Contemporary Leadership Styles: How relevant are they in today’s changing world?

What is leadership?

“Leaders are people who do the right thing; managers are people who do things right.” (Prof. Bennis, 2010). Leaders aim to bring in the best possible results for themselves and all people in the team. They create a vision, set direction, inspired others and make some difference. Leadership is all about trying to find the way they have to go to “win” together as a team or as an organisation. While leaders should not just set the course, they need to use management skills to direct their people efficiently and effectively in the right way (Mindtool, 2020).

Leadership theories.

There are many leadership theories in this world. Here is some that many successful leaders are currently using.

• Autocratic Leadership

The autocratic leader provides instructions for their employees to be followed. They can determine the group’s policies without asking them for their opinion, and do not have to give the detail of the plans, just tell people what they need to do. Speed is a significant advantage of this leadership style. When it comes to making decisions, people in the group does not have the ability to make a decision; It only depends on the leaders. However, Autocratic leadership negatively impacts group morale. Many members also dislike how decisions are made and only help them in a limited way (Cherry, 2019).

• Democratic Leadership

This type of leader only gives orders after they have discussed with the team. The policies are usually set in a group debate and with approval from the group. This leadership style demands the engagement of workers and values their views. This boosts employee productivity and increases the acceptance of ideas from the management. On the other hand, the decision-making process will be more time-consuming. Decisions made may be compromised and trying to make everyone comfortable without providing a good solution (Luenendonk, 2016).

• Laisse-Faire Leadership

This style of leadership provides people in the team with freedom. The employees usually have the flexibility for their task. The leaders fully abdicate his role, giving all their responsibility to the team which he is supposed to lead restricting his power to only establishing communication with people outside the community. People in the team gets a chance to improve themselves, and they have the opportunity to speak out and act fairly independently. However, The group might take the wrong direction without the leader, and there is also a chance that this may lead to results being inefficient or even worse, chaos. (Iedunote.com, 2020)

• Transformational Leadership 

This style of leadership encourages, gives inspiration and promote employees to develop themselves and make a difference. That way, the company will evolve and succeed quickly. This leadership style can create and manage changes to the company since employees have a lot of freedom, but sometimes it can be risky since leaders will lose power if people disagree with their vision. (Thompson, 2019)

Which style is the best?

As the world is changing, none of these can fit in every situation. In the old days, Autocratic leadership style had been used for a long time. But then, the Democratic leadership style became popular until the existence of Laisse-Faire leadership style. Recently, many leaders are beginning to use the Transformational leadership style. Leaders have to change and adapt depending on the situation they are facing.

There are many challenges for all leaders around the globe. Sometime, leaders might need to take on some hard people. In the team, there will be some people who are difficult to work with, and it is the leader’s responsibility to handle them in the right way. The pressure is another significant factor. It always included in every working environment, but you will benefit from your ability to accept and release some of the pressure in the long run. Another challenge is culture. Some members might not be getting along well as a team. When working as a team, communication could be a problem too. Inevitably, someone in your organisation will do something that you did not expect them to do. Leaders need to be clear and brief when communicating with employees. From this point, you can see that leaders’ lives are tough. Being a leader is not only doing those difficult things but also about being responsible for something you and your team do. (Wolven, 2018)

“One Size Doesn’t Fit All.”

Here is an example of two different leaders who succeeded by using two different leadership styles.

• Steven Paul Jobs

An American inventor and entrepreneur who was the co-founder, chief executive and chairman of Apple Inc. (Biography.com, 2017) Apple Inc was in a bad situation. Their financial report was decreasing quarter after quarter. They kept changing the CEO, but none of them could help to bring Apple Inc back to the top tech company.  Until one day, Jobs came back to the company. The boot is on the other foot. Apple Inc has become one of the biggest tech company. His Autocratic leadership style has transformed the company entirely. By giving orders and his innovative idea, he launched many revolutionary products, including iPod, iPhone, iPad etc. (Weinberger, 2020)

• Ricardo Semler

A Brazilian CEO of Semco Partners who was given the company by his father. He once used the Autocratic leadership style and faced a ton of problems and obstacles. His employees were stressful and unhappy. Then he changed the company entirely. He brought the Democratic leadership style to the company and changed the company completely. He let his employees make decisions by themselves. The flexible working-hour policy allowed employees to worked happily during the time that they preferred. (Fisher, 2005)

What next for the leaders?

There will be more leadership theories coming into the world. To be a good leader, they need to adapt and learn from today’s changing world and try to find the best way that suits the current situation they are facing. With more skills, leaders will be able to share the information with their team and work together more effectively to achieve their goal.

References are on the next page.