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6 Common Leadership Styles — and How to Decide Which to Use When

• Rebecca Knight

Being a great leader means recognizing that different circumstances call for different approaches.

Research suggests that the most effective leaders adapt their style to different circumstances — be it a change in setting, a shift in organizational dynamics, or a turn in the business cycle. But what if you feel like you’re not equipped to take on a new and different leadership style — let alone more than one? In this article, the author outlines the six leadership styles Daniel Goleman first introduced in his 2000 HBR article, “Leadership That Gets Results,” and explains when to use each one. The good news is that personality is not destiny. Even if you’re naturally introverted or you tend to be driven by data and analysis rather than emotion, you can still learn how to adapt different leadership styles to organize, motivate, and direct your team.

Much has been written about common leadership styles and how to identify the right style for you, whether it’s transactional or transformational, bureaucratic or laissez-faire. But according to Daniel Goleman, a psychologist best known for his work on emotional intelligence, “Being a great leader means recognizing that different circumstances may call for different approaches.”

• RK Rebecca Knight is a journalist who writes about all things related to the changing nature of careers and the workplace. Her essays and reported stories have been featured in The Boston Globe, Business Insider, The New York Times, BBC, and The Christian Science Monitor. She was shortlisted as a Reuters Institute Fellow at Oxford University in 2023. Earlier in her career, she spent a decade as an editor and reporter at the Financial Times in New York, London, and Boston.

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The 8 Types of Leadership Styles Explained – With Examples

Approx reading time:

At the head of every successful project is a great leader. But not all great leaders are the same. 

There are many different ways to lead a team. And different leaders have different traits that make their specific brand of leadership work. 

In this article we’re going to take a look at 8 leadership styles (with examples), so you can discover which one is the right leadership style for you, your business, and your team. 

1. Transformational Leadership

Transformational leadership is a leadership style that requires the leader to inspire employees and motivate them towards achieving their collective goal . 

Transformational leaders often embody their vision and believe in it so strongly that they can empower others to do the same.  

Transformational leadership: advantages and disadvantages

Millennials are a demographic that respond really well to transformational leadership because of the focus on aligned values.

However, even the most inspired and motivated people have a breaking point. Think of the start ups that work 80 hour weeks in a bid to disrupt their industry – yes, it’s exciting. But in the long run it can also be incredibly tiring. 

If you want to be a successful transformational leader, it’s important to strike the perfect balance.

Example of a transformational leader

There are many examples of transformational leaders throughout history, because these are exactly the type of people to go down in history. They have bold visions and they make them a reality. 

Think of Churchill’s “we shall fight on the beaches” speech. Churchill is a great example of a transformational leader that inspired an entire nation of people to work towards a common goal. 

In today’s world, Elon Musk is another example of a transformational leader. His company SpaceX was the first ever private spaceflight company to send a crewed spacecraft to space. And he is famously quoted as saying:

Richard Branson is also an excellent example of a transformational leader. His Virgin Group owns several companies across a range of industries, from broadband to international travel.

Branson himself isn’t an expert in all of these industries, but his charismatic personality gives him the power to inspire others to get excited about these ideas and make them work.

2. Autocratic Leadership

An autocratic or authoritarian leadership style imposes policies and procedures, sets expectations and defines outcomes. 

Authoritarian leaders are individuals who take full control of their team and makes all of the decisions with little input from anyone else. 

Autocratic leadership: advantages and disadvantages

On the face of it, this leadership style can sound a little tyrannical, but if the leader is the most knowledgeable person on the team – and if they act with fairness and kindness – then this leadership style can work well.

Example of an autocratic leader

Martha Stewart has her autocratic leadership style to thank for her self-made empire. She has been described as a meticulous boss that’s very demanding of her employees. 

And that’s because Stewart has a very clear vision to share with her staff and her customers. It’s this same attention-to-detail that’s boosted her to be a household name, with almost every home in America using her merchandise at one point or another. 

3. Participative (Democratic) Leadership

Also known as democratic leadership, participative leadership allows everyone on the team to get involved and work together to make important decisions.

While everyone’s input is encouraged, it’s the leader who will have the final say in the decision-making process. 

Participative leadership: advantages and disadvantages

The participative leadership style is a great way to create a culture of inclusion and it can really help employees feel more aligned with the company, which is a big focus of democratic leaders. However, we all know the saying about too many cooks!

Example of a participative leader

Southwest Airlines has had many different leaders over the years, and all of them seemed to embody the participative leadership approach.

It’s likely that this is the trait that has taken the business from a small Texas airline to a major US carrier.

Ex-CEO, James Parker referred to participative leadership in his book, Do the Right Thing :

4. Transactional Leadership

Transactional leadership uses a model of rewards and punishments to motivate employees. 

Clear goals are set at the start of a project, with everyone informed on the reward if those goals are met and the consequences if they are not. 

Transactional leadership: advantages and disadvantages

This “give and take” leadership style can motivate employees and increase productivity and satisfaction, so long as the goals outlined are clear and achievable. 

However, not everyone will be motivated by a ‘carrot and stick’ method like this, and the implementation of rigid rules makes it difficult for the business to adapt quickly if needed.

Example of a transactional leader

A classic example of a transactional leader is the ex-football manager, Sir Alex Ferguson. When he was managing Manchester United, he got a lot out of his team using this leadership style. 

Players were rewarded financially if they played well consistently. However, those that were seen as underachieving felt the wrath of Ferguson’s notorious temper. 

This is touched upon in his book, Leading , in which he states:

5. Delegative Leadership

Also known as “laissez-faire leadership”, delegative leadership is a hands-off approach that allows every team member to use their own initiative to make decisions.

There are similarities to participative leadership here, in that employees are valued for their opinions and decisions are made somewhat collectively. 

Delegative leadership: advantages and disadvantages

Delegative leadership allows employees the autonomy to make their own decisions and be rewarded for their innovation. This provides many opportunities for skills development, but can also result in accountability issues if roles and responsibilities aren’t clearly communicated .

