I set out today to search the Internet and identify all the different approaches to leadership styles in the hope that I could draw parallels and consolidate them into one cohesive approach. I have been at it for only half an hour and I am getting a headache from too much inforation. I am seeing why nobody has done that before me.
We know that Hersey and Blanchard in their Situational Leadership Model identified directing, coaching, supporting and delegating as their main styles.https://www.kenblanchard.com/Products-Services/SLII
Here is a video worth watching.
And more recently Daniel Goleman popularized emotional intellgence and gave us authoritative, affiliative, democratic, coaching, pacesetting and coercive to consider. https://intenseminimalism.com/2015/the-six-styles-of-leadership/
Watch Goleman talk about leadership styles in this video:
You can read more about Hersey and Blanchard as well as Daniel Goleman in this blog by searching their names at the bottom of this page.
Along the way others added the following styles: transformational, laissez-faire, strategic, bureaucratic, cross-cultural and servant. And I am sure there are many more terms. https://thebestschools.org/magazine/organizational-leadership-styles-study-starters/
Each of the styles refers to a tendency to behave in one way more than any others with resulting advantages and disadvantages. Some styles work better in certain situations and some are better suited to the personalities of specific leaders. Blanchard, for example, emphasizes that a good leader will use all four styles concurrently in different situations. For me, the key is to have a broad palette of styles at your disposal, know which produces the desired results in what circumstance and apply a style with intent rather than because it may be most “natural” to you.
Herb