Leadership Strategy – Which Leadership Style to Follow ?

 Without an efficient leader approach, it is believed, that the organizational approaches do not work. Good players in a squad do not guaranty success without a great instruct, similarly, manipulate squads may not function effectively if chairmen do not follow an adequate leader strategy.To understand leadership styles here are three scenarios:

Scenario 1 – A Teacher gives a question to the class full of students, however, solves it for them;

Scenario 2 – A Teacher gives the question to the students and observes how students solve them;

Scenario 3 – A Teacher gives a question to the students and moves around the class, observes the students, and helps wherever required.

Scenario 1 was “Leading from the Front”, Scenario 2 was “Supportive Leadership Style”, and Scenario 3 was “Interactive Leadership Style”. Besides this the leadership styles / strategies could be based on personality traits like Directive Leadership, Structured Leadership, Intuitive Leadership, or Process Driven leadership.

Here are some tips while selecting leadership strategy / style:

A leader must be aware of his / her personality traits and those of his team members / followers to understand which leadership style will be most effective.
A leader may not adopt a consistent leadership all through his / her career. Situational Leadership helps addressing varied needs / expectations of the followers as he the leader adopts a strategy based on a situation he / she is in. In case a leader has a self-reliant team, he needs to be using a directive leadership style or lead form the front. He could instead delegate and provide inputs where necessary.
A common mistake especially a lot of new leaders make is to copy established / well know leaders. Remember, each situation is unique and so are the followers. A leadership style which may be suited to a well known leader may not be appropriate for your team. Make no mistake here – do not try and imitate other leaders.
A leader will never be afraid of trying new approach to solve a work problem or address a conflicting situation. It is quite a possibility that a leader adopts a style that is not by the book.
A leader must keep enhancing his / her leadership skills. While on the job experience matters a lot, getting enrolled into leadership courses after detailed evaluation of the program and feedback of the participants will help implementing a leadership style more effectively.

It is often said that good leaders are born and not made; however, good leaders are those who are aware of their personality traits and also of their followers. They know which leadership style is to be adopted in a particular situation. Once this is done, there is a little challenge left for a leader to become a “good / great” leader.