Leadership lessons from Aaron Huizenga: How to lead with style, part two

Last month, we started examining the seven leadership styles and where you might find yourself in your current role. We also looked at how we blend them from time to time based on the situation. After Democratic and Autocratic, here are the other five styles.

Laissez-Faire. “Yeah, whatever. You’re fine, do what you think is right.” This leadership style is very hands-off. You provide your team with the tools and resources needed to get the job done and essentially walk away. There is no direction, no real follow-up, just a “you make the decisions” approach. Based on the project, this approach could offer a good opportunity for you, the leader, to practice followership.

Transformational leadership pushes team members. The Transformational leader looks to expand the output, education, and abilities of everyone on their team. They are growth- and innovation-oriented with a focus on the future. They push team members out of their comfort zones and challenge them with bigger projects and tighter timelines. They lead with high integrity, emotional intelligence, and good communication skills. As a side note, this is the style that people live in most of the time.

Transitional leaders work in a give-and-take world. You complete these tasks and here is how you are compensated. Go beyond that, and there is a bonus program. Fall short, and there is the penalty. This style features clearly defined roles and tasks and a timeline to satisfy them. It can stifle innovations and ideas, but there are generally no surprises from either side of this relationship.

Bureaucratic leaders are by the book. These are the rules, this is how we do things and no changes are allowed. There is red tape and top-down information flow. Every single action has a predetermined process that must be followed to do anything, no matter how granular. Under this style of leadership, ideas only trickle in. There is a general void of innovation, and growth in any way is difficult. There is a place for this style: think of financial institutions, high-safety-risk organizations and law.

Servant leadership means putting the needs of the team before your own. You are a supporter, helping, giving and leading by example. The Servant wants their team to succeed mostly on their own and strives to support their needs. They are highly empathetic and create a culture of high morale and strong values. This style can be effective as an add-on to another style. There is caution, though: utilizing only this style can be a disadvantage in highly competitive situations.

Now that you know all the styles of leadership, where do you see yourself?

Are you where you would like to be? If not, we will look at that next month.

Let’s work on your upgrade!

Aaron Huizenga is East Division manager for Lakes Gas in Wisconsin. Reach him at ahuizenga@lakesgas.com. 

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