There are 7 types of leadership that you can use for your organizational culture with great success, It’s important that we ask ourselves a question before we get started!

What is the relationship between leadership and organizational culture? The answer is more complicated than you might think. On the one hand, I’d argue that it’s very difficult to impose organizational culture, taking a top-down approach. Organizational culture really needs to emanate from the team, and you’ll need widespread buy-in for any cultural changes to be effective. At the same time, I do think companies need leaders who set the tone, articulate a clear sense of mission, and embody organizational culture through the daily example they set. That’s why I like these 7 types of leadership styles for your organizational culture.

Crucially, there’s more than one way to apply leadership within your organizational culture… and some leadership styles are more effective than others. As you consider the best way to lead a culture-building initiative, allow me to share with you seven basic leadership modalities, along with my comments on how effective each one is.

7 Leadership Styles for Your Organizational Culture

Democratic Leadership

We’ll start with democratic leadership, which is exactly what you probably think it is: A leader will gain feedback and insight from each team member, then make a final decision based on the group’s consensus.

This doesn’t necessarily mean everyone is on equal footing, as the senior leader or manager may still have basic veto powers, but it does empower everyone on the team to feel like they have a say, and some authority over what the organizational culture looks like. For this reason, I’d consider democratic leadership to be one of the more effective approaches.

Autocratic Leadership

Autocratic leadership, meanwhile, is the polar opposite of democratic leadership. In this leadership style, there’s one manager or executive who makes the decision all on their own, without soliciting input from anyone else on the team.

Frankly, this just isn’t a good way to run an organization. Yes, sometimes, you may have a situation where the executive just has to make a tough call, and it may be a decision that team members don’t especially like. But that should be the exception, not the rule. Taking a full-on dictatorial approach will cause resentment to fester, and it can obliterate your best-laid employment engagement strategies.

Laissez-Faire Leadership

This third category of leadership is almost like the democratic approach taken to an extreme. Laissez-faire is a French term that translates as let them do what they want, and it basically means that the “leader” abdicates all authority to the employees, allowing them to call the shots without any checks or balances.

Trusting your employees to simply work however they like, whenever they like, can actually be a decent approach in smaller and younger companies; indeed, you’ll generally see this leadership style used in startup environments. In more mature companies, though, it can often lead to trouble… a lack of purpose, a lack of unity, a lack of cohesion.

Transactional Leadership

Another leadership style to consider for your organizational culture: Transactional leadership. With this approach, employees are always rewarded on the basis of the work they do; so, the team that brings in a big new account will receive a commiserate paycheck or bonus. In other words, transactional leadership is all about incentivizing.

I’d argue that there are some strengths here, but also some limitations. On the one hand, it’s helpful to clearly lay out roles, responsibilities, and expectations. At the same time, it can actually encourage employees to put in bare-minimum effort, if they have a good sense of how much they really need to do to get the desired reward.

Coaching-style Leadership

Still another form of leadership to consider is the approaching style. And yes, this works much like a sports coach: The leader will work on identifying and then honing the strengths of the team as well as each individual employee. Most of the time, a coaching-style approach will lead to each employee having a few areas of expertise; hopefully, when you bring all the skill sets of the team together, it results in something cohesive and impactful.

I think this is a fairly effective way to lead a team, and in fact it has a lot in common with my favorite leadership style, which is transformational. More on that in a moment!

Bureaucratic Leadership

Another leadership style to think about is bureaucratic. Leaders who adopt this strategy adhere rigidly to company policies and procedures. They may sometimes solicit employee input, but they’ll reject it any time it contradicts existing standards, practices, routines, etc.

As with autocratic leadership, the bureaucratic approach may stifle your employees, making them feel too closely controlled; again, it can really deflate your employee engagement strategies. I’d generally recommend against it.

Transformational Leadership

Finally, there’s transformational leadership.of the 7 types of leadership styles you can use in your organizational culture this is my favorite. This is the model where you are always looking for ways to improve a company’s existing conventions or processes. It is goal-oriented, participative, and aspirational.

I think it’s the best way to lead a team and develop organizational culture because it provides employees with a lot of autonomy, but also keeps everyone focused on the same big-picture objectives.

I’m proud to call myself a transformational leadership expert and coach, and one of my favorite things is talking with managers and executives about how they can adopt a transformational approach. If you’re looking to revolutionize your organizational culture, the transformational leadership style may be just what you’re looking for. Reach out and let’s talk!

Contact me at www.rickgoodman.com or call 888-267-6098, and let’s get into the details of your cultural needs.