Three Types Of Leadership

Leadership is defined as influence, that is, the art or process of influencing people so that they will strive willingly and enthusiastically toward the achievement of group goals.” Leaders is guiding people into a decision without forcing them into but still leaving them feeling empowered and accomplished. In the 1930`s Kurt Lewin developed a theory on leadership. He argued that there is three types of leadership. 1. Autocratic 2. Democratic 3. Laissez-Faire.

Autocratic

In this type of leadership the leader has full control. They make all of the decisions based on their own ideas and judgements and don not accept any advice from others. Autocratic leaders have many characteristics. Some of these are 1. They do not allow any input from group

These include Honesty, Intelligence, Courage, Creativity, Competence and fairness. Good democratic leaders give trust to followers. They are sincere and make their decisions based on their morals and values. Followers tend to feel inspired to take action and contribute to the group. Good leaders do not try to silence dissenting voices or those that offer a less popular point of view.

There are many benefits to a democratic style leader. As they encourage people to share their ideas it helps them to come up with more and better ideas. This also motivates others which will make them perform better in the group. Group members are also more likely to get involved are more likely to care more about the end results.

Although this is usually the best leadership style it has a few disadvantages. With this leadership style it takes time to make decisions. This can be bad as some decisions may need to be made quickly. In situations where roles are not clear or there isn’t much time, democratic leadership can lead to communication failures and unfinished projects. Sometimes group members may not have the necessary knowledge or expertise to make quality contributions to the decision-making

Personally the only successful company that uses this today is Starbucks.

In my opinion the best leadership style in the modern age is the democratic style. It motivates employees and also gives employees some freedom.

There are also several leadership theories. There is 8 main theories, 1.Great Man theories. 2. Trait theories. 3. Contingency theories. 4. Situational theories. 5. Behavioural theories. 6. Participative theories. 7. Management theories. 8. Relationship theories.

The great man theories is when you assume that successful leadership is inherited. It assumes that great leaders are born and not made. It also assumes that great leaders are born with the necessary characteristics such as charisma, confidence, intelligence, and social skills that make them natural-born leaders. It is mainly thought of a male quality and is mostly used in the military.

This theory assumes that leaders are born with the required traits to make them a better leader. E.g. traits like self-confidence and courage are all traits that could potentially be linked to great leaders.