Example of a delegative leader

The American investor, Warren Buffet has been the CEO of the holding company Berkshire Hathaway since 1970. He’s currently 93 years old and quite comfortably holds the record for longest reigning CEO of an S&P 500 company.

He’s noted as a delegative leader because of his method of empowering his employees to make their own decisions and solve their own problems. 

6. Bureaucratic Leadership

The bureaucratic leadership style puts the needs of the company first and relies on stringent rules being in place for all team members to follow. 

This is common in long-established industries where rules have been laid out by predecessors.

Bureaucratic leadership: advantages and disadvantages

The bureaucratic leadership style can be advantageous in industries where there’s little room for error, such as healthcare organisations. However, doing things just “as they’ve always been” can lead a team – and a company – to go stale and possibly fall behind. 

Example of a bureaucratic leader

Bureaucratic leaders, because of the nature of this leadership style, are typically forged by the businesses that they work for. 

An example of a business that does things as they’ve always done is McDonalds. Despite their leadership team changing over time, McDonalds has always been run in the same way because their barometer for success is profit. 

As long as the business is profitable, the shareholders are happy and the company is classed as successful – and ultimately, customers get the same experience every time. 

This is why entrepreneurs that opt to buy a McDonalds franchise are expected to adhere to strict rules and regulations when running their branch. 

7. Servant Leadership

Servant leadership places the value of the team ahead of the individual. As such, a servant leader is someone who can shed personal agendas and whose main goal is for their team (and the company) to thrive. 

Servant leaders do everything they can to serve their team and ensure that everyone is happy and fulfilled.

Servant leadership: advantages and disadvantages

Servant leaders – because of their selfless nature – see potential in their team and enjoy raising them to new heights.

However, because of this focus on serving the team, servant leaders can sometimes be undermined if they are seen as lacking authority. Plus, balancing the needs of individual employees with overall organisational success can be difficult.

Example of a servant leader

Leadership expert and author of Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t , Simon Sinek strongly believes in this leadership style. 

He explains this in more detail here: 

8. Coaching leadership

The coaching leadership style is a great way to develop your team members and get the best out of them. It involves giving employees guidance and frequent feedback to help them grow and develop.

Coaching leadership: advantages and disadvantages

Coaching is a highly nurturing leadership style, which can lead to increased job satisfaction and enhanced employee morale.

On the other hand, it’s high-maintenance and requires a lot of time and energy input. Coaching leaders need to be consistent in their feedback and guidance, which can be difficult in large teams. Plus some employees could be resistant to feedback or coaching and become demotivated as a result.

An example of a terrific leader that embodied this style was Apple’s co-founder Steve Jobs. He encouraged creativity in his team members and was known for giving them helpful criticism when necessary. His vision and use of the coaching leadership style helped to propel Apple to be the billion-dollar success it is today.

Final thoughts

There are many ways to lead your team to success. Effective leadership styles come in all shapes and sizes – and, quite simply, the most effective leadership style is the one that best suits you and your team.

However, one thing that all leaders need – regardless of style – is the correct tools at their disposal.

A project management tool can help you successfully manage your projects by keeping everything – communication, files, tasks – in one place, so that you have complete visibility of your team’s work. 

To find out more and get started for free, head to Project.co . 

Written by Samantha Ferguson

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Leadership Styles and Frameworks You Should Know

Charlotte Nickerson

Research Assistant at Harvard University

Undergraduate at Harvard University

Charlotte Nickerson is a student at Harvard University obsessed with the intersection of mental health, productivity, and design.

Learn about our Editorial Process

Saul McLeod, PhD

Editor-in-Chief for Simply Psychology

BSc (Hons) Psychology, MRes, PhD, University of Manchester

Saul McLeod, PhD., is a qualified psychology teacher with over 18 years of experience in further and higher education. He has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Clinical Psychology.

Olivia Guy-Evans, MSc

Associate Editor for Simply Psychology

BSc (Hons) Psychology, MSc Psychology of Education

Olivia Guy-Evans is a writer and associate editor for Simply Psychology. She has previously worked in healthcare and educational sectors.

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Key Takeaways

• Leadership styles refer to leaders’ characteristic behaviors in directing or managing groups of people.
• Knowing and deliberately adjusting one’s leadership style can help managers better communicate and foster positive relationships within their teams.
• Lewin and his colleagues conducted the first notable study of leadership styles on young children completing arts and crafts projects. They identified three leadership styles: autocratic, democratic, and laissez-faire.
• There are numerous leadership styles beyond those that Lewin identified. Among them are strategic, coach-style, bureaucratic, transformational, and transactional leadership.
• Each leadership style has its own advantages and disadvantages. As a result, the best leadership style for a manager to take on depends on their goals and the organizational circumstances they must cope with.

What Are Leadership Styles?

A leadership style is a leader’s characteristic behaviors when directing or managing groups of people. A person’s default leadership style is the way they feel most comfortable leading others to achieve their vision.

Barchiesi et al. (2007) measured the effect that leadership effectiveness had on the performance and attitudes of teams.

The researchers found that, while high leadership score indexes are not related to the past performance of a team, they are associated both with a higher probability that the team’s performance will increase in the future and a higher reputability of the organizations that these teams belong to.

Information about leadership style can be powerful for managers in that it gives them an awareness of how they are perceived by others.

This awareness can enable leaders to communicate better, assess others” needs, and forge positive relationships.

Lewin’s Leadership Styles

Lewin (1939) and his colleagues set out to identify different leadership styles. While other researchers have identified more, Lewin’s original work has provided a basis for more defined leadership theories.

Lewin et al. began experimental research into leadership and group processes by 1939, looking at effective work ethics under different styles of leadership.

Lewin assigned schoolchildren to one of three groups with an authoritarian, democratic, or laissez-faire leader and then led an arts and crafts project.

Autocratic Leadership

Autocratic leadership , otherwise known as autocratic leadership, is focused on the leader. Authoritarian leaders provide clear expectations around what needs to be done, when it should be done, and when it should be done.

As a result, there is a division between the leader and members as the leader makes decisions independent of the group.

