All of these leadership styles are useful. It's a matter of knowing when to apply the right one. A democratic leadership style is good when you want to get lots of input from people on a subject. It's not appropriate in an emergency. Asking everyone what door they think should be used in a fire is not useful. Coercive leadership is required – get out through this door, now!
We use the analogy of car gears. Using Goleman's model, leaders have six gears available to them depending on the terrain they need to cover. But most leaders are stuck in one or two gears! We've worked with leaders who are stuck in the pace setting gear. This gear is okay in short bursts but used all the time it burns people out.
Other leaders are stuck in the affiliative leadership style. This is a great leadership style when building relationships. It's about creating likeability. But when hard decisions have to be made it's not appropriate.
Another way of looking at your leadership style is to ask yourself two simple questions: am I fast or calm paced? Am I task or people focused? You will fall into one of the following categories:
Each category results in a different "default" leadership style. Again – there is no right style - it's just a matter of awareness and adaptability. If you are ‘A' you will need to slow down and become more people aware when dealing with sensitive and people related issues. If you are ‘D' you will need to pick up your pace when dealing with time critical leadership tasks.
Leadership lesson: First, be aware that you have a leadership style. Second, appreciate that there are other styles available to you. Third, become fluent in other leadership styles so you can shift smoothly between them and apply the right style in the right situation.
In the Catapult Leadership programme we use the DiSC behavioural style profiling tool to identify your primary leadership style. The DiSC report gives participants greater self awareness and provides insights and ideas for how to adapt their style to suit the leadership situation.
* Daniel Goleman, "Leadership That Gets Results" Harvard Business Review
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