Leadership Styles That Shape Success (or Failure)

From Inspiration to Intimidation: The Traits of Effective and Ineffective Leaders

Dec 10, 2024

What kind of leader or boss are you

There are all kinds of leaders or bosses with very distinctive leadership styles. You must understand your style because it directly affects everything about your team.

Dictator

There is the dictator or the one that makes unilateral decisions without input from team members. This leader has unchecked authority and will silence or eliminate any opposition. They surround themselves with yes men.

Micromanager

This leader must closely oversee every detail of the employee’s work. Because of the need to know and control everything, this leader finds it difficult to delegate. This leader focuses on details and getting it done right, (according to the leader’s definition of right.)

The Hands-Off Leader

This leader provides little direct supervision or guidance. The leader allows employees significant freedom to decide and complete tasks as they see fit. These leaders ensure team members have the resources to complete their work. They delegate tasks and responsibilities extensively. This style works best with highly skilled, self-motivated employees.

The Transformational Leader

This leader unites followers around a shared vision and inspires and motivates them to do more than expected. This leader prioritizes followers’ needs, increasing their happiness. With this kind of leadership, they hope to grow.

The vision they communicate captures and inspires. They articulate the vision in a way that reaches and encourages the team.

This leader cares about and helps each individual with their needs.

This leader is flexible and can guide through uncertain changing times.

The Visionary Leader

Visionary leaders can see the larger context and envision future possibilities that others may not perceive. They focus on long-term goals rather than getting bogged down in day-to-day details. This leader develops new solutions and revolutionizes the world.

This leader is ready to challenge the status quo. They can articulate their vision and inspire the team. This leader bounces back from setbacks and keeps their commitment even in the face of obstacles.

This leader delegates responsibility and ownership of the project.

Good leaders consider the overall goal and make detailed plans to achieve it. Visionary leaders often possess a magnetic personality that draws others to their cause and inspires them to give their best.

The Destroyer

This leader often engages in favoritism. Destroyer bosses are non-appreciative and ever-critical. They rarely praise positive outcomes but are quick to criticize negative results. This leader creates a hostile work environment and may push unreasonable demands.

Are you a destroyer, leader, or boss?

Do you blame others for issues and cannot recognize your role in the problem?
Do you rarely praise the positive?
Do you focus on the negative?
Are you a poor listener?
Do you lack trust in your employee’s abilities?
Do you work to maintain power?
Do you shut down means of communication unless they come from you?
Does it bother you when you see your employees growing and improving for fear of what they might do?
Do you care more about the company’s profits than your employees?
Are your people disposable?

Quotes to Consider

"A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves." Lao Tzu

"The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers." Ralph Nader

"Leadership is not about being in charge. It is about taking care of those in your charge." Simon Sinek

"The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it."
Theodore Roosevelt

"A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way." John C. Maxwell

"Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality." Warren Bennis

"Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it's amazing what they can accomplish." Sam Walton

"You manage things; you lead people." Grace Hopper

“If you delegate tasks, you create followers. If you delegate authority, you create leaders." Craig Groeschel

"Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate, and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand." Colin Powell

"People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision." John C. Maxwell

"Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity." George S. Patton Jr.

"The supreme quality of leadership is integrity." Dwight D. Eisenhower

"Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other." John F. Kennedy

"The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things." Ronald Reagan

"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." John Quincy Adams

"No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit for doing it." Andrew Carnegie