“The best leaders don’t know just one style of leadership- they are skilled at several, and have the flexibility to switch between styles as the circumstances dictate.”
Yes, there are various leadership styles you as scrum masters or corporate leaders can choose from, other than servant leadership.
We always have our personality, so thus our leadership style at the start. As we always improve and change as a person whether it is in personal life or companies. We also change our leadership style. As most people do we get to indulge in the servant leadership style. Even though this style is effective it cannot be used in every company environment and culture.
Effective leaders always know the need to adapt for effective leadership. They are the ones who observe the situation and adapt as per it in new styles. But to get adapt to the situation and lead effectively we must know the various leadership style we can use as a corporate leader. So today we will learn about some leadership styles and the situations they are effective in.
Autocratic Leadership
Autocratic is a boss-centered approach to leadership. It means the leaders take the decisions without consulting any team members and telling them what to do. In some situations, even this leadership style is necessary to adapt. Sometimes taking decisions as a leader is required. When teams are concerned, agreement and input are not required it’s time for autocratic style. This style provides a structured environment, strictly rule-following teams, and quick decision-making in conflict situations. Situations like, new teams are formed or a team is new to agile such autocratic style is good to adapt. But one must know not to get used to it as it restricts creativity and lacks relationship and connection within a team.
Democratic Leadership
This style of a leader includes team members in their discussions even though they take the final decisions. Including a team in decision making makes team more connected and encouraged giving job satisfaction and increased productivity from employees. Such styles help in building a strong team and even the team can take some small decisions as they know the workflow and strategy they are going through. This is more useful in situations where the project requires lots of brainstorming, is complex, and requires lots of ideas to tackle issues or every team member is an expert or knows better in their area of work. This style can be used in new start-ups and new businesses or projects. Such leadership styles fail at showing high expertise and quick decision-making in times of crisis.
Delegative Leadership
This style is also known as Laissez-Faire a French term that means ‘Let it be.’ This style provides team members with a lot of freedom for doing their work and setting deadlines. This style can also be said as ‘zero leadership’ style as leaders only get involved when the team needs any support or if there is an issue. This style can be used in situations where teams are more mature and members are skilled, knowledgeable, and self-motivating. This style provides the employee with the benefit of personal growth, encouragement for growth and development providing with quick decision making. Its cons will consist of confusion in unclear goals, less accountability for leaders, and can lead to isolation affecting team building.
Transformational Leadership
These styles of leaders, motivate the team and encourage them to do something better with a shared vision. Because they believe that transformation is required to obtain something better. They keep the team before them providing opportunities in various areas like referring different ideas and approaches, building bonding, loyalty, and connectivity within them and team, and also organization. This can be used in situations where new ideas and perspectives are a must. It breaks the monotony, gives freedom to the team for innovation and creativity, and encourages change in the team. But using it in excess may also cause employee burnout, only focusing on the bigger picture which may cause loss at the current state and unclear direction of working. This style requires regular feedback with can be hectic.
Along with the above-discussed leadership styles, other types of leadership can be used in the corporate world. But the leader must know the pros and cons of each style, learn the situation correctly and then apply the best-suited style in it as “leadership isn’t about making all the decisions. It is making sure the right decisions are made.”
About Advance Agility
We, at Advance Agility, are the new-age Agile Coaching, Consulting and IT services company. We enable end-to-end Digital Transformation. Agile execution is integral to our being. We are doing SAFe implementation with small, medium and large organization across the globe. Our vision is to be the leading Agile execution player globally. To keep adding value at every process stage. We are on a mission to empower our clients, move from concept to cash in the shortest sustainable lead time by adopting human centric approach to business agility. Embracing the change is in our DNA. Things that keep us apart are Quicker and Seamless execution with End-to-end gamut of services. Our Global presence and Stellar Track Record give us an edge over our competitor.
Connect with us at advanceagility.com to learn about SAFe and SAFe Implementation. Write to us at contact@advanceagilty.com for any agile training or consulting needs. We are always looking for competent agile trainers as well. So if you are a good trainer or want to become one, do get in touch with us to that we can learn, grow and achieve together.
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