Monday, 8 a.m., three situations
At eight o’clock production reports an outage and the customer is waiting for an answer by noon. At ten you sit down with an experienced project manager who is presenting a new concept. In the afternoon you have a conversation with a young team member who has seemed unsure of himself for weeks.
Within a single day, three situations ask three different things of you. The first calls for a clear decision. The second calls for trust so that the project manager can bring her full expertise to bear. The third is about attention and orientation.
This is exactly where the question of the right leadership style comes in. Many leaders learned at some point that there is one particular style that suits them. In everyday work it then turns out that a single style rarely carries every situation. In this article you will find out which leadership styles exist, when each one works and why at Living Sense Executive we speak of holistic leadership when it comes to connecting the styles.
What a leadership style is
A leadership style describes the typical way in which a leader makes decisions, communicates and deals with their people. It shows in how much say you give others, how closely you control and how you react to mistakes, conflicts and successes.
Every person brings a tendency towards a particular style. It grows out of personality, role models and experiences that have proved themselves. This tendency is valuable because it gives you security. It becomes a limit as soon as a situation asks for something other than what you are used to.
The classic leadership styles according to Kurt Lewin
The distinction between leadership styles goes back to the psychologist Kurt Lewin, who described three basic forms at the end of the 1930s.
- Autocratic leadership style. The leader decides alone and gives clear instructions. This creates pace and orientation, especially in a crisis. Over time, however, initiative and motivation decline because the team’s knowledge remains unused.
- Cooperative or democratic leadership style. The leader involves the team in decisions and explains their position. This strengthens commitment and the quality of decisions. It takes more time, along with a culture in which opinions are voiced openly.
- Laissez-faire leadership style. The leader largely holds back and leaves the team to shape the work. With very experienced, independent teams this can work well. Where maturity is lacking, uncertainty and idle time arise.
These three basic forms are still helpful today for classifying your own behaviour. On their own they are usually no longer enough for the complexity of today’s organisations.
Modern leadership styles
Over the past decades further approaches have emerged that place more emphasis on relationship, meaning and development.
Transformational leadership
The historian James MacGregor Burns and later the organisational psychologist Bernard M. Bass shaped the concept of transformational leadership. Transformational leaders inspire their team with a vision, support each person individually and encourage them to question entrenched ways of thinking. They have an impact through example and credibility.
Its counterpart is transactional leadership, which is based on clear agreements, goals and rewards. The two approaches are compatible. A reliable transactional base provides security, while the transformational level provides direction and energy.
Servant leadership
In 1970 Robert K. Greenleaf described servant leadership. The leader sees themselves as someone who serves the team: they clear obstacles out of the way, listen and foster people’s growth. Servant leadership is particularly effective in knowledge-intensive environments, where employees often know more about their field than their managers.
Situational leadership
Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard developed the model of situational leadership. It assumes that the appropriate style depends on the maturity of the employees. Someone new to a task needs clear guidance. Someone who has mastered it needs trust and freedom. The leader therefore consciously adapts their behaviour to the person and the task.
Agile leadership
Agile leadership comes from software development and transfers its principles to leadership: short cycles, self-organising teams and a leader who sets the framework and clears the way for the team. It suits environments with high uncertainty and rapid change.
Which leadership style is the best?
We hear this question often in our training programmes and coaching sessions. Research gives a clear answer: the leaders who make a difference are those who master several styles. In a widely noted study, the psychologist Daniel Goleman showed that the most effective leaders master several styles and switch between them depending on the situation.
What matters, then, is your ability to recognise what a situation needs right now. Just as important is the inner freedom to respond to it appropriately. In a production outage, a clear instruction helps. With an experienced project manager, trust helps. With an unsettled team member, time and genuine interest help.
What holistic leadership does differently
This is where holistic leadership comes in, which lies at the heart of our work at Living Sense Executive. Holistic means taking the whole into account. Holistic leadership is an attitude from which you use the styles consciously.
It connects three levels of leadership:
- Self-leadership. You know your own patterns, drivers and blind spots. You notice when you become autocratic out of habit or withdraw from a conflict.
- Leading people. You perceive what the people in your team need. You adapt your leadership to their development.
- Organisational leadership. You understand the dynamics of the whole system with its culture, structures and goals. You align your decisions with them.
People who lead holistically ask themselves before a decision: What does this situation need, what does this person need and what does the company need? From the answer they choose the appropriate style. This ability makes leadership flexible while keeping it consistent.
You can read more about the foundations in the articles The magic of holistic leadership and Benefits of Holistic Leadership.
A pattern from practice
When supporting executive boards, we observe a recurring pattern. Leaders who have been successful with a particular style for many years hold on to it even when the environment has changed. A division head who led a team through a restructuring with clear instructions is still leading in crisis mode two years later. The team has long been stable and ready for more responsibility, yet it does not receive it.
It helps to keep the proven style, widen the repertoire and choose more consciously. Often a simple question after every important conversation is enough: Did I just lead the way the situation needed, or the way I am used to?
How to find out which style suits you
Before you widen your repertoire, it is worth taking a clear look at your tendency. Three questions help:
- How do you decide under pressure? Under time pressure almost everyone falls back on their preferred style. If you then decide alone, you tend towards the autocratic style. If you then want to involve everyone, you tend towards the cooperative one.
- How do you react to mistakes? Do you first look for the cause in people or in the process? Your reaction says a lot about your attitude.
- What do others say about your leadership? Feedback from the team or a conversation with a coach reveals patterns that are hardly visible from the inside.
Three steps towards more flexibility in leadership
- Observe yourself for two weeks. After important conversations, note in one sentence which style you chose and how the other person reacted.
- Consciously try a different style. Choose a low-risk situation, such as a team meeting in which you usually set the direction. Let the team make suggestions first.
- Reflect with someone from outside. Sparring with a coach or mentor helps you to make sense of your experiences and anchor new patterns.
Learning holistic leadership
If you want to place your leadership on a broader foundation, you will find suitable paths at Living Sense Executive in Zurich. The Cert. Holistic and Mindful Leader builds key leadership skills, above all the ability to steer yourself and clarity about your own decisions. For personal support, our Coaching for Leaders is open to you.
Conclusion: the best style is the one that fits the situation
Leadership styles are tools. Autocratic, cooperative, transformational or servant: each style has its strengths and its limits. Effective leaders stand out because they read the situation and choose consciously. Holistic leadership gives you the attitude you need for this, because it begins with yourself and keeps the whole system in view.
Frequently asked questions about leadership styles
What leadership styles are there?
The classic leadership styles according to Kurt Lewin are the autocratic, the cooperative and the laissez-faire style. In addition there are modern approaches such as transformational leadership, servant leadership, situational leadership and agile leadership.
Which leadership style is the best?
The style that works best is the one that fits the situation. Studies show that the most effective leaders master several styles and switch between them depending on the situation, the person and the task.
What is transformational leadership?
Transformational leadership inspires employees with a vision, supports them individually and encourages independent thinking. The leader has an impact above all through example and credibility.
What does servant leadership mean?
Servant leadership sees the leader as someone who serves the team. They clear obstacles out of the way, listen and foster the growth of their people.
What is holistic leadership?
Holistic leadership connects self-leadership, leading people and organisational leadership. It is an attitude from which you use the different leadership styles consciously and in line with the situation.
Can you change your leadership style?
Yes. Your own tendency usually remains, but the repertoire can be widened. Self-observation, feedback and an accompanying training programme or coaching all help.
