Corporate training to help you develop your leadership style - By: Torri Myler

It has become a common knowledge that being a leader is less about going along with your needs and more about guiding the organization and people who work in it towards their goals. Experts say that the most effective leaders are those who can easily alternate between available styles, adjusting them to the situation, the characteristics of an organization and people they work with. Needless to say, it takes talent and practice to create a suite of styles at your disposal, let alone developing the ability to move freely and effectively between them.

In answer to the question how many different styles there are that leaders can resort to, you can get a variety of propositions. One of the most convincing classifications is into six major tones.

First, there is a visionary leadership in which managers are expected to show and illuminate new directions for a company. Far from limiting the team by their visions, their job is to develop shared dreams that an organization will want to pursue in the future. Importantly, it is less important for them to specify how they would like to do it, and more important to inspire and empower with their vision. This way, they are left with enough freedom to take calculated risks and expand the initial vision.

Second, there is a leadership style based on coaching, one-on-one tutoring by which leaders develop and empower individuals to align themselves with the goals of the organization. It can be a powerful too for employees who are quick to take initiative in relation to this transfer of knowledge and can be trusted to use it in practice. A negative side, often mentioned during corporate training sessions, is that for some people coaching equals intrusive micromanaging.

Next, specialists speak of affiliative leaders whose focus falls more strongly on developing a sense of community in their organizations. This is especially effective when a company needs more group harmony or its morale has been hurt. It is a fantastic way to encourage your employees to make good on it, but this collective focus has a way of going bad by allowing mediocrity to set in.

Democratic leadership, in turn, stresses involvement and commitment on the part of employees who should have a say in key processes encompassing them and the company. It might not be the best solution in times of crisis, but a great one when you know that a consensus is necessary.

Pacesetting leaders concentrate one establishing and propagating benchmarks of expected performance. They strive to make their teams and organizations do a better and faster job, highlighting the role of efficiency. It is important not to let moods sour with too much criticism or too little praise, as this can result in demotivation, executive training experts say.

Finally, a style which might be popular, but is not necessarily as effective as people think it to be. A commanding leadership has a lot to do with military-like solutions, based on directions and shrugging off consensus-seeking. It does work in times of astute crisis.

About the Author

I am a executive training consultant. I write publications about business education and corporate training programs.

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