
Everything You Need to Know About the Coaching Leadership Style
Let’s play a game: Which of the following statements about leadership styles is most accurate?
Statement 1: Leadership style is a leader’s method of providing direction
Statement 2: Leadership style is a leader’s method of implementing plans
Statement 3: Leadership style is a leader’s method of motivating people
Winner: All three are equally accurate!
In 1939, Kurt Lewin led a study of leadership styles by leading a group of researchers to identify different styles of leadership (Lewin, Lippit, White, 1939). His study established the three major leadership styles defined by the U.S. Army in 1973: authoritarian or autocratic, participative or democratic, and delegative or laissez-faire. He found that good leaders use all three styles, but bad leaders tend to be more autocratic.
What Are the 7 Main Leadership Styles?
There are several styles of leadership, but these 7 are the most common types of leadership styles (we’ll go over them in some more detail in what follows):
- Autocratic
- Authoritative
- Pacesetting
- Democratic
- Coaching
- Affiliative
- Laissez-Faire
What Is Coaching Leadership Style?
Contrary to the autocratic leadership style mentioned above, coaching styles of leadership are characterized by collaboration, support, and guidance. Their goal is to bring out the best in their teams and ensure they are fully prepared to reach their goals and tackle any obstacles that come their way.
Leadership Development Coaching
In a recent article, we discussed how leadership development training is designed to guide potential leaders towards growing within their role and the organization. This coaching style helps leaders to identify skills that can be developed, individual key strengths, and strategies for improvement, according to the Center for Creative Leadership.
Leadership Styles in Management
To work in a managerial role, one must display leadership traits. That is why there are 8 specific types of leadership styles in management:
- Transactional leadership requires interactions between leaders and followers as this style implies that all members of the team agree to listen to their team leader before beginning to work on a project.
- Autocratic leadership is when all decision making abilities fall on one sole leader and other team members’ concerns or opinions are often ignored and deemed not valuable.
- Transformational leadership is when leaders work towards creating a positive change in the roles of their team members and there is a heightened sense of importance in the communications between team members and leaders.
- Servant leadership is discussed in an article from March of 2020; these leaders are not recognized as leaders per say, as the role is to serve and work towards developing and supporting team members, rather than guiding them or making decisions on their behalf.
- Charismatic leadership is similar to Transformational, yet charismatic leaders may not necessarily want to change anything. These leaders ignite enthusiasm in their followers and work towards driving the team to energize each other.
- Democratic/Participative leaders make the final decisions for their team, but they do so after listening to the input provided by team members. They recognize the importance of their team, want them to feel valued for the ideas, and welcome them in contributing to making decisions as they feel it will only help them to improve their overall skills.
- Laissez-Faire leadership believes in the hands-off approach allowing team members to work freely and not have a manager breathing over their shoulders as they work on projects or make decisions for themselves or their own teams; the French phase means leave it be.
- Bureaucratic leadership is based on the idea that leaders solve problems by controlling what information is communicated and all other aspects of dealing with a problem. This is a classic leadership style where leaders are more likely to go by the books and follow all the rules instituted within an organization.
Collaborate, Support and Guide with Roos Advisors
Roos Advisors is committed to helping you scale your operational team. Our certified professionals use experiential evaluation and learning to help teams work more effectively by developing the core fundamentals of trust, commitment, accountability, productive conflict resolution, and results-driven goal-setting.
We help business owners reclaim their sense of direction and quality of life by growing their dream business and providing practical, actionable solutions. Let’s kickstart your journey to personal and professional excellence. Contact us today to schedule a free 15-minute virtual consultation to see if we are your business’ solution.
Contact us today to schedule a free 15-minute virtual consultation to see if we are the solution you have been looking for.