Each leader develops his or her own style of leadership. Much has been written on the subject. Rensis Likert’s defined four styles of leadership – Exploitative Authoritative, Benevolent Authoritative, Consultative System, and Participative. Hersey and Blanchard gave us Situational Leadership. I recommend further study of both Likert and Hersey, Blanchard. But for the purposes of easy understanding, I define the common styles of leadership as authoritative, directive, democratic. There’s certainly a place for each of these in any organization, but good leaders must know when to apply them.
Tag Archive: leadership
Oct 12 2010
Leadership Development: Your “Brand” as a Leader
I recently did an interview with Dana Woods for her Blog Talk Radio show, “Professional Scope.” Dana is a skillful interviewer and it was an enjoyable hour. She asked me a question though that I really hadn’t considered before. Should a leader brand themselves in their leadership role? Of course branding is a popular topic in the marketing world, but I’d never really considered it as a leadership concern. The idea makes sense though.
Oct 07 2010
Six Questions For Leaders To Ask When Things Go Right
As leaders, we are usually pretty quick to demand answers when things go wrong. We want to dissect failure, figure out what went wrong and how to fix it, and unfortunately, sometimes place blame. It’s healthy to do this. Not to place blame, but to analyze what happened and develop plans to fix the problem and prevent recurrence.
Sep 28 2010
Developing Leadership in Youth: 7 Tips for Aspiring Young Leaders
I was once asked what advice I would offer to young people who intended to pursue a career that involved leading others. I gave it some thought and realized that such advice would apply to all young people, not just those who aspired to leadership at a young age because some who do …
Sep 14 2010
Four Do’s and Four Don’ts in Goal Setting
I was talking to an engineer who was complaining about management. No news there, but he made a valid point. He was objecting to the goals his management was setting because he saw them as goals to further the particular manager rather than the company. Unfortunately, that isn’t an unusual situation and is …
Aug 12 2010
Five Things to Look for in Potential Leaders
You need to find someone to move into the next open management position. There are several people with the technical expertise, but being an enlightened leader yourself, you are looking for some ability to lead people, not just manage the department. How do you find that special person who will be a good …
Aug 10 2010
Developing a New Leader
For some inexplicable reason, there is a tendency to pick someone as the next manager and give them no training for their leadership role. Senior leaders will watch the new manager flounder and eventually proclaim that they “just weren’t leadership material.” There are many sources of leadership training available of which some organizations …
Aug 03 2010
Leading When The Boss Won’t Listen
Why are executives less than willing to hear things from their subordinate leaders? There’s an interesting phenomenon in the military. Often called the revolving door, it is common for military retirees to quickly return as civilian consultants. It makes a lot of sense for both the retiree and the military to continue to …
Jul 29 2010
Ten Questions Leaders Should Ask Employees
Many years ago when I was a young worker just becoming a manager and leader and I wondered why my bosses never asked my opinion. In fact they seldom asked me anything. That seemed strange to me; after all I had infinite knowledge and the wisdom of youth and leadership certainly could have …
Jul 27 2010
Leadership Lessons From The Arizona Immigration Law
There seem to be plenty of examples, both good and bad, of things leaders should do or not do. But, every now and then some particularly noteworthy examples are splashed across the headlines. The latest of these can be found in the international furor over Arizona’s new immigration law. For the next few …
