What leadership style suits you?

The best leadership style is flexible. Always consider whether your employee can do the job independently or needs guidance. This is the basis for your choice of the right leadership style.

How to choose the right leadership style?

Get the best out of your team by getting the most out of the people you work with. How do you do this? There is no one leadership style that is best. A senior employee with lots of experience, knowledge and skills will be managed differently from an inexperienced trainee who is eager to get started. So you need to respond to what your team members need.

Effective leaders adapt their leadership style based on individual needs and capabilities. This creates a successful environment where everyone is working towards the same goal. The result is maximum productivity! Ask yourself two questions for every task:

Is your employee motivated enough?

Is your employee competent enough?

You adapt your behaviour accordingly. Your behaviour can be task-oriented. Think about setting goals, planning work, prioritising, and monitoring progress. This is often a one-way street. But it can also be relationship-oriented, in which case it is about the mutual relationship. For example, encouraging, validating, actively listening and asking for ideas.

Well-known leadership models

Much research has been done on leadership styles. Goleman’s 6 Leadership Styles and Hersey & Blanchard and Goleman’s Situational Leadership are the best known.

Goleman’s 6 leadership styles

According to Goleman, leaders increase their team’s effectiveness by adapting their leadership style to the situation. Each of his styles has specific effects and benefits, but also risks. The trick is to use the right style at the right time.

1. Visionary leaderA visionary leader inspires others with a shared vision. They motivate them to move forward and ensures that they pursue goals that contribute to achieving that vision.
2. Coaching leaderCoaching leaders allow people to express their skills and career ambitions. They delegate challenging tasks to show their confidence. This leads to high levels of loyalty.
3. People-focused leaderThe people-focused leader emphasises relationships and connection and pays close attention to emotional needs. This style works well with visionary leadership.
4. Democratic leaderThe democratic leader involves employees in goals and decision-making, which increases their motivation, commitment, and self-assurance. This leads to more successful cooperation and good organisational performance.
5. Competitive leaderThe competitive leader sets challenging goals. They expect top effort without individual coaching and demands improvement from poor performers. This leads to good short-term results but causes long-term exhaustion and deteriorating results.
6. Authoritarian leaderAuthoritarian leaders have a powerful presence and give clear instructions without the need for approval. They expect people to follow them and monitor their employees closely.

Situational Leadership by Hersey & Blanchard

The Situational Leadership Theory is a model for understanding the different stages of development of employees. In our leadership training, we zoom in on this theory and you will learn instantly which style to use and when.

These are the styles in Situational Leadership:

1. The Steering Leadership Style (task-oriented)
   You do this when an employee does not complete tasks independently or does so infrequently. You manage by giving instructions. The focus of your discussion is on agreeing expectations and ways of working. You check that the employee has carried out the instructions. This is Goleman’s authoritarian leadership style..
2. The Guiding Leadership Style (task- and relationship oriented)
   The employee wants to, but you estimate that he needs more knowledge and skills first. In your conversations, you point this out and guide them to improve. You explain things and are open to suggestions. In this way, the employee becomes more and more competent.
3. The Motivating Leadership Style (relationship-oriented)
   This conversation takes place with an unmotivated employee who has a lot of talent and potential. You investigate why this employee seems to be unmotivated. Together you agree on how to increase motivation in the future. The employee is allowed to take risks and make mistakes.
4. The Delegating Leadership Style (relationship-oriented)
   The employee is motivated and performs well. You therefore give them a high degree of personal responsibility. As a manager, you have confidence in your team and delegate much of the work to them. However, you do monitor progress periodically.

Other types of Leadership Styles

As well as the 2 well-known models, there are other styles. All of them have some overlap with the theories of Goleman and Hersey & Blanchard.

Transactional or Transformational Leadership

This theory does not include the task maturity of team members, whereas Hersey and Blanchard’s theory does. Otherwise, it has many similarities with Hersey and Blanchard.

Transactional leadership

Transactional leadership is a business arrangement. As a leader, you tell your people what you expect them to do and then you pay them for their services (the exchange principle). The self-interest of both the leader and the organisation is paramount in transactional leadership.

Transformational leadership

Transformational leadership is based on an inspirational vision of the leader. You want to inspire people to do their best for the organisation. You show that you do not have all the wisdom and ask your team members to think actively with you. This emphasises a motivating and stimulating environment for the employee.

Characteristics of a Transformational Leader

If you want to lead in this way, you need to be able to:

• Inspire with charisma and a clear vision
• Encourage your people’s personal growth and listen to their needs
• Give people autonomy to do their jobs, intervening only when necessary
• Encourage out-of-the-box thinking and ensure creativity
• Communicate what people should be doing

Coaching Leadership

Coaching is about developing qualities and skills in people. If you add leadership to this, you have the goal of making your employees “task adults”. You want them to work autonomously and to be willing and able to carry out their own tasks.

In this way, you promote the independence of your team members and encourage them to make their own decisions and take responsibility. You do this in an equal, reflective, and appreciative way.

Is leadership coaching a good fit for you?

As a leader, you need additional skills. You are closer to your people than an authoritarian manager. You know them better: you take their wishes into account and look closely at how they can improve. That way, everyone is in the right place. Therefore, you need to know what is happening on the shop floor. In addition, as a coach, the employee may tell you about personal (private) problems. You respond tactfully and professionally, creating a safe environment.

Characteristics of a Coaching Leader

If you want to master this style, you will have to combine these roles:

• Mentor: You guide someone with your experience and expertise. Not only through advice and guidance, but also by sharing the company’s values, culture, and mission.
• Trainer: This is more practical, you train others to develop new skills, knowledge, and expertise.
• Sounding board: listening and encouraging new ideas. Giving and receiving feedback is also important for your own growth and that of your employees.
• Mirror: You are the one who holds up a mirror to employees and invites hem to reflect critically. In this way you help them to grow and develop.

Servant Leadership

Another style is servant leadership. This has common ground with people-centred and coaching leadership.

As the name suggests, you take a servant’s role with your team members. Unlike many traditional forms of leadership (e.g. authoritarian leadership), you put the needs and interests of your team members first, rather than your own goals or ambitions.

You encourage people to think for themselves and to take ownership of their role in the group. You provide support and guidance but hold your team members accountable for their own actions.

Does servant leadership suit you?

Servant leaders must be able to create an environment of trust and safety. Everyone can contribute their ideas without fear of criticism or disapproval. This is how you try to bring out the best in everyone. This ultimately leads to more innovation, better team performance and greater job satisfaction.

Characteristics of a servant leader

A servant leader is soft on team members but hard on results. These qualities are important:

• Listening carefully to find out what someone’s real intentions are and helping them to clarify them.
• Empathy, which allows you to separate behaviour from intention: if someone is not doing their job well, that says nothing about who they are as a person.
• Persuasion that comes from within, rather than relying on your position of power.
• Conceptual thinking with a clear vision, mission, identity, and values.
• Ambition to develop others, you are very involved in the personal and business growth of your people and your organisation.

Personal leadership

Personal leadership is not about leading a team, it is about leading yourself. It is about being able to manage yourself, using your qualities and making conscious choices in your work, career, and life. This leads to greater effectiveness and the achievement of your personal goals.

Get the most out of your team

As a manager, you often have a preferred leadership style. The trick is to become more flexible: you adapt your leadership style to the task at hand, depending on what the employee needs at that moment. The styles from the Goleman, Hersey & Blanchard model and the supporting styles will help you to do this.

A good leader encourages the development of team members by allowing them to grow through the different stages. This makes you more successful as an employee, as a leader and as a team. Getting the most out of collaboration and your team!