which is quite intense for leaders because it is not
about performing or doing well but about the situation or if theres an emergency. This area
is the hardest to be in seeing as different situations require the leader to show different skills
and qualities. For example, being confident, compassionate, logical, communicative and
decisive.

Source Image: https://rabana1.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/john-adair.jpg

Tannenbaum and Schmidt
Source Image:
https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/tutor2u-media/subjects/business/diagrams/leadership-
tannenbaum-schmidt-diagram.png

Tannenbaum and Schmidt Continuum of Leadership Theory emphasizes the fact that
different managers/leaders will use different styles of leadership or perform different tasks in
order to accomplish their task(s). If you refer to the diagram above, the left hand side
describes the kind of tasks a manager will perform and it can be closely related to an
autocratic leadership style since it involves one-way communication and bosses their
members around. Now if you refer to the right hand side, describes the tasks a manager will
perform that involves their team members and it can closely related to a Laissez-faire
leadership style. If a manager would like to be situational about how they guide their team
then they can adapt and change as much as theyd like using this diagram. This diagram is
used to help show where a leader is and whether or not they focus on the task or letting the
team to freely take their time and develop.

Bibliography
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ml
https://prezi.com/e7jmmev_yzcj/leadership-styles-in-the-public-services/
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http://smallbusiness.chron.com/define-situational-leadership-2976.html
http://yourbusiness.azcentral.com/uses-laissezfaire-leadership-12436.html
https://rabana1.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/john-adair.jpg
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nuum-of-leadership