What kind of leader am i

Just do what I tell you. People always come first. Tell me how you would like to do it. Let me show you what I have in mind. Question 2. When you find yourself in a last minute rush to meet a deadline, your first inclination is to:. Make sure your team has had an opportunity to learn and grow amid the chaos.

Make sure your team does whatever it takes to meet the deadline. Roll up your sleeves and do more than your share of the work, hoping others will follow your lead.

Question 3. If your direct reports or colleagues were asked to share one positive aspect of your leadership style, they would say:.

You are an excellent motivator and share endless energy and optimism with your team. Your willingness to take suggestions and feedback from others makes colleagues feel valued and respected. The clear and decisive direction that you provide has helped your organization on its path to acheiveing long-term goals. Question 4. If your direct reports and colleagues were asked to share one negative aspect of your leadership style, they would say:.

Their leadership skills are often quite refined, they're open-minded and prize creativity from themselves and others.

Working for Idealists offers the chance to be creative and to express oneself. Team members find they have an equal voice and that they learn by doing. Working for the Idealist often provides a very democratic experience. There isn't as much process and structure as with some other leaders like Stewards , and that can be a plus or minus depending on the employee.

Idealist leaders are often found doing creative work, brainstorming around a table with like-minded individuals. For the appropriate people, working for the Idealist is a great situation. Stewards are the rocks of organizations.

They're dependable, loyal and helpful, and they provide a stabilizing and calming force for their employees. Stewards' leadership behavior value rules, process and cooperation.

They believe that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, and they move only as fast as the whole chain will allow, taking care and time to help those who struggle to keep up. Working for Stewards offers the chance to be part of a well-oiled machine. Here, employees find security, consistency and cohesion. The job may not offer great opportunities for individual glory or an adrenaline rush, but it does provide great opportunities for team success.

Stewards can often be found in mission-critical areas of the organization and they are often relied-upon by leaders in other divisions. For the appropriate people, working for the Steward is a great situation.

Diplomats prize interpersonal harmony. They are the social glue and affiliative force that keeps groups together. Diplomats are kind, social, and giving, and typically build deep personal bonds with their employees. They're often known for being able to resolve conflicts peacefully and for avoiding conflicts in the first place. Working for Diplomats is often more fun and social than working for other leaders especially the Pragmatists. Diplomats put less emphasis on challenging their employees, focusing instead on putting their people in positions that leverage their strengths in order to achieve success.

Diplomats work to avoid having people feel uncomfortable or anxious. The Diplomat is an affiliative leader. Traditional measures of employee satisfaction are often very high for Diplomats. For the appropriate people, working for the Diplomat is a great situation.

And it's interesting to note that, unlike the Pragmatists, top-level executives have a lower percentage of Diplomats than other groups, like Managers, Directors and Vice Presidents. One of the most popular questions about leadership styles is whether different departments employ different styles of leadership.

And the answer is YES. As you can see in the chart below, for example, in Operations departments the Pragmatist style is twice as common as in Human Resources. And Finance uses considerably less of the Diplomat leadership style than for example, Marketing departments.

Contrary to what most business books would have you believe, there is no one right way or one perfect way to be a great leader or even an effective leader. Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Dwight D. Eisenhower were both incredibly successful leaders, but their styles were a study in contrasts.

It seems intuitively obvious that leaders should embody and employ different leadership styles; companies aren't all the same, so why should their leaders be the same? And yet, every year there are a wealth of books purporting to illuminate the "one path" to great leadership.

It's an absurd conceit, and a damaging one. A different leadership style will be necessary at a hard-charging Wall Street investment bank than at a small community hospital in Mississippi. The leadership style that works best for a team of ambitious, competitive go-getters the Pragmatist is not the style that works best for a group of affiliative collaborators the Diplomat or detail-oriented, rule-followers the Steward.

Truly great leaders understand their leadership style, when to embrace it fully or dial it back, in which environments they are most likely to succeed, and how to choose followers who fit well with their leadership style. It's great for every leader and manager and executive to be transformational rather than use transactional leadership or authoritarian leadership. And few people love working for autocratic leaders. But you can still be a transformational leader with any of the four primary leadership styles.

The essence of the situational leadership model is that there's no one perfect leadership style or one path to effective leadership. Instead, managers and executives should adjust their approach to the task at hand, including the abilities and willingness of the employees being led. In that regard, situational leadership and leadership styles are similar.

But one key difference in the leadership theory is that a good leader doesn't just adjust to the tasks and abilities of their followers; they also take into account the personalities, histories, and motivations of their people. The situational leader will evaluate the knowledge of their employees, but they typically miss their employees' unique personality styles. Here's what we mean:. If you're leading a team of ambitious, competitive, demanding and audacious goal-setters, the Pragmatist style is a good choice.

This doesn't mean using an autocratic leadership style, it simply means that when you've got these types of followers, you can use a Pragmatist style and challenge them to achieve really big goals. If your followers are driven by affiliation and teamwork, and if they're harmonious, forgiving, and highly collaborative, then the Diplomat style is ideal. If your employees are detail-oriented, rule-following, consistent performers, then try the Steward leadership style.

The Steward's emphasis on formal procedures, rules and policies, and on setting clear expectations, will work well here. If your employees love learning, and they've thrived under more democratic leaders or a boss who practiced participative leadership, they'll generally respond very well to the Idealist's coaching leadership style. The creator of servant leadership, Robert K.

Greenleaf postulated that the servant leader should ask, "Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants?

Idealists are the closest style to servant leadership. They're high-energy achievers who believe in the positive potential of everyone around them.

Idealists want to learn and grow, and they want everyone else on the team to do the same. They're open-minded and prize creativity from themselves and others. Second would be the Diplomats, who put less emphasis on challenging their employees, focusing instead on putting their people in positions that leverage their strengths in order to achieve success.

Diplomats work to avoid having people feel uncomfortable or anxious, and Diplomats are typically thought of as highly likable. Transformational leadership describes leaders who inspire, empower, and stimulate followers to exceed normal levels of performance. And the research shows that a transformational leadership style delivers better results, like employee engagement, job satisfaction and even productivity, than does transactional leadership a style whereby leaders foster compliance through punishments and rewards.

However, this is a great style for followers who are highly skilled, educated or experienced and allows for workers to have a great sense of pride in their work. This style is focused on increasing the efficiency of established routines and procedures. Transactional managers reward good performance and effort and initiate corrective action when workers do not meet acceptable performance levels.

This allows managers to only intervene when workers are not successful and keeps teams working like a well-oiled machine. Research has shown that a lower level of emotions by team members makes transactional leadership more successful. When emotional levels are low, the leader and team are positively affected because all focus is on the given task. They also create vivid visions of what they and the group should aspire to be and create a culture.

These leaders are charismatic, highly individualized and very intellectual. Build Credibility as a New Manager Have a better idea of what your preferred leadership style is?

With this knowledge you can apply strategies to improve your abilities in the world of business. Learn more about expanding your business leadership skills with a quality education in business from Touro University Worldwide. Our fully online degree programs allow you to create a flexible and convenient schedule that works for you. Begin the journey to becoming a better business leader and request more information about our programs today!

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