Knowing the Right Leadership Style to Adopt

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Being a leader is not easy. You will have to deal with a lot of things. There is a wide range of varying problems, questions and concerns that you will have to deal with on a daily basis. Of course, your success will depend on how you deal with these challenges and how you effectively respond to them. Like everything else, there are a number of options available to you when it comes to the right leadership style. These various styles will help you respond appropriately to specific situations. It is up to you to choose which style is most appropriate in a given situation.

Kinds of Leadership Styles

There are actually various types of leadership styles. They generally fall into five major categories – telling, telling and selling, consultation, participation and empowerment.

Telling is the kind of style where you basically tell people what to do and how to do it. This does not leave much room for group participation. You basically just give mandates. A slight improvement of this style is the telling and selling approach where you basically tell people what to do but you provide explanation for your mandates. The consultation style is the kind of approach where you will secure ideas from your members but you will still have the final decision. A participation approach is the kind of style where you involve the members in the whole decision process. The final method is the empowerment approach which is a bit risky but it can be quite effective. This is where you basically pass the power, authority and responsibility.

So, which is the right leadership style?

Adopting the Right Leadership Style

You cannot really just adopt one particular leadership approach and ignore the rest. All of them can be effective depending on the situation that needs to be addressed. The key, however, lies on choosing the right approach appropriate for a particular situation.

If you are dealing with someone with limited experience, a telling leadership technique maybe more appropriate. You may have to be directive in your manner. Now, if a person is not necessarily inexperienced but he may be disillusioned, you can adopt the telling and selling method. If you are dealing with a person who is capable and experienced, you may want to b boost his confidence by handling over the reins and the responsibility. That kind of member will be more productive as a surrogate leader than a meek member.

Again, you need to know when to use the right leadership style when dealing with people. This is basically the bottomline. You need to consider the personality, strengths, weaknesses and capabilities of your team and its member before you choose to adopt a particular leadership approach.

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