Would you have walked alongside Gandhi in 1930 for a 240 miles journey in what was later called "the salt march"? Could you imagine waiting for hours under the hot summer sun of Washington to listen to Martin Luther King's speech? Can you picture yourself with Mother Theresa and her hundreds of aids healing the poor in Calcutta's streets? Those incredible feats have changed the world, and it was only possible because those great leaders gathered thousands of people to follow and work alongside them toward achieving their goals and vision.
In this explanation, we will look closely at many different leadership theories and styles of leaders who have changed the world. So keep reading if you want to learn their secrets and how to become a better leader!
Leadership Theories and Style
Let's dive straight into the definitions of leadership, leadership theories and leadership style.
Leadership is about guiding, influencing, motivating, or even ordering a group of people toward achieving a specific goal.
A leadership style is a leader's approach to managing people toward achieving a specific goal.
A leadership theory describes the process and strategy of a particular leadership style.
There are dozen or even hundreds of leadership theories that you can find in textbooks and all over the internet. This explanation will look closely at some of the most influential theories impacting how people lead.
What are the eight theories of leadership?
Most leadership theories can be classified as one of the following eight types:
- Transformational theories of leadership
- Transactional theories of leadership
- Participative leadership theories
- Behavioral theories of leadership
- Contingency theories of leadership
- Situational theories of leadership
- Great man theories of leadership
- Trait theories of leadership
Types Leadership Theories
There are many different types of leadership theories, and although we could spend hours discussing them, we have to limit the scope of this explanation. For this reason, we will focus this article on contemporary leadership theories.
Contemporary leadership theories are the ones that shape our modern society. Those leadership theories include:
- Charismatic leadership: this leadership theory focuses on the common characteristics of charismatic leaders that can inspire thousands of people to follow them and work to achieve their vision.
- Authentic leadership: this leadership style is about ethical values leaders and organizations follow.
- Leader-Member Exchange: this theory focuses on the relationship between leaders and followers.
- Situational leadership: this theory is about choosing the best leadership style according to the situation and circumstances.
- Transformational leadership: this leadership style is about guiding employees toward achieving specific goals.
- Transactional leadership: this theory focuses on inspiring people to change and achieve the organization's objective.
Charismatic Leadership Theories
Robert House created the concept of charismatic leadership theory in 1976. For him, charismatic leaders inspire people to follow them and achieve their vision.
Charismatic leaders often have five common characteristics:
- Vision: those leaders have a clear vision of what they want to accomplish. They inspire people to follow them and help them achieve this vision.
- Self-awareness: charismatic leaders know their position, responsibility, and the impact their actions have on others.
- Empathy: those leaders can feel and understand other people's emotions.
- Inspiration: leaders inspire people to take action and help them accomplish their vision.
- Creativity: charismatic leaders often revolutionize a specific field with new creative ideas; they are very creative persons or promote creativity in their organization.
Barack Obama is a well-known example of a charismatic leader:
- When campaigning to become president, he shared his vision with all Americans.
- He was well aware of his position and what impact every decision he made had on others.
- He could understand people's emotions and use this skill when writing his speech to gather as many people to follow his ideas.
- Barack Obama often inspires people to take action with him. His famous motto, "Yes we can" is an excellent example of how he inspired people to take action.
- He passed many laws and tried to revolutionize medical care in America.
Check out our article on Charismatic Leadership for more information.
Authentic Leadership Theories
A recent trend in leadership theories picked up on what is called 'authentic leadership.' This leadership style is about the values the management team abides by and wants to promote within their organization. For example, they often pursue the following values:
- Honesty & transparency: organizations with authentic leaders are transparent; effective communication is one of its fundamental principles, it's easy to know who does what, and there is no shadowy deals undercover.
- Fairness: authentic leaders tend to be fair with everyone in their organization and everything they do.
- Self-awareness: leaders must be aware of how their actions impact other people.
- Morality: those values serve the organization as a moral compass to help them make decisions.
Authentic leaders always think about their long-term mission, not the short-term gains they might seek.
Leader-Member Exchange
The 'leader-member exchange' theory was developed in 1970 and focused on the relationship between leaders and followers. This theory states that leaders have different relationships with their employees that fall into two groups: the in-group and the out-group.
