Essay on Several Leadership Styles

Submitted By michaelmollick
Words: 703
Pages: 3

1. Transactional Leadership –Transactional Leadership is a style of leadership that is based on setting clear objectives and goals for personnel. It uses punishments and rewards to encourage compliance with the set goals. While transactional leadership can be effective in certain situations, it may prevent both leaders and personnel from achieving their full potential. One of the problems with the Transactional Leadership style is personnel are not encouraged to be creative or to find solutions to problems. A transactional leader is solely concerned with making sure everything goes efficiently today and does not look ahead to develop her people for the future. 2. Transformational Leadership –Transformational leaders take time to find out how her people feel about changes being made, ask their opinion on different matters, and motivate them to be top contributors. Transformational Leaders communicate a clear vision, have a passion for the task to be done, and this passion energizes the group. They focus on helping everyone in the group to succeed. Transformational leaders: 1) encourage personnel to explore new ways of doing things; 2) offer encouragement to individuals; 3) passionately communicate a clear vision that motivates people to accomplish the set goals; 4) serve as a role model for the group to imitate. 3. Participative Leadership - Participative Leadership believes involvement in decision making by personnel improves the understanding of the issues involved by those who must carry out the decision. When people make decisions together, the social commitment to one another is greater, increasing commitment to the decision. A Participative Leader, rather than making the decisions herself, seeks to involve personnel and those involved in the process. The Participative Leader decides how much influence personnel will have in decision-making such as: 1) leader proposes decision, listens to feedback from the group, then decides; 2) group proposes decision, leader has the final decision; 3) joint decision with the group as equals.

4. Situational Leadership – Situational Leaders change their leadership style based on the maturity of the person and the difficulty of the task. The four leadership styles to choose from are: S1) Telling: tell exactly what to do; S2) Selling: explain why and how; S3) Participating: focusing on the rapport; S4) Delegating: responsibility past to personnel. The four maturity levels to choose from are: M1) followers are resistant to do the task; M2) followers might be willing to do the task; M3) followers are willing to do the task; M4) Followers are able to work on their own. Situational Leaders adjust their leadership style to the maturity level, and willingness of the individual in regard to the task. 5. Charismatic Leadership – Charismatic leadership is the ability to lead others based on personal charisma that generates devotion from followers. Charismatic leaders have the ability to turn complex ideas into simple metaphors or stories that inspire