Because only one person is the decision-maker in this style, decision-making can be much faster than it is in other leadership styles. This can achieve the performance and decrease the stress of certain groups — such as small teams or countries in a life-or-death conflict.

On the downside, however, Autocratic leadership can lead to fear and frustration among those who follow the leader, as they feel that they are not being heard.

On the upper level, an autocratic leadership style can lead to new opportunities from those below the leader being missed and, ultimately, a breakdown in communication.

As a result, decision-making tends to be less creative. Lewin also concluded that moving from an authoritarian to a democratic style, or vice-versa, is more difficult than moving between other leadership styles.

For these reasons, autocratic leadership styles are best to use when quick decisions are needed, when close supervision is necessary, and when workflows need to be streamlined quickly.

The most famous autocratic leaders are dictators such as Adolph Hitler and Napoleon Bonaparte; however, there are situations where the style can provide good outcomes.

Consider the distribution of supplies and evacuation plans proceeding and following a natural disaster. If this natural disaster was particularly unexpected, those who normally make decisions about, say, rescuing others and distributing food may have very little time to make a decision.

Leadership styles that slow down the pace of decision-making — such as democratic or laissez-faire leadership — have considerable disadvantages over an autocratic style that allows the leader to quickly make decisions.

Autocratic leadership styles are also useful in situations where subordinates know little about the problem at hand and do not have the time to learn. For example, consider a plane that lands on water.

The flight attendants on the plane have a limited amount of time to evacuate the passengers on specialized life rafts.

In this situation, the flight attendants may lead the passengers autocratically, providing precise instructions for the passengers to follow for the task at hand.

Democratic Leadership

Lewin’s original (1939) study on schoolchildren found that, generally, participative or democratic leadership was most often the most effective in making arts and crafts.

Democratic leaders offer guidance to group members while also allowing participation and input from other group members. While children in this group were less productive than those of the authoritarian group, their contributions were of a higher quality.

In contrast to autocratic leadership, those who use democratic leadership focus on the team, meaning that team members share decision-making.

The shared decision-making of democratic teams can reduce the risk of complete failure, as members bring their own perspectives to their decisions, as well as leading to higher team morale and a more cooperative working environment.

On the downside, democratic leadership can lead to slow decision-making as well as an over-dependence of individuals on the team. These two factors can combine to create a collaborative burden.

According to Lewin, democratic leadership is best used when team members are experts, and it is necessary to create ownership.

Democratic leaders aim to empower subordinates by allowing them to participate in decision-making; however, ultimately, the final decision is up to the leader.

Two historical examples of successful democratic leadership are that of General Dwight Eisenhower and Nelson Mandela.

In the business world, a democratic CEO may participate in meetings with their subordinates, where participants can put forth their opinions, and silent team members are specifically asked for their opinions to make sure all perspectives are heard.

For example, in deciding how highly to price a product, the democratic leader may consider the feedback and opinions of a large group before coming to a final decision.

Laissez-faire Leadership

In laissez-faire leadership, the leader allows the team to self-direct rather than interfering directly with decision-making. In this style, all of the authority to set goals, solve problems, and make decisions is given to subordinates.

From the leader’s perspective, the goal of laissez-faire leadership is to build a strong team and then avoid interference.

Laissez-faire leaders are typically concerned with the creation and articulation of their vision as well as which steps to take to achieve their vision.

However, once the leader’s vision has been articulated, it then becomes the team’s task to figure out how to implement it.

Laissez-faire leadership tends to work in the high levels of an organization, where senior leaders appoint other senior leaders and allow them to solve particular problems (Lewin, 1939).

One advantage of laissez-faire leadership is that it creates personal responsibility. Another is that it supports fast course corrections, as motivated people working autonomously overcome problems and adjust their direction far more quickly than they would if they needed to seek approval.

Lastly, laissez-faire leadership supports higher retention within organizations (Chaudhry & Javed, 2012).

Laissez-faire leadership tends to work best in situations where an organization’s team members are highly skilled and thus able to overcome barriers more quickly than they would if they were waiting for the leader to create a response to the problem.

Perhaps the most notable example of laissez-faire leadership in the business world is Warren Buffet.

For example, consider a research lab with many highly skilled scientists working on their own projects.

During the group meeting, the lab’s leader may sit in the chair, only offering their opinion when it is specifically sought out by a team member.

Individual team members may bring up their problems and solve them through the efforts of the group, but not the leader.

As a result, each scientist is able to exercise autonomy and hold a sense of personal responsibility for their research.

Additional Leadership Styles and Models

Transformational leadership.

Transformational leaders model behavior, set clear goals, have high expectations, and offer support. At the core of the style is the presentation of a compelling vision and a set of values to work by.

Transformational leaders create a culture that tends to avoid blame rather than focusing on the problems that the team faces collectively and how these can be solved.

Transformational leaders are often known as “quiet leaders,” preferring to model behavior rather than explicate it.

They are also known for not making detailed plans, instead facilitating conversations between people inside and outside of an organization to achieve their end.

On the upside, transformational leadership can balance the need for both short and long-term goals. Subordinates often trust transformational leaders because they behave with integrity and form coalitions.

Thirdly, transformational leaders have vision-focused communication. By communicating about a long-term goal objectively and passionately, transformational leaders can keep everyone in the organization motivated and brought in to achieve the vision.

However, there are also disadvantages to transformational leadership. Firstly, it can be ineffective in the beginning. This happens because transformational leadership is based on trust.

At the beginning of their tenure, before they have built trust and collaboration within their organization, it may be difficult for others to unite with the leader in pursuing a shared goal.

Another disadvantage of transformational leadership is its de-emphasis on details.

Because transformational leaders are motivated to inspire others, they can struggle with the details of day-to-day implementation.

Transformational leadership is most effective when a team needs a long-term inspiring vision, when the right to lead has been earned, and when an urgent, short-term focus is not necessary.

Transformational leadership is often not appropriate when someone is new to an organization and has yet to build trust with their team.

Transactional Leadership

The transactional leadership style views the relationship between leaders and followers as a transaction. In this view, the follower joins the leader and agrees to be compensated for meeting specific goals or performance criteria.

