There are different types of leaders, in business or public areas, and their personal characteristics influence the results of any activity. The three main types of leadership are autocratic, democratic, and liberal.
Leadership is the ability to guide a group of people toward the results they want to achieve. Different types of leaders achieve different benefits for organizations.
Leadership styles
Autocratic leadership
This type of leadership is also known as authoritarian, since the leader centralizes all his decisions directly on the activities and on his own opinions, being a more dominant type.
However, the autocratic leader directs his team with great energy, without valuing the abilities of each member, in addition to the constant demand for results.
Although, many times, this leader manages to satisfy a great demand, the work environment can be affected and cause a reduction in quality, which makes this leadership model a great disadvantage.
Liberal leadership
Leadership with a more liberal style is also known as laissez-faire leadership , from the French “let it do”, as this leader offers complete freedom in activities.
This type of more liberal leadership is recommended for groups with more autonomy and who have more mature people for their functions.
The downside of liberal leadership can appear with those employees who depend on control, and such a group can show dire results. If this does not happen, this leader can focus on issues more relevant to the quality of the processes, for example.
Democratic leadership
The democratic leader is one who allows greater participation of employees in team decision-making, even in the division of tasks, but is also always present.
This leadership requires even more commitment from the leader, but offers a greater balance in the processes and environment of the organization. He is not liberal to the point of making the team more autonomous, nor authoritarian in not consulting employees.
The democratic model can present disadvantages in highly disqualified groups and this will require greater attention on the part of the leader in their joint decisions.
Other leadership models
There are still other types of leadership that are required depending on the type of activity to be carried out, or also, due to the different ways of leading a group due to the personal characteristics of the leader. Some examples that we can list are:
- Technical leadership: specific leader for a type of process;
- Visionary Leadership – Leader who specifically addresses a given result;
- Leadership by ideal : leader who creates his own organizational culture.
There are many ways to lead people and they can stem from extreme characteristics, ranging from the most authoritarian and coercive, to the most motivating for the group.
Some leaders have a mixed leadership characteristic, that is, they lead different groups and treat each one in different ways. It is also known as situational leadership.