Looking back at some relatively old styles, laissez-faire leadership is considered the best, followed by servant leadership, democratic leadership, transformational leadership, and charismatic leadership. This list extends. Some relatively new terms and styles are gaining popularity. Self-disruptive leader: best, transpersonal leader: best, altrocentric leader: best, leadership 4.0: best, agile leader: best, technoversal leader: best. For prospective leaders, this list extends much further.
But one second! Imagine prospective leaders searching for a style to adopt and employ. Would it be easy? This plethora may be one of the reasons research indicates that there are not enough business leaders emerging. Which one would prospective leaders choose from so many options? Would it not be contradictory to choose from too many since they are all the best? More importantly, would this choice be a clear path to leadership excellence in an age with these many variables and challenges?
Adopting A Leadership Style
To adopt a particular style, a determined framework and clear guidance for prospective leaders should accompany it. A style is answering the world’s issues and giving simple solutions to complex problems. Except for this, none of them would go in the long list of leadership styles. These styles typically spin in the circle of leader-follower interactions, or how a leader can better motivate for more growth and profit. Perhaps these factors mattered most a hundred, fifty, or even twenty years ago, yet the reality and priority of the world have changed.
Leaders must consider further issues, such as resource scarcity and social responsibility. They also need to consider ethics, as there is a debate about whether the digital work style causes work overload among employees. Above all, they must be seriously aware of climate change and inspire their followers to act to rectify it. Unless a specific leadership style offers unique elements to solving such a requisite aspect of the world’s real problems outlined above, a prospective leader should benefit from focusing on behaviours and skills rather than obsessing about styles.
If there is no such element in the core of leadership, taking a leader ahead of profit-making or leader-follower interaction in businesses. Then, this leader will focus on conventional business concerns, identifying which skills and behaviours will be sufficient to address these concerns. Especially when we consider the distinctive characteristics of each style, it appears more rational to adopt a skill set and behaviours in demand rather than a leadership style. In other words, leadership must offer vital aspects and well-defined qualities, and a prospective leader must select from various leadership styles.
APARTS Versus VUCA
Again, gaining skills and behaviours seems more practical unless the essence of a particular leadership is vital for businesses that consider all living, environmental, and societal aspects together.
So, what are these behaviours?
Recent research addressing this question has found that APARTS Behaviours, Agility, Problem-Solving Efficiency, Adaptation, Respect, Tech-Savviness, and seeking Different Perspectives are the key findings of these behaviours and skills. These behaviours and skills will take the leader ahead in the competition. Coming to VUCA, many leadership readers might have recently seen this overused acronym. The good news is that the explanation of a VUCA world will not be here. However, solving and overcoming VUCA and many more issues may sound more appealing.
APARTS Versus VUCA
Adapted from ‘’Technology Effect on the Leader Behaviours in the Digital Era.’’1 The author has produced the diagram.
According to the research, these are must-have behaviours for leadership success. They are genuinely logical, and the problem and how a leader can solve it with responsive behaviour are considered together in a problem-solution-based approach.
You may hear a prospective leader discussing leadership or inquiring about a particular style. Ultimately, the question is whether your adopted leadership style will provide a vital element and encourage you to think outside the box. If the answer is yes, then it certainly is worth trying. If the answer is no, the above content will be a good choice for beginning to gain the skills and behaviours.
References
[1] Kapucu, H. (2020). The Effect of Technology on Leader Behaviours in the Digital Era. Business & IT, 10(2), pp. 12-31. DOI: https://doi.org/10.14311/bit.2020.03.02
