Exploring Leadership Styles: How Have They Shaped Your Real-Life Experiences?

Hi Everyone,
The four leadership styles
1) Leadership by Direction
2) Leadership by Seduction
3) Leadership by Association
4) Leadership by Delegation
The above leadership styles are described in “Count Your Chickens before they Hatch” by Arindam Chaudhuri.
Let us have discussions on the above leadership styles on the various situations we have come across in our life.
Every point discussed here will be valuable information & a wonderful guide for aspiring Leaders.
Let us have a healthy discussion……

Dear Vina,

Let me know the details you require in this regard.

In life, we would have come across various situations in which we are required to apply any of the 4 leadership styles either individually or in combination to handle the situation.

Let us discuss any instances in which we have encountered these situations in our lives.

Thank you.

Hi!

Although I have not read the book "Count Your Chickens before they Hatch" by Arindam Chaudhuri referred to by you, with due respect to Arindam Chaudhuri, to my knowledge, this model is very much akin to the Situational Leadership model suggested by Hersey and Blanchard.

Basically, they have suggested 4 styles in terms of the amount of Task Behavior and Relationship Behavior that the leader provides to their followers.

They categorized all leadership styles into four behavior types, which they named S1 to S4: These styles need to be adopted based on the maturity level of the persons you are dealing with.

S1: Telling - is characterized by one-way communication in which the leader defines the roles of the individual or group and provides the what, how, when, and where to do the task.

S2: Selling - while the leader is still providing the direction, he or she is now using two-way communication and providing the socio-emotional support that will allow the individual or group being influenced to buy into the process.

S3: Participating - this is now shared decision-making about aspects of how the task is accomplished, and the leader is providing less task behaviors while maintaining high relationship behavior.

S4: Delegating - the leader is still involved in decisions; however, the process and responsibility have been passed to the individual or group. The leader stays involved to monitor progress.

Kindly note, adopting and sticking to a particular style is dangerous as no one style is considered optimal for all leaders. Effective leaders need to be flexible and must adapt themselves according to the situation. Often, it is the mix of the styles that has proved to yield the desired results.

More importantly, the above forms the heart of the book - "One Minute Manager" which continues to be one of the bestsellers even today.

Wish you all a very happy and prosperous New Year 2010.