Management Leadership Styles

Leaders are not necessarily born leaders, they develop into leaders. Simply having the title or power over a group of people does not make one a leader. Leadership not only involves skills and knowledge of the job function and tasks, it involves incorporating values and ethics; therefore, authority does not equal a leader. In a recently conducted study, it has been determined that the two most predominate factors involved in effective leadership were communication and trust. A good leader knows who he or she is and they are constantly seeking improvement through training, obtaining feedback from others, and even reflection of ones own behavior (Clark, D., 2007). Leadership is continual self development and improvement and it is an ongoing lifetime experience, not a one time occurrence.

There are three main styles of leadership, authoritarian, participative, and delegative (Clark, D., 2005). Each style indicates how the leader approaches giving direction and feedback to their employees. When dealing with the environment of change, it is important to determine the different leadership styles to use. Not only is determining the style important, it is also important to know when to use it. Not all situations may call for the same style of leadership, and a good leader is easily adaptable to changing the style to best fit the needs of each situation as it presents itself. When facing change in an organization, the leader must go through three phases of change: preparation for the change, their role during the change, and completion of the change (Bacal, R., 2000). Each phase of change may call for one or more styles of leadership at any given time.