Lewin's Leadership Styles

I recently learned that there are basically three different approaches or leadership styles.

1.    Authoritarian/Autocratic: Think of the Godfather. You work for him. He is the boss and you do what he tells you.

2.    Participative/Democratic: More Mufasa from Lion King. He offers clear guidance, but allows the tribe to have input and integrates their ideas and suggestions.

3.    Delegative/Laissez-Faire: Also called “Free-Reign”. When the leader leaves decisions up to the group.

Which one do you think you respond best to? Which one do you think you are? Which one do you think you should be?

Before we jump right to it, lets take a little look at the pros and cons of each.

 

Authoritarian:

Pros	Cons
Clear direction/ expectations	Little or no input from the group
Useful when timeliness is an issue	Followers become passive and do not take initiative
Good when the leader has more information or expertise	Can be seen as bossy or dictatorial
	Less creative and sometimes poorer performance

Participative:

Pros	Cons
Offers guidance	Followers are less productive
Allows for input from followers	Not very timely
Leaders retain final say
Higher quality outcomes
More creative, motivational & engaging

Delegative:

Pros	Cons
Group decision making	No clear guidance
Good when the followers are the experts	Least productive
	Followers can become aggressive, discontent or hostile
	Sometimes responsibility for the outcome may default to the group

Immediately after learning about these styles my mind automatically went to that participative must be the best. But after some thought, maybe not... Can you imagine the military being run in a participative style? What a mess that would be. Obviously authoritarian fits that situation much better. Or, if by some strange twist of fate, I led a team a brain surgeons. Obviously they would have more expertise in the area of “brain surgeon-y” things than I do, not being a surgeon myself. I guess the moral of the story here is that leaders have to use all three leadership styles depending on the situation to be effective. They will likely have a natural tendency towards one and need to become for comfortable with the others to become the best leaders they can be.

To help you determine which style you tend to be check out: http://psychology.about.com/library/quiz/bl-leadershipquiz.htm

PS. Mine was particpative, what was yours?