Defining your personal leadership style
Leadership is often defined as the activity of providing direction, implementing plans and monitoring people. So much are being said and taught these days because the fact of the matter is that our world needs leaders in all aspects of life. What does it take to lead an organisation, whether it’s an athletic team, a non-profit, a start-up or a multi-million Rand listed Company? What does it take for a person to stand out in the crowd and lead, inspire and motivate a group of people to work towards the same goal or vision?
The good news is that these qualities that make you a leader are not only generic, but there are qualities that you can develop in order to achieve success as a leader. Qualities that are developed through attitude, habit and discipline, factors that are within everyone’s control. They will make you stand out in any setting or organisation and make you firstly a better employee, manager and leader.
Over the next couple of articles, we will look at what it takes to be a successful leader. But for now, we can start by listing the Ithat differentiates good leaders from great leaders:
- Passionate Curiosity and enthusiasm
- Asking the right questions
- Showing genuine interest in people
- Battle-hardened confidence
- Ethics amid controversy
- Being a tam player
- Having good emotional intelligence and self-awareness
- Fearlessness
- Truly embracing change
Let’s identify the three leadership styles first, described as:
- Autocratic
- Democratic
- Laissez-faire
Autocratic
|
Democratic |
Laissez-faire
|
|
Clear expectations regarding |
· What needs to be done
· When it should be done · How it should be done |
· Participative leadership
· Offers guidance to group · Help them to grow
|
· Delegative leadership
· Offers no guidance · Can work if team is highly qualified |
Who makes decision? |
Make decisions by themselves without input |
Retain the final say and make decision after input
|
Members of the group make own decisions
|
Based on what? |
Based on own ideas with little input from rest of group
|
Based on all the input from group members |
Based on each member’s own ideas |
Centre of Control |
Have total control over the group |
Make the team feel valued |
Team feel disengaged although free
|
Attributes: |
· Little input from group · Leader makes the decisions · Group leader dictates work · Members not trusted with important tasks |
· Ensure that everyone work together · Creativity is encouraged · Group members feel engaged |
· Very little guidance · Members have total freedom · Leader gives tools and resources · Members must solve problems on their own |