8 Types of Leadership Styles in Management (with Examples)

Today's topic is all about leadership styles and helping you figure out which leadership style is right for you.

Because just like a conductor that harmonizes the talents of an orchestra, leaders need to draw out the best talent in their teams to achieve a shared goal.

But how do you know what leadership style best suits your natural approach and your natural personality type?

Hey everyone and welcome to the channel. I'm Doug Howard, and I'm a leadership coach and consultant who's passionate about helping leaders like you unlock your full potential.

In this episode, we're going to explore eight distinct leadership styles and how each of them play out in real world scenarios. We're also going to help you identify your natural tendencies and your natural personality traits so that you can discover ways to develop your leadership style in a way that works for you.

1 - Transformational Leader

Let's dive into the first leadership style, the transformational leader. Transformational leaders are passionate and visionary. They inspire their teams with a clear vision for the future by motivating them to achieve extraordinary results. These leaders are skilled communicators who foster creativity and innovation within their teams.

While transformational leadership is powerful and it's a great way to get your team engaged and motivated, it's important to acknowledge that there can be a downside to this approach. What happens with transformational leaders is they tend to become over reliant on a single vision, which ends up overlooking valuable input from your team and alternate ideas from your team.

Transformational leaders share some similarities with visionary leaders, which I'm going to explain what visionary leaders are like later in this video, but what they have in common is that they both set long term visions. However, with transformational leaders, they go a step further by actively inspiring and motivating their teams to achieve that long term vision.

To give you a better idea of how transformational leaders work, let's see how a transformational leader might handle a real world situation. So I want you to imagine that your team's morale plummets after a project setback. Maybe there was a big miss on a project, or a big missed deadline, or the team didn't come through.

The point is, the team's morale is low, right? Everyone's just feeling dejected. A transformational leader wouldn't dwell on the past. They wouldn't dwell on the mistake. They wouldn't be trying to figure out who's wrong or assign blame or anything like that.

Instead, they're going to communicate a compelling vision for the future. They're going to remind everyone of the bigger picture and they're going to use that to reignite the motivation on their team. So they're always forward thinking and they're looking at how can we grow from this.

Let's take a look at how a transformational leader would handle a different scenario. I want you to imagine that someone on your team expresses a desire for professional development. They expressed to you that they want to grow in a specific area.

A transformational leader would embrace this. They're going to be all about this because they're all about transformation and they're all about helping people grow and helping their team grow and they're helping their product or whatever they're leading, whatever their mission is. They're all about transformation and moving things forward. So this is probably going to pull them away from whatever their main responsibilities are.

They're going to focus their whole attention on this when someone asks them for development. They're going to embrace this by offering guidance, offering resources, and by openly celebrating the achievements of that person. They're going to want to build that person's confidence up, and they're going to do everything they can to encourage that person's continuous growth.

Let's see if you might be a transformational leader. You should ask yourself questions like, do you find yourself passionately communicating a clear vision that inspires other people? When you're considering that, it's not just about inspiring other people on your team, but transformational leaders are great and inspiring people they don't have authority over. So are you great at inspiring peers? Are you great at inspiring your boss? Are you great at inspiring people in your personal life? Are you the type of person that naturally inspires the people around you? Other questions to consider are, do you enjoy fostering creativity? Do you enjoy fostering innovation within your team? When faced with challenges, do you focus on motivating your team to overcome the challenges together? If you answered yes to most of these questions or even a handful of them, then you might be a transformational leader.

2 - Democratic Leader

The second leadership style I want to talk about is democratic leadership, or you can also refer to this as participative leadership. Democratic leaders value collaboration and shared decision making. That's the key here. With transformational leaders that we just talked about, it's all about them creating the vision. But with democratic leadership, it's all about shared decision making and shared collaboration and shared creating that vision. So they believe in harnessing the collective wisdom of their team to achieve the best results.

Democratic leaders excel at facilitating discussions, encouraging diverse perspectives, and fostering a sense of ownership within their team. We haven't talked about coaching leaders yet. We're going to later in this video, but democratic leaders share a lot of similarities with coaching leaders because both of these types encourage input from everybody. However, one key difference is that democratic leaders focus on group decision making while coaching leaders are more likely to focus on individual development.

If you're struggling to figure out what a democratic leader looks like, let's take a look at a few real life scenarios. So let's imagine that your team is struggling to brainstorm solutions for a complex problem that they're facing. A democratic leader is going to facilitate a brainstorming session. They're going to encourage open communication and they're going to encourage diverse ideas. So they're not going to be the kind of person that says, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. They're not going to be the kind of person that rules out outside the box ideas, either.