The transactional leader then validates the relationship between performance and reward in a way that encourages the subordinate to improve performance.

According to Kahai et al. (2004), group efficacy was higher under the transactional leadership condition than others.

Transactional leaders tend to focus on task completion and employee compliance and rely heavily on organizational rewards and punishments (Burns, 2003).

Illustrative Example: Transformational and Transactional Leadership in Sales

Transactional leadership is common in situations where a leader’s relationship with their subordinate consists of the leader purchasing some product or resource from that subordinate.

This can often be seen in sales roles, where employees receive commissions — a portion of the price of the product that they are selling to someone else — in exchange for good performance.

Although transactional leadership is seen as the most common style in sales, there have been studies that show that transformational leadership may actually improve performance more.

For instance, MacKenzie, Podsakoff, and Rich (2001) examined the impact of transformational and transactional leadership behaviors on sales performance and the extent to which salespeople believe that they are part of an organization, as well as the mediating role played by trust and role ambiguity in the process.

The researchers found that transformational leader behaviors actually have a stronger direct and indirect relationship with sales performance and organizational citizen behavior than transactional leader behaviors, accounting for biases.

Strategic Leadership

Strategic leadership balances the ability to influence teams to make decisions that lead to long-term success with understanding the current cultural and financial context of the organization. By doing this, strategic leaders can link long-range visions and concepts to daily work.

According to Davies and Davies (2004), strategic leaders have the organizational ability to:

• be strategically oriented;
• translate strategy into action;
• align people and organizations;
• determine effective strategic intervention points;
• develop strategic competencies.

Strategic leaders have these organizational abilities because they display:

• dissatisfaction or restlessness with the present;
• absorptive capacity;
• adaptive capacity;

Like transformational leadership, strategic leadership is visionary, focusing on understanding the current existing realities while also developing a clear sense of direction for the organization (Korac-Kakabadse & Kakabadse, 1998).

On the upside, this “visioning” can encourage debate and create strategic conversations based on future scenarios (Davies & Davies, 2007).

However, powerful visions can actually do damage to an organization.

By creating and communicating a clear vision and by creating conditions that require a leader’s followers to commit themselves to that vision, Schwenk (1997) argues, a leader is in danger of imposing uniformity of thinking and stifling healthy debate, destroying dissent and discussion which are essential to creative decision making.

Bureaucratic Leadership

Bureaucratic leadership relies on a clear hierarchy, strict regulations, and conformity by its followers.

The style aims to acquire rationality as well as avoid ambiguity (Aydin, 2010). The style is characterized by:

• Well-structured management, often with written rules and regulations. Hers, managers must pay attention to details and formal rules that outline the rights and responsibilities of subordinates;
• A formal, well-defined, hierarchical structure where subordinates are selected and promoted based on qualification and specialization;
• Strong managers who work on maintaining the well-structured framework for what is oftentimes a large workforce; and,
• Task-oriented managers who clearly defined tasks to subordinates and put forth guidelines.

Bureaucratic leadership is advantageous in that it is scalable and predictable, seeks to create best practices, leads to a strong level of job security, centralizes duties and roles within teams, and encourages familiarity (Kaleem, Asad, & Khan, 2013).

However, the style also tends to limit forward movement within organizations, may lead to stifled productivity, is often based on a quotas system, often bases decisions on cost structures, allows less space for team input and creativity than some other styles, is not necessarily efficient, and can be difficult in the face of change.

Coach-Style Leadership

Coach-style leadership is characterized by collaboration and guidance. Leaders focus on recognizing each team member’s strengths, weaknesses, and motivations in order to help them improve.

In opposition to Lewin’s autocratic-style leadership, coach-style leaders focus on bringing out the best in individual team members over top-down decision-making.

Over time, this leads to short-term problem-solving being replaced by longer-term strategic thinking (Berg & Karlsen, 2016).

Coach-style leadership has many characteristics. Lee et al. (2020) explicate on them as:

• Feedback was provided by both management and the team. Everyone, regardless of their status in the organization, is encouraged to take constructive feedback and act upon it.
• Leaders become effective communicators who share, engage, and listen to the team.
• Delegation is effective and deliberate. This enables employees to work to their strengths and grow their skills. Team members are credited with their successes.
• The leader’s objective is to help their teams visualize the goals behind what they are doing. After communicating this vision, leaders can allow their subordinates the autonomy to complete their own work.
• Micromanaging is discouraged. Instead, the coach-style leader is motivated to enable others to succeed and reach personal and group goals.
• Clear empathy and awareness in the leader’s actions and communication.
• Encouraging the personal and professional development of employees.
• Opportunities for individual growth and creative thinking.

Coach-style leadership can be effective in environments where people lack the skills or knowledge to reach a shared vision or have otherwise become worn down by providing direction and motivation and encouraging skill development. This results in a more robust and effective team.

Addition positives of coach-style leadership include (Lee et al., 2020):

• Employees who spend more time sharing knowledge and engaging in growth and development;
• Lower staff turnover;
• A greater awareness of the challenges an organization faces and more creativity in how they can be resolved;
• Long-term, sustainable performance improvements;
• A feeling that staff benefit from being valued and increasingly related to the environment;
• An increased sense of competence among staff and timely, constructive feedback that helps them continue their development;
• Constructive two-way communication and collaboration;
• A supportive environment enabling creativity;
• Increased trust and empathy in leaders; and,
• Greater autonomy as employees find solutions to their own problems.

Nonetheless, coach-style leadership also has disadvantages (Lee, 2020):

• Leads to longer delivery times for tasks and goal completion. This makes coach-style leadership difficult to implement in a fast-paced, high-pressure, or in companies that want timely, predictable results;
• It is difficult to implement if staff are unwilling to receive or are fearful of negative feedback;
• Requires managers to spend more time with their staff.

One notable example of coach-style leadership is that at Microsoft. When Satya Nadella became CEO of Microsoft in 2014, the culture was stagnant and fixed.

Nadella encouraged his staff to learn from mistakes rather than avoiding or hiding from them, shifting the company from one that valued “knowing” to one valuing learning.

