Style Of Leadership

Leadership is necessary for a group to accomplish goals. Leadership according to Lamberton and Minor (2014), is the ability to impact people to attain a goal. A leader according to Gaiter (2013), sets direction and influences others to accomplish goals and directs cohesiveness. A leaders’ goal is not just the success of the team but, also the success of individuals on the team, a leader must motivate, inspire and empower others for success (Gaiter, 2013). To accomplish these goals a leader will utilize a leadership style.

There are four styles of leadership, the first is the autocratic leader. This leader makes all the decisions and the followers have no freedom to disagree. For example, musicians in an orchestra. Another leadership

These requirements are intended to lead the organization to its fullest potential. The autocratic leader that make all the decisions is necessary for an organization such as an orchestra. Think of how an orchestra would sound if they utilized another form of leadership. Each instrument would fail to be precisely orchestrated with the others, the resulting music would be very difficult to listen to. The most important aspect of the autocratic leader is that this leader must always be leading and their followers must be willing to abide to the leaders authority. The consultative leader is willing to hear the perspective of others. After seeking the opinions of the followers the consultative leader then makes a decision. This type of leadership gives the followers a chance to be heard. Most importantly it gives the leader a chance to get to know the followers and to hear their opinions on how the organization should carry on their business. The final decision remains with leader. The participative leader is utilized for teams, the decision making power is a team effort. The leader will make decisions if team is unable to come to a consensus. The importance of this type of leadership is, that it gives each member of the team “ownership”, this can improve the morale. The free-rein leader gives the guidelines and the followers are free to choose how to accomplish the end goal. The most important aspect of this

Currently I do not hold a position of assigned leadership, but I have in the past. My leadership style is the consultative leader. My goal is to know how the members of my team perceive the necessary changes and how they would like to see the changes accomplished. Receiving input from the team gives them the confidence that their leader considers them an integral part of the team. Listening to the team members also gives them a sense of ownership if their opinions become a part of the solution. This can also have a down side, if you have a member of the team consistently give their input and the leader does not utilize their