Know which leadership styles contribute to high performance and which negatively affect productivity

Good leaders have a variety of different strategies and leadership styles that inspire others to achieve even ambitious goals. The more emotional intelligence they have, the better they know how to motivate the right people in the right way at the right time.

It’s helpful to think of leadership like a toolkit. If you’re a builder and you only know how to use a hammer, you’re going to hit a lot of things. Sure, sometimes, you’ll hit the nail on the head, but sometimes you’ll break things. Once in a while, you’ll hit your own thumb. A hammer is great, but if it’s your only tool, you’re going to be limited in what you can do.

If you know how to use a number of tools—saws, screwdrivers, wrenches, even power tools or trucks in addition to the hammer—you can build a huge variety of amazing things. The more tools you know how to use, the more you can do. It’s the same for leadership. 

Really good leaders have a lot of ways get people to rally around a vision or idea and put in their best effort at achieving even ambitious goals. People who work for good leaders want to work and want to get things done. They often love their jobs, even to the point where sometimes they won’t leave for more money elsewhere.

Less skilled leaders have fewer, less effective leadership tools. They tend to rely on authority to make people do what they want them to do. Often, they use the same approach with everyone, regardless of the employee’s needs or skills. People who work for unskilled leaders do what they have to do in their work and rarely put in extra effort.

It’s important to note that leadership styles build on each other. Being directive or setting a deadline are important tools for high performing leaders, but they are used judiciously, when the need arises. In contrast, leaders who have few tools often use the same tools over and over no matter what the occasion, leading to less effectiveness.

What are the strategies of good leaders? Here are some of the most useful leadership tools.

#6:  Deadline Leader

The deadline leader is all about hitting targets within stated deadlines at the expense of all else. Time and deadlines become the only measure of achievement. This kind of leader generally assumes that people won’t do much and so, they create deadlines that have to be obeyed. The relationship between the deadline leader and his employees in one of distrust. One example of this might be an Amazon warehouse, where Amazon constantly monitors every second of the workday through technology, to the point where some workers report wearing diapers to improve their efficiency rating. The use of deadlines at the expense of everything else, is the hammer-only style of leadership. Research shows that in comparison with other leadership styles, deadline leadership has a negative effect on overall performance.

#5 The Commanding Leader

The Commanding leaders relies on direct commands and ordering people around. Commanders decide what will be done and when, and they spend most of the time telling people what to do. Commanders can be soft or hard. Even when they are soft, asking people nicely what to do and being tolerant of mistakes, they don’t expect their employees to think for themselves. As a result, employees do what they are told and no more. The relationship of the commanding leader and employees is authoritative. Usually, commanding leaders use both instructions and deadlines, so they have a slightly larger skillset than deadline leaders. The leader must come up with every initiative and track work carefully to ensure that instructions are carried out. When deadlines are missed, the leader either has to live with undone work and poor results, or the leader might try to penalize or get angry at employees. This style of leadership leads to high turnover, because few people want to work where they are frequently reprimanded. In comparison to other leadership styles, organizations with commander style leaders rate lower in performance metrics than other similar organizations with better leadership.

#4 The Harmonious Leader

The Harmonious leader’s main concern is to avoid conflict and keep people happy. They try to be clear about expectations and ask for what they need. When things are not done or not done well, or deadlines or tasks are missed, the harmonious leader simply asks again. There is little discussion about what went wrong or consequences for poor performance. Rather than hold people accountable, they simply go forward with low performance and often defend their employees’ good nature and efforts. Harmonious leaders sometimes try to enforce deadlines or give directions and can be forceful with essential tasks that must be done. Sometimes, they personally step in to take over the work of their team members in order to avoid conflict and still ensure task completion. Generally, to avoid being disappointed, the harmonious leader doesn’t expect too much out of people and so, their team tends toward average or low-average performance.

#3 The Coaching Leader

The coaching leader works with team members to help them learn and grow professionally. They connect personally with each member of their team and give them what they need to do a great job and become more valuable to the organization. They work with less skilled workers closely to help them learn what they need to do their job right. When things go wrong, they use the experience as a learning opportunity, helping employees figure out what went awry and encourage them to try again to make it right and do better next time. They frequently reward employees who fulfill their work with a quick note to say, “good job” or a shout-out during a meeting. Coaching leaders know how to deploy deadlines, deliver occasional commands, and create harmony strategically, so their leadership toolbox is diverse and useful in a wide variety of situations and with different kinds of people. Coaching leaders develop highly skilled teams that perform excellent work. Because employees feel appreciated and enjoy growing their skills, they remain engaged and loyal to their jobs. Coaching leaders help organizations perform in the upper half against their peers.

#2: Consensus Leader

A consensus leader has the skills to bring people together to achieve ambitious goals. They have high emotional intelligence, build excellent relationships, and know that decisions developed with a talented team of experts and stakeholders will always outperform decisions made by one person alone. They tap into people who can contribute good ideas, solicit and develop ideas, sort through ideas to find the best, and bring everyone along to support outcomes that benefit the widest number of people possible. The consensus leader often challenges people to meet deadlines or issues challenges or commands when needed. They are in tune with the needs of their team, empathetic and encouraging, interested in team members’ well being and development. Consensus leaders develop high performing teams and delivery better than average results.

#1: the Inspirational Leader

The inspirational leader has mastered all the other styles of leadership and adds to that, the ability to inspire people. This is the leader that everyone loves, the one large numbers of people will give more than average effort in their own work to please. Often excellent storytellers, inspirational leaders help everyone on the team understand their place in the effort to build something greater and larger than any one team member. Inspirational leaders are often relentlessly positive, pushing people to results they never thought they could achieve, and often outperforming the highest goals. People are proud to work for these leaders and have a high sense of purpose that keeps them working day after day, year after year, with continued enthusiasm and energy. Inspirational leaders outperform their peers time after time.  

Good Leadership Doesn’t Happen by Accident

Good leadership is not a skill you’re born with and it doesn’t happen by accident. Like a good carpenter who develops skills over time to build better and better creations, good leaders hone their leadership skills through time.

Start building more effective leadership styles and tools by asking yourself these three questions:

  1. What leadership skills do I have?  Use the descriptions above to identify what’s in your leadership toolkit.
  2. What other leadership skills can I build? Use the descriptions above to consider new skills you want to learn.
  3. How will I build the leadership skills I want? Make a plan to try new things and learn how to acquire the leadership skills you want. Use books, courses, and coaching to help you understand how to handle new experiences and skills better and jumpstart your leadership abilities.