Leadership Styles

The US Army Handbook (1973) says this about leadership style:

Leadership style is the manner and approach of providing direction, implementing plans, and motivating people. Kurt Lewin (1939) led a group of researchers to identify different styles of leadership. This early study has been very influential and established three major leadership styles. The three major styles of leadership are (U.S. Army Handbook, 1973): Authoritarian or autocratic; Participative or democratic; Delegative or Free Reign. Although good leaders use all three styles, with one of them normally dominant, bad leaders tend to stick with one style.

Authoritarian (autocratic):'I want both of you to...'
This style is used when leaders tell their employees what they want done and how they want it accomplished, without getting the advice of their followers...

Participative (democratic), 'Let's work together to solve this...'
This style involves the leader including one or more employees in the decision making process (determining what to do and how to do it). However, the leader maintains the final decision making authority...

Delegative (free reign), 'You two take care of the problem while I go...' The leader allows the employees to make the decisions. However, the leader is still responsible for the decisions that are made.

You have to have all styles available to you. In some cases you need to make a decision fast; in some you need to get all points of view and reach consensus; and in some cases you need to let employees alone to do the work. The key is to know how to use the right style to accomplish the goals you've set out.

What do you think about this? If you have something substantive to add, post a comment.

This is some of the stuff that will go into my entrepreneurship course. The ideas in it supply the life's blood of my professional activities: teaching, writing, and real estate. For entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for entrepreneurial writing to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot/com.