As a leader, it’s your job to steer the organization towards success, and support your team in the work they do. Every leader has their own unique style of leadership, which affects the way that they communicate, delegate and resolve conflicts between people. However, not every leader is aware of their unique leadership style, and many do not take the appropriate time and energy to analyze their leadership style, experiment with different modes, and find what works best for them and their organization.

A good leader has drastic impacts on the organization. A study by David McClelland, Harvard University psychologist, found that leaders with strong emotional intelligence competencies at a global food and beverage company led divisions that outperformed yearly revenue targets by 15% to 20% on average. Conversely, leaders lacking emotional intelligence rated weakly in their performance reviews and led divisions that underperformed by up to 20%.

To that end, it doesn’t matter whether you’re the business owner of a marketing agency or Department Chair of a university who has an online Ed.D. in Higher Education, every leader needs to understand what their leadership style is—no matter what sector they’re working in.

What are the different leadership styles?

While there are many different approaches that label various kinds of leadership styles, many of them typically refer to between four and eight of the same broad categories; the ones presented below were created by Daniel Goleman in 2000, published in Harvard Business Review, and include leadership styles that are both conducive to good business and counter-productive.

Coercive

Coercive leaders take the initiative, and are controlling, demanding immediate compliance to their will. They don’t consult with the team or take others’ opinions on board. Instead, they make a decision and expect that everyone else will carry out their duties as instructed. They typically have a negative impact on business, especially in the long term, but can be best in crisis mode, when decisions need to be made quickly and the organization needs a kick to get back on track—but even in that case, only if the leaders are smart, experienced, and know exactly what they’ve been brought on to do.

Authoritative

Authoritative leaders can have elements of coercive leadership, but are more likely to present their ideas in self-confident and empathetic ways, mobilizing people towards a common good, rather than implementing their will with an iron fist. They are best when clear direction or a strong new vision is needed.

Affiliative

Affiliative leaders prioritize harmony and build emotional bonds. They make employees feel seen and heard and have fantastic impacts on company culture, creating a real sense of community and camaraderie. Affiliative leaders are especially important at times when organizations need to repair broken trust or recover from difficult periods where employees were not prioritized or cared for.

Democratic

Democratic leaders are group thinkers; they take ideas from anyone and everyone and facilitate so that the most popular decisions are found and made. They are collaborative and communicative and have a positive effect on company culture by making it so that all employees feel heard and valued.

Pacesetting

Pacesetting leaders set high standards for performance and prioritize efficiency and productivity above all else. They are most appropriate in short periods of time, when trying to get fast results from very motivated and competent teams, but are typically damaging in the long term, as workers cannot keep up with a break-neck pace constantly, and get burnt out before long.

Coaching

Finally, leaders with a coaching style look to all members of the team to find and develop people’s hidden potential, preparing them and the organization for the future. They are empathetic and self-aware and are fantastic at helping employees individually improve and better position the company’s talent pool for the long term.

What good leaders do

A good leader will switch between different modes of leadership depending on the context of the company’s goals and its life cycle. To do so, good leaders need to understand their natural style or tendency (for example, do you tend to be more authoritative or democratic? Short-term results-focused, or long-term sustainability-focused?) and then experiment with where they need to scale back different elements of their leadership and lean in elsewhere. Becoming a good leader takes practice, time and effort, and definitely won’t happen overnight, nor without a number of failures. But as with any good thing, becoming a good leader who is aware of their own leadership style is very well worth the effort for you, the people who work with you, and the organization as a whole.