Recently I attended a leadership training day for young people in the Catholic Church. Part of the day was looking at the different types of leaders there are according to definition, and we were asked which one described us the most and which one described us the least.
The six styles were:
* Coaching
* Democratic
* Visionary
* Affiliative
* Pacesetting
* Commanding
For me, the one that describes me the most is the coaching style, and the one that was least like me was the commanding style. After working these out, the group of seven was asked to do an activity where we used our least preferred style of leadership to lead the group. Interestingly many of the group chose the same style to use (commanding).
I think in business as a leader you have to have a part of all the different styles to be an effective one. Many of the people I look up to in business have most of these styles in their leadership.
I found the activity to be difficult because it went against the natural way I do things and challenged me to step outside my comfort zone to something that I was not comfortable doing. It did however open my eyes to a different style of leadership, the 'my way or the highway' principle.
Which one are you, and which one are you not?