Their approach is going to be more like let's get everyone's idea here. They're going to value every contribution from everyone. They're going to use that to help the team collectively, create that wisdom of the crowd. They're going to use that to steer the team towards a collaborative solution.

So look at it like they're more steering the collective wisdom. They're not the one that is like creating the idea. They're not the one that's going to create the solution. They're the one that's stirring the pot in a positive way to let the cream rise to the top.

Let's take a look at another scenario. Imagine that a team member disagrees with a proposed project or a proposed direction from you. A democratic leader wouldn't dismiss this. A lot of the leaders might get frustrated with someone that opposes them or dismisses their idea but, a democratic leader is going to handle this entirely differently. They're going to be very open and welcoming to constructive criticism. They're going to use that to explore alternative approaches collaboratively. Their goal isn't going to be to defend their idea or anything like that. Their goal is going to be to reach a consensus that benefits everyone on the team or all stakeholders on the project.

If you're trying to figure out if you're a democratic leader, ask yourself questions like this. Do you believe team input and collaboration? Are you comfortable with fostering open discussions and debates, and perhaps talking about difficult conversations with either one on one settings or group settings? Are you comfortable with fostering and facilitating debates within your team? Do you find yourself naturally facilitating brainstorming sessions and drawing out good ideas from other people? If you answered yes to most of these questions, then there's a good chance you're a democratic leader.

3 - Autocratic Leader

Number three, autocratic leadership. Autocratic leaders are also known as authoritarian leaders because they're very decisive and they're very directive. They excel in fast paced environments where quick decisions are necessary and where quick decisions help you be a more effective leader. These leaders provide clear direction. They delegate tasks efficiently, and they're good at holding team members accountable for results.

We haven't talked about transactional leaders yet, but autocratic leaders share a lot of similarities with transactional leaders because both of them are focused on emphasizing clear expectations and accountability throughout their team, as well as with everyone they're working with. That can be cross functional teams, managing upward, stakeholders, client expectations. They're all about clear expectations and shared accountability.

However, one key difference is that autocratic leaders provide less explanation and opportunity for input from other people. They're more directing and driving. Transactional leaders are gonna be more open to collective input from the team and more ideas and outside the box ideas.

To help you better understand autocratic leadership style, let's take a look at how an autocratic leader would handle a typical situation. So imagine a scenario where a critical deadline is looming, and the team needs a quick decision on a project approach. An autocratic leader would be more likely to analyze the situation, make a decisive choice, and then clearly communicate the plan to the team. They're not really going to be leaving it open for the team to share their ideas or brainstorm or, leave anything to chance. Basically, the solution is going to come from the autocratic leader. That leader's focus is going to be on efficiency. Their focus is going to be on ensuring that everyone understands their role to meet the deadline. They're going to leave nothing to risk, nothing to chance. They're going to make sure that they're coming up with the solution. They're dotting the I's, they're crossing the T's, they're figuring everything out from all scenarios, but they're coming up with a solution and they're communicating that out clearly to their team.

Let's take a look at another scenario. Imagine that a team member is consistently missing deadlines on their projects, and they're not meeting their performance goals. An autocratic leader would likely address this issue very quickly and directly. They might handle it by providing clear, corrective actions, and potential consequences to them for not changing their performance or improving their performance. They're going to do whatever it takes to ensure accountability for that person's future performance.

Now, just so you get, an idea of how this is different, a coaching leader might handle this differently. A coaching leader is going to have more open discussions with this person to figure out, what's the problem, how come you're struggling? Help me understand this.

The autocratic leader is not going to have those types of discussions. They're going to get straight to the point and they're going to give this person a very short leash to work with and if the person doesn't figure it out, then they're going to, probably release that person or get them out of that role and then move on.

To see if you might be an autocratic leader, ask yourself these questions. Do you find yourself thriving in fast paced environments where quick decisions are necessary? Are you comfortable with taking charge and providing clear direction to your team? Do you excel at delegating tasks and holding team members accountable for results? If you answered yes to most of these questions, then there's a good chance you're an autocratic leader.

4 - Transactional Leader

Number four, transactional leadership. Transactional leaders focus on clear expectations, performance measurement, and a system of rewards and consequences. They believe in motivating their team through transactional exchange. That means, good performance is rewarded and poor performance has consequences. These leaders are skilled at setting SMART goals. That's specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time bound goals. They're very skilled at holding regular performance reviews to provide feedback and track progress with their team.

Transaction leaders share some similarities with coaching leaders because both of them are good at providing feedback. However, transaction leaders focus on rewarding results while coaching leaders focus on development for future improvement.