Participative Leadership

Participative leadership is one of the four participative decision-making styles. It is a leadership style in which, as the name suggests, all team members are encouraged to provide input and thoughts about group goals and decisions.

Some well-known examples of participative leaders include Bill Gates and Jim Lentz.

Further reading

• Hersey, P., & Blanchard, K. H. (1969). Life cycle theory of leadership. Training & Development Journal.
• Wang, H., & Guan, B. (2018). The positive effect of authoritarian leadership on employee performance: The moderating role of power distance. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 357.
• Gastil, J. (1994). A meta-analytic review of the productivity and satisfaction of democratic and autocratic leadership. Small Group Research, 25(3), 384-410.

Barchiesi, M. A., La Bella, A. (2007). Leadership styles of the world’s most admired companies: A holistic approach to measuring leadership effectiveness. International Conference on Management Science & Engineering.

Berg, M. E., & Karlsen, J. T. (2016). A study of coaching leadership style practice in projects. Management Research Review .

Burns, J. M. (2003). Transforming leadership: A new pursuit of happiness . Grove Press.

Chaudhry, A. Q., & Javed, H. (2012). Impact of transactional and laissez faire leadership style on motivation. International Journal of Business and Social Science , 3 (7).

Davies, B. J., & Davies, B. (2004). Strategic leadership. School leadership & management , 24 (1), 29-38.

Kahai, S. S., Sosik, J. J., & Avolio, B. J. (2004). Effects of participative and directive leadership in electronic groups. Group & Organization Management , 29 (1), 67-105.

Kaleem, Y., Asad, S., & Khan, H. (2013). Leadership styles and using appropriate styles in different circumstances.

Korac-Kakabadse, A., Korac-Kakabadse, N., & Myers, A. (1998). Demographics and leadership philosophy: exploring gender differences. Journal of Management Development .

Lee, A., Legood, A., Hughes, D., Tian, A. W., Newman, A., & Knight, C. (2020). Leadership, creativity and innovation: a meta-analytic review. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology , 29 (1), 1-35.

Lewin, K. (1939). Experiments in social space. Harvard Educational Review.

MacKenzie, S. B., Podsakoff, P. M., & Rich, G. A. (2001). Transformational and transactional leadership and salesperson performance. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 29(2), 115-134.

Schwenk, C. R. (1997). The case for ‘weaker leadership. Business Strategy Review, 8(3), 4-9.

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3 Common Leadership Styles & How to Identify Yours

• 22 Oct 2019

Leadership is an indispensable skill that can drive career advancement. According to a recent survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers , leadership is one of the top attributes sought by hiring managers on a job seeker’s resume.

Effective leadership can lead to organizational success, too. A recent report by global consulting firm DDI found that companies committed to developing employees with high leadership potential are four times more likely to financially outperform those that don’t.

To take charge of your professional development and boost performance at your organization, it’s vital to establish a personal leadership style that informs how you handle demanding situations and motivate colleagues.

Before diving into some of the ways you can identify and develop your leadership approach , it’s important to understand what the term “leadership style” means.

What Is a Leadership Style?

A leadership style entails the patterns of behavior that are consistent across how you make decisions, interact with others, and use your time. It’s also characterized by how your colleagues would describe their working relationship with you.

In the online course Leadership Principles , Harvard Business School Professors Anthony Mayo and Joshua Margolis explain that your leadership style can be examined through three frameworks:

• Imprint: The way you’re experienced by those you work with and lead
• Functions: The practices you employ to mobilize colleagues and get things done
• Motivations: The desire, stimulus, or incentive that drives you to take a certain course of action

Using these frameworks, you can hone your personal style and become more effective in your role. But first, here’s a look at three common leadership styles that can inform how you determine the approach that works best for you.

3 Common Leadership Styles

Leadership imprint, one of the key tenets of leadership style, can be mapped along seven dimensions and consolidated into three primary groups. Those groups are:

1. Approachability

Approachability is comprised of authenticity and warmth—attributes that help you forge deeper connections with teammates. Being an approachable leader means conveying openness and showing empathy in your interactions.

This leadership style requires a high degree of emotional intelligence , or the ability to understand and manage your emotions, as well as those of others. According to EQ provider TalentSmart, emotional intelligence is the highest predictor of workplace performance , underscoring how important it is for you to hone this highly valued skill.

2. Credibility

Credibility encompasses competence, humility, and resolve. This leadership style imparts knowledge and authority. A credible leader can set a plan and guide others in the right direction.

This leadership style involves a great deal of trust between you and your employees, and requires strong decision-making skills, even when faced with difficult choices . Sharpening your ability to make tough calls can not only enable you to become a more effective leader , but help your team build resilience.

3. Aspiration

Aspiration is a combination of two leadership imprints: Elevation and faith. Elevation refers to the ability to set high expectations others feel motivated to pursue, while faith is the capacity to create a sense of belief and confidence in what can be achieved.

An aspirational leader brings out the best in both themselves and others. Through empowering employees and nurturing their growth, you can cultivate a high-performing team that’s driven to achieve organizational goals.

Related: 6 Characteristics of an Effective Leader

How to Identify Your Leadership Style

Understanding common leadership styles and the imprints they’re comprised of is just one part of developing your personal approach. Here are three ways you can expand on that knowledge and identify your own.

1. Build Self-Awareness

Being an effective leader starts with knowing yourself. Through honest reflection and self-assessment—using tools like the Myers-Briggs test or similar resources—you can gain a deeper understanding of your strengths and weaknesses and build greater self-awareness .

Research shows that leaders with high degrees of self-awareness are more effective in their roles, have better work relationships, and report lower levels of stress.

Look to your colleagues for feedback. Be open to their perspectives on your leadership tendencies so you can identify areas for improvement and growth.

2. Consider Your Core Functions as a Leader

Examining your leadership functions is the second of the three frameworks for developing your personal style. In Leadership Principles , two sets of practices are explored:

• Structure and direction: The behaviors you employ to mobilize others and clearly communicate tasks that need to be done
• Support and development: The behaviors you exhibit to rally others and provide instructional guidance

It’s important to use self-assessment to determine where you tend to fall on the spectrum between these two sets of practices. This knowledge can enable you to adapt your leadership approach to different business challenges, and figure out which function you should bolster to be more effective in your role.

