Leadership Styles - and When to Use Them

There's no one-size-fits-all approach to leadership. Your background and preferences as a leader shape the unique way you interact with and lead your team.

Because of this, you likely have one go-to leadership style. For instance, you might like taking charge and making quick, authoritative decisions. Or maybe you’d rather step back and trust your team to work independently when problem solving.

Perhaps you’re somewhere in the middle – you want to consult your team on all decisions but still like to have the final say.

While it’s normal to have a default leadership method, the most effective leaders know how to tweak their leadership style depending on the context and their team’s specific needs.

This article will explore popular modern leadership styles and highlight the best scenarios for using each of them.

Goleman’s Six Emotional Leadership Styles

Dr. Daniel Goleman is a renowned psychologist and expert on emotional intelligence. In his research in the early 2000s , Goleman (along with psychology professor Richard Boyatzis and author Annie McKee) identified six distinct emotional leadership styles: [1]

1. Commanding Leadership

This is a top-down approach, meaning leaders are quick to make decisions and give orders. It demands immediate compliance and leaves little room for your team to act independently.

Effective Situations

Use this in emergencies or high-risk scenarios when clear and decisive action is vital. Think about handling a security breach in the office or implementing safety protocols on a construction project.

You could also use this style if business is bad and the company needs to make urgent operational changes to get back on track.

2. Visionary Leadership

As a visionary leader, you create an inspiring, clear picture for the future. The focus here is on high-level and long-term goals for the business, rather than quick, short-term solutions.

Effective Situations

If your company is in dire need of a rebrand, visionary leadership may be the best approach.

This is also a great method for getting your team to support a new product or embrace a big company restructure.

3. Affiliative Leadership

This style focuses on strengthening the emotional bonds within your team. Affiliative leadership aims to boost morale and create a positive work environment.

Effective Situations

Say your company went through a big round of layoffs, or your team is just understaffed and overworked.

When morale is low, you may want to prioritize supporting your employees and heeding their concerns. If everyone on your team feels heard and appreciated, they will likely enjoy work more and consequently perform better.

4. Democratic Leadership

This style values input from all team members and focuses on collaboration. With democratic leadership, decisions rely on group feedback and consensus.

This can often be a great approach – as long as you’re not dealing with a crisis or urgent deadline.

Effective Situations

If your business is rolling out new processes or software, it may be wise to gather your team’s input; they could give useful feedback on the benefits and drawbacks you might not have considered.

This approach is also ideal for brainstorming sessions, whether you're developing a new product or crafting a marketing strategy. Involving your team in this can generate fresh ideas and offer valuable insights.

5. Pacesetting Leadership

Pacesetting leaders set ambitious goals for their teams, take a hands-on approach, and lead by example to help their team members achieve success.

Effective Situations

This style works best in fast-paced settings, where performance standards are high and quick results are essential.

Say you’re a team lead at a small tech startup. You and your team likely need to stay highly motivated and work efficiently to support the business’s rapid growth.

In sales teams with aggressive targets, leading by example through pacesetting can also inspire and drive your team to exceed performance expectations.

6. Coaching Leadership

This style centers on prepping your team for success by offering actionable guidance to support their growth and development.

Effective Situations

Coaching is most effective when onboarding new team members or preparing someone for a leadership position or role change in the company.

Also, if your team is struggling to meet performance goals, try coaching to help them improve.

Servant Leadership

Servant Leadership, an idea first introduced by Robert K. Greenleaf in 1970, has gained significant attention in recent years.

As the name suggests, servant leadership requires putting your team’s needs above your own. Studies show that this approach boosts job satisfaction and performance [2].

Effective Situations

Servant leadership is a long game. It focuses less on quick, scenario-specific approaches and instead emphasizes building long-term relationships with your team to enhance employee empowerment, autonomy and retention.

Transformational Leadership

Transformational Leadership was originally developed by historian and political scientist James MacGregor Burns back in 1978.

As a transformational leader, you focus on inspiring and motivating your team. Your goal is to drive significant change by appealing to your team’s higher ideals and advocating for their continual learning, growth and advancement.

Effective Situations

You can apply this style to most scenarios we’ve discussed already.

For instance, like visionary leadership, transformational leadership can motivate and inspire employees during a major organizational change. This style can also be great for team building and growth, similar to coaching and affiliative leadership.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Q: Which leadership style should I use the least?

A: Only use commanding leadership in very specific, extreme situations. Sometimes, you may need to lead more aggressively to get things done – but use this method sparingly.

Q: Which leadership style is the best?

A: Transformational leadership is usually the best style to use. But even this isn’t appropriate in all situations.

Q: Both servant and transformational leadership seem similar to many of Goleman’s leadership styles. How do I differentiate them?

A: Goleman’s styles are more scenario-specific. Servant leadership centers on long-term relationship building, and transformational leadership focuses on long-term personal and professional growth.

Q: I know what style to use in a specific scenario. But how do I ensure that I implement it well?

A: The best leaders have a high degree of emotional intelligence (EI). Improving your EI will boost your confidence in your approach. Check out our article on Emotional Intelligence in Leadership for more guidance.