To help you see how a transaction leader works in action, let's take a look at some common scenarios. So first, let's imagine that a team member is consistently missing deadlines and goals, just like in the last leadership style we looked at. A transaction leader is going to address the issue directly. They might discuss corrective actions or potential consequences like withholding a bonus or not being eligible for a raise or maybe forcing them to take additional training requirements.

Now let's take a look at another scenario. Imagine a team member is consistently exceeding expectations and consistently delivering a high quality of work. A transactional leader is going to recognize this and they're going to reward this achievement loudly and clearly. They're going to offer public praise. They're going to offer bonuses where possible. They're going to offer them more opportunities. They might give them a promotion or they're going to spend more time mentoring that person. They might give them increased responsibility, but they're going to do whatever they can to acknowledge that person's valuable contribution.

Not sure if you're a transactional leader? Ask yourself some of these questions. Do you believe in setting clear performance expectations for your team members? Are you comfortable providing regular feedback and are you comfortable with holding individuals accountable for results? Do you value rewarding achievements and recognizing exceptional performance? Are you comfortable with taking away benefits and bonuses and rewards and opportunities to someone who isn't hitting their goals and who isn't hitting their performance requirements? If you answered yes to most of these questions, then you might be a transactional leader.

5 - Coaching Leader

Number five, coaching leadership. Now, this is the leadership style that I relate to the most, and it resonates the most with me because this is what type of leadership style I had back when I was an engineering manager and a director of engineering. It's what drove me to move out of engineering management into coaching and consulting for engineering leaders and engineering companies.

Now, to help you understand what coaching leadership is, coaching leaders prioritize developing their team member skills and potential. They believe in creating a supportive environment where individuals can learn, grow, and reach their full potential. These leaders are skilled at providing constructive feedback, coaching individuals towards improvement, and celebrating their achievements.

Now, while coaching leaders share some similarities with transformation leaders who both focus on development, coaching leaders focus on individual growth while transformation leaders are focusing on inspiring the entire team towards a shared goal. That's a key difference. Coaching leaders are all about helping the individual while the transformation leader is more about helping the collective team.

Now to help you get a clear picture of what a coaching leader looks like. Imagine a scenario where someone on your team expresses the desire to learn a new skill. A coaching leader would work with the team member to identify relevant training opportunities, or provide that actual mentorship to that person themselves. They're going to create a development plan and they're going to offer ongoing support to help that team member achieve their learning goals.

Let's take a look at another scenario. Imagine someone on your team lacks confidence in their abilities, and they're struggling to take on a new task. A coaching leader isn't going to criticize. They're not going to take the project over either. Instead, they're going to offer constructive feedback, but in a way that is effective in a way that lifts that person up, because they're going to make sure that they're providing encouragement at the same time. They're going to do whatever it takes to guide that team member through the process. They're most likely going to feel compelled to put that person first, maybe even over the main goals or objectives of the project.

I had a tendency to do this a lot when I was a leader. If we had competing goals between someone on the team struggling and a company goal that wasn't being met, I usually prioritize the individual's needs over the needs of the company. That's not necessarily a good thing in all scenarios either. So I just want to be frank about that and be honest about that.

A coaching leader is going to be more compelled by helping the individual. They're going to be driven by helping that person build up their confidence and develop their skills and work through it. They're looking at it like a continuous investment in that person.

Now to see if you might be a coaching leader, ask yourself questions like this. Do you find fulfillment in helping your team members learn and grow professionally? Are you skilled at providing constructive feedback and are you skilled at coaching others towards improvement? Do you enjoy mentoring and do you enjoy empowering your team to reach their full potential? If you answered yes to most of these questions, then there's a good chance you're a coaching leader like me.

6 - Servant Leader

Number six, servant leadership. Servant leaders prioritize the needs and the well being of their team members first, and they do this by fostering a supportive and collaborative environment. They believe that the leader's role is to serve their team, not the other way around. These leaders are highly empathetic. They value open communication and they empower their team members to take ownership and make decisions.

Servant leaders share a lot of similarities with democratic leaders who both value collaboration. However, a key difference is that servant leaders take it a step further by prioritizing the team's wellbeing and putting their needs first. Servant leaders are going to be thinking more about, preventing burnout and making sure their employees feel fulfillment and are enjoying their job. They're going to make sure that there's good cohesiveness between the people on their team. Whereas maybe transactional leaders or, authoritative leaders, they're more worried about the team achieving their collective goals. I want to just point out these key differences here and I'm going to cover this more later in the episode.

