In 1939, social psychologist Kurt Lewin identified three leadership styles that relate to how a leader makes decisions. All three styles describe the level of control a leader has over the decision-making process and how much they involve their team. A leadership style refers to the characteristic behaviors of a leader in leading, motivating, guiding, and managing groups of people. Great leaders can inspire political movements and social change.
They can also motivate others to act, create and innovate. Leadership style is the way and approach to provide direction, implement plans and motivate people. As seen by employees, it includes the total pattern of explicit and implicit actions taken by its leader (Newstrom, Davis, 1999). This is the oldest of the situational models.
Kurt Lewin, a psychologist, led a research team in 1939 and identified what he called three “styles” of leadership behavior in an article in the Journal of Social Psychology. Leaders motivate others to aspire to achieve it and help them achieve it. They focus on the big picture with a vision of what it could be and help others see that future and believe that it's possible. In this way, leaders seek to bring about substantial change in their teams, organizations and society.
Authoritarian leadership styles allow a leader to set expectations and define outcomes. A one-man show can be successful in situations where a leader is the most knowledgeable of the team. Although this is an effective strategy in limited periods of time, creativity will be sacrificed as the team's input is limited. Authoritarian leadership style is also used when team members need clear guidelines.
Participatory leadership styles are based on democratic theory. The essence is to involve team members in the decision-making process. Team members feel included, engaged and motivated to contribute. The leader will normally have the final say in decision-making processes.
However, if there are disagreements within a group, it can be a slow process to reach consensus. Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee detailed their theory of the six styles of emotional leadership in their 2002 book, Primal Leadership. The theory highlights the strengths and weaknesses of six common styles: visionary, coaching, affiliative, democratic, pacesetting and dominant. It also shows how each style can affect the emotions of your team members.
This page describes seven patterns of behavior or leadership styles, to include Social Leadership as described by Howell and Costley (200. Bass and Bass point out that democratic leadership tends to focus on followers and is an effective approach when it comes to maintaining relationships with others. In addition, the unique needs of the organization and organizational culture also play an important role in leadership style. Lewin's study found that participatory leadership, also known as democratic leadership, is often the most effective leadership style.
However, there are many people who hold formal leadership positions but don't really provide solid leadership. As you might have guessed, further research has yielded more leadership styles than the three originals that Lewin and his team identified in 1939. But the concept of transformational leadership takes that one step further and expects intellectual stimulation from a leader, as well as individual consideration, in which a leader distinguishes followers and provides them with additional motivation. There are also people who do not have official leadership positions, but who do exhibit leadership qualities and practices. Despite the stereotype, Boatwright and Forrest (2000) have found that both men and women prefer leaders who use a combination of expressive and instrumental leadership.
Fortunately, researchers have developed different theories and frameworks that allow us to better identify and understand these different leadership styles. With Path-Goal Theory, you can identify the best leadership approach to use, based on the needs of your people, the task they are doing, and the environment in which they work. In 1939, a group of researchers led by psychologist Kurt Lewin set out to identify different styles of leadership. Daniel Goleman (2000) in his article Leadership that Gets Results talks about six styles of leadership.
While this style can be useful in situations where highly qualified experts are involved, it often leads to ill-defined roles and lack of motivation. Situational Theories of Leadership Emphasize the Significant Influence of Environment and Situation on Leadership. . .
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