Week Of Leadership: Styles of Leadership

Identifying The Right Leadership Style

While it is important to be able to use a variety of leadership styles, flexibility alone is not enough – to use different leadership styles effectively, you need to make sure that you use the right style for the particular situation.

This means that you need to work out what it is that the person you are leading needs to accomplish the task successfully.

Whenever there is performance gap it is usually an issue of competence or commitment, or a mixture of the two.

Competence

In situational leadership terms, competence means the person’s knowledge and skills which are gained through experience, training and in some cases, formal education. Competence in this sense is not the same as innate ability or potential. Instead, competence is here used to describe something that can be developed over time with the right direction and support.

Commitment

This is a combination of confidence and motivation. Confidence is a measure of somebody’s self-assuredness and security - the extent to which they feel able to perform a task with little or no guidance. Motivation is a measure of their keenness to perform a task, their desire to achieve and their enthusiasm – in other words, how much they want to do the task.

People are said to be at different levels of confidence and competence in relation to a specific task. With the right direction and support, people typically move through the levels of development, starting out as an enthusiastic beginner and moving through to being a peak performer. It is rare to find a person who is at the same development level for every part of their job – instead people are usually at different development levels for different aspects of their job.

Different styles of Leadership

Authoritative

• In control
• Communicates clear instructions and directions to achieve tasks
• Is highly specific in the achievement of tasks, goals and objectives
• Highly supervisory, determining roles and responsibilities

Consultative

• Ensures clear instructions are given, whilst soliciting occasional feedback and discussion with team members
• Enables greater confidence and motivation in the team through on-going feedback
• Constantly monitors performance to ensure that it meets standards

Supportive

• Whilst acting as a manager/leader is also able to be a member of the team
• Constantly solicits feedback and suggestions from the team to aid and share decision-making
• Encourages the team to make decisions and take responsibility where appropriate
• Makes appropriate changes where evidence shows that this is necessary

Delegative

• Maintains accountability for the team, but devolves responsibility to the team
• Steps in when asked or required in order to offer advice and guidance
• Demonstrates clear trust for the team, their knowledge, skills and behaviour

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