The leader favors employees from the in-group as they have more personal connections with the leader. In contrast, people from the out-group are disfavored by the leaders and receive fewer privileges and attention.
This relationship has three stages:
- Role taking: when someone new enters the group, the leader will assess their capability and determine their position.
- Role Making: in this stage, that new person will start to work. During that phase, the leader will define if the worker is within their inner circle, the "in-group", where they will be favored and get more interesting jobs and attention. Or if they are in their "out-group" where they won't get as much attention and favoritism.
- Routinization: in this phase, routines are established, and the relationships with the different groups are solidified.
Situational Leadership Theories
Situational leadership theory was developed in 1969 by Dr. Paul Hersey and Kenneth Blanchard. This theory states that there isn't one best style of leadership that will suit every situation. Instead, leaders must adapt their style and approach to the circumstances and situation.
They define four types of maturity in a group:
- Low Maturity (M1): the people in this group lack knowledge and don't want to work independently.
- Medium Maturity (M2): the people in this group lack knowledge but are willing to work independently.
- Medium Maturity (M3): the people in this group have the knowledge but need more time to be ready to take responsibility.
- High Maturity (M4): the people in this group have the knowledge and are inclined to take responsibility.
They also describe four types of leadership:
- Telling (S1): where leaders tell their followers what to do.
- Selling (S2): where leaders have to convince their followers by selling them their ideas and vision.
- Participating (S3): where leaders have their followers participate in their decision and strategy.
- Delegating (S4): where leaders delegate what their followers have to do.
As some maturity levels are more adapted to specific leadership styles, the leader must assess the group they are working with and adjust their leadership style to the group's maturity level.
S1 leadership style is appropriate for a M1 maturity group.
Leaders have to give clear and detailed instructions to a group that lacks knowledge and skills.
On the other hand, S1 leadership style is unnecessary for an M4 maturity group.
There is no point in a leader describing every step of a specific task to a highly experienced group of professionals.
Transformational & Transactional Leadership
Transformational & transactional leadership are complementary leadership styles. Transactional leaders guide their employees to realize specific tasks and work toward a goal; they motivate them by appealing to their own self-interest. In contrast, the transformational leader inspires, motivates, and encourages employees to transform and become something more significant to help achieve the organization's objective.
The best leaders are the ones that adopt both transactional and transformational leadership styles.
In the table below, you can find the characteristics of both leadership styles.
Transformational leadership | Transactional leadership |
Intellectual stimulation: Organizations are stimulating the creative spirit of their employees. Individualized consideration: Transformational leaders encourage their employees to create a good working environment by promoting employees to have other supportive relationships within the organization. Inspirational motivation: Transformational leaders create a vision that inspires their followers and drives them to achieve great results. Idealized influence: The leader is an example of their vision; they become a model of trust, respect, and inspiration for the employees.
| Contingent reward: transactional leaders promise rewards for achieving specific targets. Active management by exception: leaders actively manage and monitor the tasks and performances of their employees. Passive management by exception: leaders won't intervene unless the standards are not met, in this case, they might even punish their employees. Laissez-Faire: the employees have responsibilities and leaders give them the space to make decisions.
|
Table 1 - Characteristics of transactional & transformational leadership
There are hundreds of leadership theories, and we have only been through a couple. Leaders must acknowledge that there isn't one specific leadership style that will be perfect for every organization and situation. Instead, leaders should define their style based on their circumstances and objectives.
Leadership Theories - Key takeaways
- Leadership is about guiding, influencing, motivating, or even ordering a group of people toward achieving a specific goal.
- A leadership style is a leader's approach when managing people toward achieving a specific goal.
- A leadership theory describes the process and strategy of a particular leadership style.
- Charismatic leaders inspire people to follow them and achieve their vision. Charismatic leaders often have five common characteristics: Vision, Self-awareness, Empathy, Inspiration, and Creativity.
- Authentic leadership defines a set of values and core principles their leader and organization should follow: honesty & transparency, fairness, self-awareness, and morality.
- Leader-Member exchange theory states that leaders have different relationships with their employees that fall into two groups: 'the in-group' and 'the out-group.'
- Situational leadership: This theory states that there isn't one best style of leadership that will suit every situation. Instead, leaders must adapt their style and approach to the circumstances and situation.
- Transformational & transactional leadership are complementary leadership styles.
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