3. Understand Your Motivations

Motivating your team members and equipping them with the resources to succeed is one of your key functions as a leader. But it’s important to also understand what inspires you to do your best work.

In examining your motivations as a leader, consider what external rewards stimulate you, such as salary and perks. Take stock of intangible forms of motivation as well, such as a sense of belonging at your organization or the opportunity to work on new and exciting projects.

With an innate sense of what drives you to perform at your best, you can, in turn, unleash that potential in others, enabling them to develop and deliver in the face of organizational challenges.

Related: 4 Tips for Developing Your Personal Leadership Style

Developing Your Leadership Style

Identifying and refining your personal leadership style is a process. By understanding common approaches to leadership, practicing self-assessment, and garnering feedback from colleagues, you can heighten your self-awareness and build a foundation upon which you can continue to learn and grow.

Do you want to enhance your leadership skills? Download our free leadership e-book and explore our online course Leadership Principles to discover how you can become a more effective leader and unleash the potential in yourself and others.

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Self-Assessment • 20 min read

What's Your Leadership Style?

Learn About the Strengths and Weaknesses of the Way You Like to Lead

Written by Cat MacLeod

Reviewed by Keith Jackson

When we lead for the first time, we might adopt a style of leadership that we've experienced from someone else, or that we've heard or read about. If it seems to work, we'll likely stick with it – in effect, it becomes "our" style.

But there are many approaches available to us, and a good leader is able to adapt their style according to the situation and the people involved.

This quiz will help you to identify the style that you naturally lean toward, and introduce you to alternative approaches that you might find it helpful to develop, and the occasions when they may be appropriate.

We've based our questions on psychologist Kurt Lewin's Leadership Styles Framework – a model developed in the 1930s that is still popular and useful today.

Instructions

For each question, complete the statement by choosing one of the three options: A, B or C. Please answer according to how you would behave in reality , rather than how you think you should behave . When you're finished, please click the "Calculate My Total" button at the bottom of the test, and go on to read the guidance that follows.

Do you believe that you can adapt your style? Harvard University professor Ron Heifetz and leadership experts David Rooke and William Torbert say that you can. So let's look in more depth at Lewin's leadership styles, their strengths and risks, and how you might become more skillful in using them.

Authoritarian, Autocratic Leadership

This approach is helpful when your team needs to follow a process "to the letter," to manage a significant risk. It's also effective when you need to be hands-on with people who miss deadlines, in departments where conflict is an issue, or in teams that rely on quick decisions being made.

But you need to be aware that relying on control and punishment to maintain standards will likely drive people away. Similarly, if you always demand that your team works at top speed, you can end up exhausting everyone.

Instead, you can show respect for team members by providing the rationale for your decisions. And they will more likely comply with your expectations if you take the trouble to explain Why the Rules Are There .

You can improve your ability to "lead from the front" by Planning for a Crisis , Thinking on Your Feet , and making good decisions under pressure. But be sure to balance these skills with an awareness of their potential negative impact on creativity, ideas gathering, motivation, and trust within the team.

Being too autocratic can also mean that you'll find it hard to stand back from the detail and take a wider, more strategic view.

Did you achieve your leadership role thanks to your technical expertise? If so, you'll likely be used to getting things right, adding value, and having people's respect. But your soft skills might be lacking, so don't be afraid to listen and collaborate more.

Democratic, Participative Leadership

With this approach, you set goals, guide team discussions, and make the final decision. But you also acknowledge that your people can have valuable insight into a problem or process, so you actively consult them . As a result, you'll likely gain creative input and fresh ideas that you wouldn't have come up with if you were working alone.

You might wonder how to manage differing opinions in the team, once you've invited participation in this way. Your goal is to build a culture in which people can have healthy debates with one another. So:

• Set an example by being open and flexible yourself.
• Make mutual respect a priority, to ensure everyone's participation.
• Learn some Conflict Resolution skills.
• Read our article on Managing Emotion in Your Team .

Be aware that processes could become dangerously slow if you involve your team members in every decision. You'll need to judge carefully whether you need to adopt a more autocratic approach, even if it's only briefly.

The Delegating, "Laissez Faire" Leader

"Laissez faire" is a French phrase adopted into English that means, "Let (people) do (as they choose)." It describes a policy of leaving situations to run their own course, without interfering.

By adopting this style of leadership, you empower your team to make decisions and to organize its own processes, with little or no guidance. The danger of this approach is that situations can collapse into chaos if your people have low motivation or poor skills. It can work, however, if they are experienced, knowledgeable, confident, creative, and driven, or if deadlines are flexible and processes are simple.

Be in no doubt, though, that as the leader you will still be held accountable for the outcome! So you might want to organize team decision making processes to support your people while you take a "hands off" approach. Just be sure to delegate the right task to the right person, as a mismatch could mean that the whole team fails.

Avoid becoming too remote, even with a high-performing, highly autonomous team. Change can occur at any time in business, so your organization's requirements for your team might shift after your initial brief. If this happens, stay in touch with your people, and communicate clearly and promptly. Remember, you can offer your support without becoming a micromanager !

Consistently excellent and long-lasting teams tend to have transformational leaders . These leaders have high expectations for, and set a fine example to, their people. And they inspire them to reach for the seemingly impossible.

Further Reading:

We have numerous resources on leadership styles and approaches in our Leadership Skills toolkit. You might find the following articles helpful:

Eric Flamholtz and Yvonne Randle's Leadership Style Matrix .

The Blake-Mouton Managerial Grid .

Robert House's Path-Goal Theory .

Goleman et al's Six Emotional Leadership Styles .

Tannenbaum and Schmidt's Leadership Continuum .

Rath and Conchie's Strengths-Based Leadership .

Greenleaf's Servant Leadership .

Collins' Level 5 Leadership .

