Most Common Leadership Skills

Autocratic leadership, also known as authoritarian leadership is a leadership style characterized by individual control over all decisions and little input from group members. Autocratic leaders typically make choices based on their own ideas and judgments and rarely accept advice from followers. Autocratic leadership involves absolute, authoritarian control over a group. It can also be derived

Leaders are aiming to control and surveillance employees through sensible and thrifty intention (Bass, 1985). It simply requires an agreement between leaders and followers toward organization goal (Burns, 1978). In transformation leadership, leaders focus on changing followers’ moral sensibilities and potentially increasing their motivation beyond self-interest (Kezar & Eckel, 2008, p. 381). It needs more associated with outcome criteria than transactional leadership (Rowold & Rohmann, 2009, p. 42). Transformation leadership helps to build positive relationship among staff and raising their morale. In contrast, transactional leadership helps to build the fundamental structure of the organisation (Kezar & Eckel, 2008, p. 383).

The typical characteristic of transactional leadership is the process of exchanging. Employees use their labor to change for rewards, and leaders use motivation to change for performance and obedience. One way or another, the leader and follower agree, explicitly or implicitly, that desired follower behaviors will be rewarded, while undesirable behaviors will draw out punishment.

5. Transactional leadership includes a deal between the leader and his/her followers. The workers are basically doing tasks for the organization, in order to receive some kind of benefits, money, etc.

Transactional leadership styles are more concerned with maintaining the normal flow of operations. Such leadership can be described as a more organisational approach. These managers are solely concerned with keeping the stability of the business and micro managing the day to day operations of the entity. This is done through the use of disciplinary power and an array of incentives to motivate employees to perform at their very best.

Transactional leadership is built on reciprocity, the ways in which leaders and followers influence one another, and the idea that the relationship between leader and their followers develops from the exchange of some reward, such as performance rating’s, pay, recognition, or praise (Marturano, 2004). This style of leadership does not promote a close relationship amongst the boss

In my opinion, the leadership at North River Middle School is a primary example of the transactional leadership style. The principal, Mr. Jameson, school has not attained adequate yearly progress and test scores were down. In his defense, Mr. Jameson had professional development workshops, increased classroom walk through, and talked to departments about the problem. Nevertheless, Mr. Jameson failed to listen to his staff concerning the obstacles that teachers were facing in the classroom. Mr. Jameson practically ignored comments and feedback that did not align with his thinking. As a result, he is facing probable termination of employment if, the school does not show improvement.

Additionally, transformational leadership theory looks at leadership differently. It sees a true leader as one who can distil the values, hopes, and needs of followers into a vision, and then encourage and empower followers to pursue that vision. A transactional leader thinks of improvement or development as doing the same thing better: an organization that reaches more people, a company that makes more money. A transformational leader thinks about changing the world, even if only on a small scale (Community Tool box, 2016).

According to Burns, a transactional leader was someone “who approaches followers with an eye to exchange one thing for another: jobs for votes, or subsidies to include for campaign contributions” (Klinsontorn, 2007, p.35). An example using Burns definition, it would be like a boss paying extra incentive for its employee who does the most sales. Thus, followers obtain rewards for job performance, while leaders benefit from the completion of tasks. Transactional leaders are good at traditional management functions such as planning and budgeting and generally focus on the impersonal aspects of job performance. The definition of Burns was expanded by Bass (1985). He said that a transactional leader must also

Johnson and Dipboye (2008) proclaimed, “Transformational leadership style mainly focuses on transformation of values and beliefs of followers by inspiring them” (As cite by Zareen, Razzaq, & Mujtaba, 2015). Connectedness, mutual respect, and collaboration on goals and responsibilities are what I see as the hallmarks that transformational leadership affords

Transactional leadership (Tomey, 2009) focuses on management tasks and trade-offs to meet the goals by exchanging rewards for performance, and in maintaining the normal flow of operations (as cited in Marquis & Huston; Ingra, 2016). Transformational leadership is inspirational leadership that promotes employee development, attends to the needs and motives of follower, inspires through optimism, influences changes in perception, provides intellectual stimulation, and encourages follower creativity (Tomey, 2009), that goes beyond managing day-to-day operations (Ingra, 2016). Both leadership styles are needed for an organization to succeed in this modern age, due to diversity of workers and customers we have.

They are rewarded or disciplined in accord with their expectations. According to Bass (1985), transactional leaders are able to engage with their subordinates by relaying positive and/or negative feedback effectively to aid a subordinates’ growth. I am able to set clear goals and responsibilities for my subordinates. It is my sole responsibility to ensure that my subordinates are made fully aware of their responsibilities and/or expectations. I make sure they have the necessary training and resources to effectively complete their responsibilities. My subordinates remain aware of timelines and expectations given to them. I also ensure subordinates’ responsibilities and expectations are in tune with their capabilities to successfully perform their tasks. I also provide positive constructive feedback for development. My subordinates are fairly rewarded and/or held accountable for the expectations. It is important for subordinates to be rewarded in light of their accomplishments and made aware when they fail to meet

Transactional leadership is a style that lays out clear goals and objectives. To encourage staff members to act in accordance with these goals, punishments and rewards are utilised (Business Dictionary, n.d.).

Transformational leaders are those individuals who communicate a vision and a sense of strategic methods to battle obstacles, are concerned with the qualities of services their organization can provide, and motivate members to buy into the idea (Swail, 2003). In contrast, transactional leaders specify that rewards are contingent on achievements, which may make individual task performance salient and thereby set followers apart from one another regarding their achievements (Lord, 1999). Hence, transactional leadership, emphasizing

Chaudhry, A.Q. and Javed, H. (2012) 'Impact of Transactional and Laissez Faire Leadership Style on Motivation', International Journal of Business and Social Science, vol. 3, no. 7, April, pp. 258-264.