What Is Your Most Predominant Leadership Style?

An authoritative leader addresses the end but generally gives workers freedom to innovate, experiment and take risks. The authoritative style works best for organizations that are off track, it helps in creating a new course and fresh long-term vision. The affiliative style strives to keep employees happy to create harmony among. The style has a positive effect on communication. People who like one another a lot talk lot. They share ideas, inspirations leading to flexibility, innovation and risk taking. This style should only be employed when trying to build team harmony. The democratic style allows leaders to build consensus through participation. By spending time getting people’s ideas, a leader is able to build trust, respect and commitment. This style works best when a leader is uncertain about best direction however, it does not make sense if employees are not competent. Pacesetting is a leadership style that expects excellence and self-direction. The leader is obsessive about doing things better and faster, and expects the same of everyone around

In this assignment I aim to outline the advantages, disadvantages and overall effectiveness of the different styles of leadership.

A leadership quiz offered by About.com Psychology. (n.d.) 'What 's your leadership style? ' suggests that the writer demonstrates both Participative. Participative or Transformational Leadership is based on establishing interactions and

After taking the Leadership quiz I discovered that my leadership style is Participative. Participative leaders often ask the opinion of group members and solving problems but ultimately make the final decision. I agree with my findings and I often apply this leadership style at work. I find myself asking other coworkers their opinion on how to troubleshoot a problem. In the nursing occupation it is very important to have teamwork. Being a participative leader exemplifies teamwork. This displays that I value the opinions of my coworkers and feel that everyone should be able to make recommendations and suggestions and as a leader I can take those ideas and make a final decision. On my unit I was a charge nurse and as a charge nurse I always tried to include the recommendations of my coworkers.

Urban Meyer is the head coach for The Ohio State Buckeyes football team. He is 49 years old and was born in Toledo Ohio. He attended University of Cincinnati where he played football. Coach Meyer is married and has three children. Prior to coaching Ohio State he retired from coaching was working as a sports analyst for ESPN. Before retiring and working for ESPN, Coach Meyer was the head coach for the University of Florida. He led the Gators to two BCS championship wins and he held the highest percentages of wins for any active college football coach. (www.ohiostatebuckeyes.com).

In participative leadership, the leader of a group usually makes the final decisions, but only after consulting other team members for their input. Team members are inspired and motivated by this type of leadership which helps the leader’s decisions to be more widely accepted and adopted by the members (Reilly, 2011). In 1978, James Burns wrote a book about leadership styles in which he described the participative leader style as a type of

Lussier and Achua posit five normative leadership styles: Decide, consult individually, consult group, facilitate, and delegate (p128, 2013). While all of these

Leadership has many definitions, is multifaceted, and involves numerous aspects, such as identifying goals, providing support, inspiring and motivating people to act, and promoting the values of a group or organization (Giltinane, 2013). Some of the characteristics an effective leader possesses are honesty, creativity, emotional stability, energy, flexibility, conceptual skills, perseverance, and knowledge (Huber, 2014). Based on the Leadership Style Survey, my leadership style is determined to be participative, also referred to as democratic. This approach places emphasis on people, relationships, and teamwork. The leader shares responsibility by involving workers in group discussions and decision making, is able to recognize strengths and encourage workers

In comparing my leadership style to that of two of my team members, I chose to compare Robert Boyd whose leadership style is delegating – this is a leadership style where the leader leaves his or her colleagues to get on with their work, and Robert Kafka, whose leadership style is director – “an extreme form of transactional leadership, where a leader exerts high levels of power over his or her employees or team members. People within the team are given the opportunities for making suggestions, even if these could be in the team’s or organization’s interest.” (Leadership Styles: Understanding & Using the right one for your situation)

I prefer to use a participatory style of leadership. It encourages cooperation, consensus, and group success. Final responsibility for the overall operation belongs to the leader, but he/she cannot do it all. Good leaders surround themselves with capable people and use their expertise to meet the organizational goals.

In terms of leadership styles a wide variety exists for one to employ (Boykins, 2013). There isn’t firm consensus as to which styles prove to be the most effective. Different situations call for different approaches. In the article, Empirical Study of Leadership Styles, it discusses several leadership styles that I can relate to.

Finding a leadership style is like finding the dress or suit that fits just right. It may take several attempts, but once you find the one that fits, it is usually the one you will keep. For this class, we were asked to take a 50 question survey from Kent University to help us figure out what type of leadership style fits us best. From the results provided from the test, my leadership style was typed as participative. When reading more about participative leadership, I saw a quote I was able to resonate with completely, “The leader makes the final decision, but the team to contribute to the decision-making process” (How to find, n.d.). This quote made me realized that this type of leadership fit me down to the T. In terms of effective communication, I always make an effort to make sure the listener absolutely understands what I am conveying. By asking questions or bringing up any concerns they might have, I am able to make sure that everyone is on the same page. My job presents several opportunities to help teach and train new operators. By having a participant leadership style, I must ensure new operators know how to work within their position proficiently. As a trainer, I deal with trainees who at times feel overwhelmed with the plethora of information given to them. I find it important to give encouragement and facilitate training when need be. Being a participant leader requires a great of humility: “The leader can 't know everything”

An effective leader influences their employees in a desired manner to achieve goals and objectives. Different leadership styles can affect an organization’s effectiveness and performance. The objective of this paper is to analyze the review of literature on various leadership styles over the past years and how effective and ineffective different leadership styles are in the workplace.

3. Participative Leadership: This style of Leadership behavior gives a better outcome when the subordinates believe that they control their own destiny i.e. internal locus of control.

The last style is called laissez-faire leadership. Here leader usually participates minimally and let team members find their own way out by allowing complete freedom in decision making (Simmons and Striley, 2014).