We all tend toward one leadership style more than another, due to our personal preferences, abilities, role models, and more.

But one approach doesn't fit all scenarios: some situations and people call for a fast, firm, top-down approach, while others flourish with shared responsibilities and the freedom to plan, decide and act.

You and your team will likely perform better if you develop a wide set of styles to apply as appropriate.

Kurt Lewin's model expresses this range of styles in relatively simple terms, from Authoritarian or Autocratic, through Democratic or Participative, to Delegating or "Laissez Faire."Transformational leadership is the best approach for most situations.

This assessment has not been validated and is intended for illustrative purposes only. It is just one of many that help you evaluate your abilities in a wide range of important career skills.

If you want to reproduce this quiz, you can purchase downloadable copies in our Store .

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Comments (1)

Denise Beckles

Great materials and well researched. Video reinforcement on topic is well explained. It would help to use models which imbed diversity.

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Module 10: Leadership

Assignment: evaluating leadership, preparation.

In your readings on Leadership, you learned the difference between management and leadership, as well as traits, styles, and situations of leaders and leadership. Many modern-day leaders were profiled in the text, including:

• Warren Buffett
• Martin Winterkorn
• Carrie Toldstedt
• Ginni Rometty
• Mark Zuckerberg

In this assignment, you will research and write about a modern leader of your choice. You may not select one of the leaders listed above .  The following steps will help you prepare for your written assignment:

• Thoroughly read the Leadership module.
• Carefully consider the traits, styles, and differing situations for leadership in today’s organizations.
• Select a leader to profile in your written report. You may select one you admire, or a “good example of a bad example.”  There are numerous websites naming leaders to get you started.  A quick search on “famous contemporary leaders” revealed millions of possible lists, OR you may select a leader in your personal or professional life: your boss, a coach, a team leader, etc.
• Research your chosen leader, identifying evidence of his/her traits, styles, and leadership situations. Relate your findings to the module concepts. For example, how did your chosen leader demonstrate the trait of “desire to lead”?  Prepare examples.
• First, introduce your leader, and state why you selected him/her. Was their leadership effective or not effective?
• Next, expand upon the traits and style of your leader, including at least three properly referenced and defined terms from the module reading. For example, if you select Drive, describe what the term means in the context of leadership and how your leader demonstrates it.
• Next, describe the leadership situation your chosen leader was in, using one of the Situational Leadership Models from the module reading. For example, if your leader was charged with a group of new or low-competence employees, did they use the Selling style prescribed by Ken Blanchard?
• Finally, conclude with a short description of your personal leadership style and how effective it has been for you to date.

Your written assignment will be graded using the  Written Assignment Rubric . Please review and keep it in mind as you prepare your assignment. Each component is weighted as follows:

10% Organization and Format

Adequate: Writing is coherent and logically organized, using a format suitable for the material presented. Transitions used between ideas and paragraphs create coherence. Overall unity of ideas is supported by the format and organization of the material presented.

40% Content

Adequate: All required questions are addressed with thoughtful consideration reflecting both proper use of content terminology and additional original thought. Some additional concepts are presented from properly cited sources, or originated by the author following logic and reasoning they’ve clearly presented throughout the writing.

40% Development – Critical Thinking

Adequate: Content indicates original thinking, cohesive conclusions, and developed ideas with sufficient and firm evidence. Ideas presented are not merely the opinion of the writer, and clearly address all of the questions or requirements asked with evidence presented to support conclusions drawn.

10% Grammar, Mechanics, Style

Adequate: Writing is free of spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors, allowing the reader to follow ideas clearly. There are no sentence fragments and run-ons. The style of writing, tone, and use of rhetorical devices is presented in a cohesive style that enhances the content of the message.

• Assignment: Evaluating Leadership . Authored by : Betty Fitte and Lumen Learning. License : CC BY: Attribution

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• Course Design , Teaching Strategies

Teaching Leadership Styles through Superheroes: A Creative Business Assignment

• October 30, 2024
• Molly Wickam, PhD

As educators, we’re always looking for ways to engage students with practical, real-world applications of business concepts. Generation Z, commonly defined as people born between 1996 and 2010, are known as digital natives because they have grown up using the Internet and other technologies (“What is Gen Z”, 2024). Generation Z has been coined “the Superhero Generation” (Luttrell & McGrath, 2021, p. xvii) because of their fascination with superheroes and the ways their generational cohort mimics the superheroes they have grown up watching. For instance, just like superheroes such as Clark Kent as Superman and Diana Prince as Wonder Woman have two distinct identities, Generation Z often has a distinct online identity and a real-world identity. For example, it is common to build an avatar when playing video games. 

In my college-level Fundamentals of Business course, I’ve found success using unconventional but effective instructional strategies to teach leadership styles: superheroes. By examining the leadership traits of iconic characters like Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, and Wonder Woman, students understand how different leadership styles function, when they’re effective, and where they fall short. This creative approach resonates with students and helps bridge the gap between theoretical concepts and practical business applications.

The Assignment: Exploring Leadership Through Superheroes

In this assignment, students are asked to compare five leadership styles—autocratic, democratic, laissez-faire (sometimes called free-rein style), transactional, and transformational—with the leadership qualities of at least three superheroes. The goal is to help students better understand various leadership styles and how they can be applied in a business management context. This assignment has four parts:

• Part I : An overview of the five leadership styles, where students understand, define, and analyze key characteristics.
• Part II : A detailed comparison of three superheroes and how their leadership traits align with the leadership styles analyzed in Part I. Students answer these questions: Which leadership style(s) does the superhero exhibit and why? How does the superhero’s leadership style impact their team/allies? Are there instances where the superhero’s leadership style is particularly effective or ineffective?
• Part III : Students synthesize their findings by comparing the superheroes’ leadership approaches to a business management context.
• Part IV : Conclusion and Reflection: Students reflect on key takeaways from the assignment, discussing insights gained about the relationship between leadership styles, teamwork, and organizational success. 

The assignment encourages students to engage with business concepts in a creative and relatable way, using fictional characters as a springboard for deeper discussion and analysis.