Continuing on with servant leadership, let's see a servant leader in action. I want you to imagine a scenario where a team member is struggling with a personal issue that's impacting their work, or impacting their performance, or maybe it's impacting the rest of the team. A servant leader is going to prioritize their team members being, and they're going to do this by offering support. They're going to listen attentively to their concerns, and they're going to explore flexible work arrangements or other resources to help them manage their personal challenges.

Let's take a look at another scenario. Imagine someone on your team has a great new idea, but they lack the confidence to share it and speak up and share it with the rest of the team. A servant leader is gonna create a safe space for open communication, and they're gonna encourage that team member to share their ideas. They're gonna make sure that they can build that person's confidence up and coach them on how to share their ideas with other people. It's coming from a place of the servant leader, valuing that person's contribution. So they're going to do whatever it takes to empower that person to take ownership of their ideas.

Now, if you're wondering if you might be a servant leader, ask yourself the following questions. Do you prioritize the well being and the growth of your team members? Are you a good listener who creates a safe space for open communication? Do you empower your team members and encourage them to take ownership? If you answered yes to most of these questions, then you might be a servant leader.

7 - Bureaucratic Leader

Number seven is bureaucratic leadership. Bureaucratic leaders operate within a well defined structure and well defined chain of command. They emphasize following established rules, procedures, and regulations to ensure consistency and compliance. These leaders are very detail oriented, highly organized, and they excel at navigating complex procedures. They ensure all tasks are completed according to established guidelines.

Bureaucratic leaders share some similarities with autocratic leaders who also provide clear direction. However, bureaucratic leaders focus on following the existing rules, while autocratic leaders might create new rules or new processes as needed instead.

To help you get a more clear understanding of how a bureaucratic leader is going to work in action. Let's imagine that there's a new regulation being implemented within your organization. Maybe it's a new software, or maybe it's a new process or something, there's a kind of change going on against the old standard that's currently in place. A bureaucratic leader is going to carefully review the new regulation and they're going to ensure that their team understands the details and the implications. They're going to meticulously implement the required procedures. Their focus is going to be on ensuring compliance as well as adherence to the new guidelines.

Let's take a look at another scenario. Imagine someone on your team identifies a more efficient way to complete a task, but it deviates from the established procedures that are in place. A bureaucratic leader might be hesitant to approve this change because they would want to prioritize following the existing rules, even if a more efficient approach exists.

To see if you might be a bureaucratic leader, ask yourself these questions. Do you thrive in a structured environment with clear rules and procedures? Are you highly detail oriented? Do you excel at following established guidelines? Do you prioritize compliance and do you prioritize ensuring that tasks are completed according to the rules? If you answered yes to most of these questions, then there's a good chance you're a bureaucratic leader.

8 - Visionary Leader

Number eight, visionary leadership. Visionary leaders are inspiring and forward thinking. They set an ambitious, long term vision that motivates and excites their team to achieve extraordinary results. These leaders are skilled communicators who can paint a vivid picture of the future, and they're great at igniting passion and commitment within their team.

Visionary leaders share some similarities with transformational leaders, because both of them are all about inspiring their teams. However, visionary leaders focus on a long term vision for the future, while transformational leaders might focus on the shorter term goals to achieve that vision.

Let's see a visionary leader in action. I want you to imagine your team feels stuck in a rut, and they're uninspired by their daily tasks and the monotony of their work. A visionary leader would reinvigorate the team by articulating a compelling long term vision. They would explain how their current daily tasks contribute to this bigger picture, which is going to be reigniting their sense of purpose and motivation towards achieving that long term vision.

Now let's take a look at another scenario. Imagine your team is brainstorming a new product idea. A visionary leader would encourage them to think outside the box and consider innovative solutions. They're also going to challenge the status quo and inspire the team to reach for that ambitious goal. So visionary leaders are the kind of leaders that are going to be like, you know what? It's not broke, but let's break it and see if we can do something better. Let's tear this apart and see if we can make something that's bigger, better, and something that solves a problem that we didn't even know exists yet. So visionaries leaders are always thinking about what's possible and what else could be done.

To see if you might be a visionary leader. Ask yourself these questions. Do you enjoy setting ambitious long term goals, and do you enjoy inspiring others to achieve these long term goals? Are you a skilled communicator who can paint a vivid picture of the future for other people, and explain it in a way that other people will understand? Do you thrive in an environment that encourages innovation and thinking outside the box? If you answered yes to most of these questions, then there's a good chance you're a visionary leader.

Understanding Your Natural Tendencies & Adaptability

A key thing to understand here is I'm not saying any of these leadership styles are right or wrong. It's more about, different ways to accomplish the same thing, because all these leaders are essentially working to accomplish the same thing, which is, meeting team goals and, empowering their team and whatnot, but it's just different ways of doing it.

