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How to Choose the Right Leadership Approach - Coggle Diagram
How to Choose the Right Leadership Approach
Goleman’s Six Emotional Leadership Styles
Dr. Daniel Goleman is a renowned psychologist and expert on emotional intelligence. In his research in the early 2000s , Goleman (along with psychology professor Richard Boyatzis and author Annie McKee)
identified six distinct emotional leadership styles
: [1]
1. Commanding Leadership
This is a top-down approach, meaning
leaders are quick to make decisions and give orders
. It demands immediate compliance and
leaves little room for your team to act independently
.
Effective Situations
You could also use this style
if business is ba
d and the company
needs to make urgent operational changes
to get back on track.
Use this in
emergencies or high-risk scenarios when clear and decisive action is vital
. Think about handling a security breach in the office or implementing safety protocols on a construction project.
2. Visionary Leadership
As a
visionary leader
, you create an
inspiring, clear picture for the future.
The focus here is on
high-level and long-term goal
s for the business, rather than quick, short-term solutions.
Effective Situations
This is also a
great method for getting your team to support a new product
or embrace a big company restructure.
If
your company is in dire need of a rebrand
, visionary leadership may be the best approach.
3. Affiliative Leadership
This style
focuses on strengthening the emotional bonds within your team
. Affiliative leadership aims to
boost morale and create a positive work environment
.
Effective Situations
Say your company went through a big round of layoffs, or your
team is just understaffed and overworked
.
When morale is low, you may want to
prioritize supporting your employees and heeding their concerns
. If everyone on your team feels heard and appreciated, they will likely enjoy work more and consequently perform better.
4. Democratic Leadership
This can often be a great approach – as long as you’re not dealing with a crisis or urgent deadline.
This style values input from all team members and focuses on collaboration. With democratic leadership, decisions rely on group feedback and consensus.
Effective Situations
This approach is also ideal for brainstorming sessions, whether you're developing a new product or crafting a marketing strategy. Involving your team in this can generate fresh ideas and offer valuable insights.
If your business is rolling out new processes or software, it may be wise to gather your team’s input; they could give useful feedback on the benefits and drawbacks you might not have considered.
Pacesetting Leadership
Pacesetting leaders set ambitious goals for their teams, take a hands-on approach, and lead by example to help their team members achieve success.
Effective Situations
This style works best in fast-paced settings, where performance standards are high and quick results are essential.
Say you’re a team lead at a small tech startup. You and your team likely need to stay highly motivated and work efficiently to support the business’s rapid growth.
In sales teams with aggressive targets, leading by example through pacesetting can also inspire and drive your team to exceed performance expectations.
Coaching Leadership
This style centers on prepping your team for success by offering actionable guidance to support their growth and development.
Effective Situations
Also, if your team is struggling to meet performance goals, try coaching to help them improve.
Coaching is most effective when onboarding new team members or preparing someone for a leadership position or role change in the company.
Servant Leadership
As the name suggests, servant leadership requires putting your team’s needs above your own. Studies show that this approach boosts job satisfaction and performance [2].
Servant Leadership, an idea first introduced by Robert K. Greenleaf in 1970, has gained significant attention in recent years.
Effective Situations
Servant leadership is a long game. It focuses less on quick, scenario-specific approaches and instead emphasizes building long-term relationships with your team to enhance employee empowerment, autonomy and retention.
Transformational Leadership
As a transformational leader, you focus on inspiring and motivating your team. Your goal is to drive significant change by appealing to your team’s higher ideals and advocating for their continual learning, growth and advancement.
Transformational Leadership was originally developed by historian and political scientist James MacGregor Burns back in 1978.
Effective Situations
For instance, like visionary leadership, transformational leadership can motivate and inspire employees during a major organizational change. This style can also be great for team building and growth, similar to coaching and affiliative leadership.
You can apply this style to most scenarios we’ve discussed already.