Applying Leadership Style to Superheroes 

Before diving into the superhero assignment, students first need to establish a clear understanding of each leadership style. I ask them to read the textbook chapter  (Skripak et al., 2023) on management and leadership to get a foundational grasp. Topics in this chapter include the management process, management styles, and skills needed by management such as communication, decision-making, and time-management skills. After reading this information, students are then asked to apply it to three superheroes of their choosing. I encourage them to select characters from popular culture—whether from comic books, films, or television—so they can connect leadership concepts to characters they already know and admire.

For example, students may choose Iron Man (Tony Stark), who exemplifies autocratic leadership. Tony’s leadership style in the early Marvel movies is centered on his own intelligence and vision. He often makes decisions quickly and independently, expecting others to follow his lead without question (Wiyono, n.d.). This can be seen in his decision to build Ultron in Avengers: Age of Ultron (Marvel Studios, 2015), where his autocratic approach leads to catastrophic results. However, as the series progresses, Tony begins to exhibit transformational leadership qualities, particularly when he mentors Spider-Man, inspiring him to be more than just a hero in a suit. Another example is Captain America (Steve Rogers), a prime example of democratic leadership. Captain America is known for his collaborative approach, consistently seeking input from his team before making decisions. Whether it’s rallying the Avengers to take on Loki in The Avengers (Marvel Studios, 2012) or negotiating with the Sokovia Accords in Captain America: Civil War (Marvel Studios, 2016), Steve’s leadership style fosters loyalty and trust.

Wonder Woman (Diana Prince) is another interesting superhero. She combines transformational leadership with moments of laissez-faire leadership. Her transformational qualities are clear in her mission to inspire others to fight for justice and peace, seen throughout Wonder Woman (Warner Bros., 2017). Yet, at times, she allows her team members to take the lead, trusting them to make decisions independently. This balance between collaboration and autonomy is an important consideration in modern business management contexts.  

Using Superheroes to Teach Leadership in Business Contexts  

In my experience, using superheroes to teach leadership in business contexts brings energy and relevance to the classroom. Students engage more deeply with the material because they can see leadership in action, even in a fictional setting. Superheroes provide a common cultural reference point, making abstract business concepts more tangible. When students can identify with the characters, they are more likely to understand and internalize the lessons. 

Other educators have also found this approach useful. Yang (2003) found that using comic books as a teaching tool increased student motivation. Similarly, a comic book writing assignment was given in an eighth grade advanced mathematics class. One of the students wrote a comic book titled The Adventures of Supercow and Frost that depicted superheroes protecting their city from a sunbeam by finding the area of an irregular polygon (Reilly, 2024). Burton (2008) studied the use of superhero films, specifically the X-Men the Movie (Singer, 2000) as a pedagogical method of understanding course concepts such as leadership, ethics, legal issues, decision-making, and motivation in an undergraduate management course. Students were able to identify ethical and unethical leadership traits of superheroes and connect superheros’ actions to their own workplace experiences. 

Reflection and Conclusion

The superhero assignment offers students a fresh way to explore essential business concepts. By analyzing the leadership styles of characters like Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, and Wonder Woman, students gain insights into how different approaches to leadership can succeed or fail in various business contexts. This assignment could be modified in several ways. More diverse superhero examples, including characters from different cultural backgrounds or lesser-known comics, could be integrated to broaden students’ perspectives. For example, Marvel Comics Black Panther, also known as T’Challa, is the superhero king of Wakanda, a fictional African nation (“Black Panther,” 2024). Additionally, a collaborative element could be integrated into the curriculum by adding online class discussions or an oral presentation about students’ chosen superheroes. Finally, a textbook such as Lead Like a Superhero: What Pop Culture Icons Can Teach Us About Impactful Leadership (Richard, 2017) could be added to the course to give students more information about the characteristics of various superheroes and how they emulate leadership characteristics. 

This creative, practical assignment helps students engage with leadership theory in business contexts in an engaging way. Whether they end up fighting crime or making a positive difference in their business careers, my hope is that they will remember the lessons learned from analyzing their favorite superheroes. Superheroes, like business leaders, have multifaceted characteristics that are far from perfect, and this exploration of their characteristics helps students develop a more nuanced understanding of leadership in business contexts.

Molly J. Wickam, MBA, PhD., is a Professor of Education & Business/Leadership at Bethel University, St. Paul, MN. 

Black panther (character). (2024, September). In Wikipedia . https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Panther_(character)

Burton, C.H. (2008). Superhero as metaphor: Using creative pedagogies to engage. International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 2 (2), 1-20. https://doi.org/10.20429/ijsotl.2008.020207  

 DC Kids. (n.d.). DC super hero girls | Wonder woman’s acts of leadership. [Video]. https://youtu.be/Vx8cXl9k1J0?si=ALS1j4mPDdfR801H

Jenkins, P. (Director). (2017). Wonder woma n [Film]. Warner Bros. 

Luttrell, R., & McGrath, K. (2021). Gen Z: The superhero generation. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

McKinsey & Company. (2024). What is Gen Z? https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/mckinsey-explainers/what-is-gen-z

Reilly, E. M. (2014). Superheroes in math class: Using comics to teach diversity awareness. Works & Days , 32 .

Richard, S. (2017). Lead like a superhero: What pop culture icons can teach us about impactful leadership . Morgan James Publishing.

Russo, A., & Russo, J. (Directors). (2016). Captain America: Civil war [Film]. Marvel Studios. 

Singer, B. (Director). (2000). X-men the movie [Film]. 20th Century Fox. 

Skripak, S. J. & Poff, R. (2023). Fundamentals of business . https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/fundamentals-of-business

Whedon, J. (Director). (2012). The avengers [Film]. Marvel Studios. 

Whedon, J. (Director). (2015). Avengers: Age of ultron [Film]. Marvel Studios. 

Wiyono, B. (n.d.). The avengers: Leadership style. [Video]. https://youtu.be/onWH9wr4tdA?si=LuB9En4RtSpfr2pv

Yang. G. (2003). Strengths of comics in education. https://www.geneyang.com/comicsedu/strengths.html

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