That's what's important, because it's all about understanding, a leadership style that works for you and your natural personality, because we all have different, skills, strengths and weaknesses. But when you know how to lean into those strengths and weaknesses, you can be a more effective leader.

Now that we've explored all eight leadership styles, I want you to reflect on the key characteristics and self reflection questions from each leadership style. We just reviewed. Go back and watch it again. If you need to, as you're doing this, I want you to consider which one of these leadership styles resonates the most with you.

Remember, there's no single best leadership style out there. The most successful leaders know how to adapt their approach based on the situation, the needs of their team, and the specific challenge at hand. The key is to understand your natural tendencies and how they might impact your leadership style in the moment,

Developing Your Leadership Style

No matter what your dominant leadership style is, there's always room for growth. Here are some additional tips on how to develop your leadership skills.

First, seek feedback. This means asking colleagues and superiors for your honest feedback on your leadership style and your overall leadership effectiveness. Don't be afraid to ask for specific examples of how your leadership style is perceived. This could be through informal conversations, anonymous surveys, or 360 degree feedback sessions.

You can also observe and learn. You can do this by paying attention to successful leaders around you that you admire, both within your industry and outside of your industry. It could be people that you've worked with, or it could be people that you see, through to the news, through social media, through famous business leaders or historical leaders. Once you figure out who these leaders are that you admire. Take a step back to ask yourself, what qualities do these leaders embody? Then actively seek out opportunities to observe these leaders.

If it's someone you work with, obviously you could pay attention to how they handle situations. But if it's someone you don't know, or, like a celebrity or a business leader or famous business leader or historical figure, you could do some research about this person. You could read their biography or you could read books that are about experiences they've had, and you can see how they've handled situations.

You could also do this by attending conferences where these leaders speak or watching their interviews on YouTube, or again, finding books or articles they've written.

Another tip. This one's super important is step outside your comfort zone. Expand your leadership repertoire by finding low stakes situations to try new leadership approaches. For example, if you're an autocratic leader, find a low stakes situation to try out coaching leadership or bureaucratic leadership, or any of these other leadership styles that maybe aren't your natural leadership style.

You could volunteer to lead a small project that allows you to experiment with a different leadership style. Perhaps you could take on a task that forces you to take a more collaborative approach, if your natural tendency is to be more directive.

One more thing, you can invest in leadership development. Consider leadership development courses, workshops, or coaching programs to refine your leadership skills. There are a lot of different leadership development resources available online or in person, there's books. I offer a lot of programs on my website, Doughowardcoaching.com, as well as on this YouTube channel.

There's no shortage of resources out there, so do some research to find which programs align with your specific goals and your specific learning style and your specific industry.

Actionable Tips

Before we wrap up, I want to give you actionable tips that you can put into practice right away.

Identify your leadership tendencies in action. Start paying close attention to how you react to challenges or unexpected situations at work. Does your first instinct lean towards taking charge and providing solutions? Or do you prefer to gather input and brainstorm collaboratively? Reflecting on these types of moments can shed light on your natural tendencies, so I recommend journaling about your experiences. Because this is a very helpful way to identify patterns in your leadership behavior.

The second tip I want to leave you with is adapt your leadership style based on the situation. For example, before approaching a team meeting, consider the specific goal and the dynamics of your team. Will a directive approach be the most effective way to keep a project on track? Or would a more collaborative discussion be beneficial to brainstorm new ideas and foster buy in from the team? Consider the level of experience and expertise of your team members. A more directive approach might be necessary for a new team that needs clear guidance. While a more collaborative approach might be beneficial for a seasoned team with strong problem solving skills.

The next tip is celebrate your team's successes. So make sure you're taking the time to acknowledge and celebrate your team's achievements, both big and small. This is going to help boost morale, increase motivation, and show your appreciation for your team's hard work.

Another tip I have for you is make sure you practice active listening. Make a conscious effort to truly listen to your team members, both verbally and non verbally. This means paying attention to their concerns, their ideas, and their perspectives. This is going to help you build trust and rapport with your team and it's going to allow you to make more informed decisions.

Now let's face it. Truly listening to someone is a skill that we all struggle with, even leaders. In the fast paced working world that we live in today, it's easy to get caught up in formulating our next response instead of fully absorbing what others are saying. Yet we all know active listening is a critical skill for building trust, fostering collaboration and making sound decisions.

If you want a simple technique to break this cycle and become a more mindful listener, check out my episode called Improve Your Listening Skills By The End Of This Video. You'll learn a simple and practical method to immediately boost your listening skills and become a more impactful leader.

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