Discover Your Leadership Style: Prepare For the Next Step in Your Career

Identifying your leadership style is a critical first step in preparing for the next phase of your career.

A good leader understands their strengths and weaknesses, making sure to address any skills gaps they may have that could hinder their ability to do their job well. As such, it’s important soon-to-be leaders know and understand their leadership style.

A leadership style is how someone chooses to carry out key responsibilities while in a position of power. Core actions and considerations such as:

• How you communicate with people
• How you delegate work
• What type of feedback you provide (if any at all)
• Collaboration and guidance efforts

All affect how you lead and how your co-workers perceive your leadership.

As every style is unique to its owner, it’s important to know which one you naturally fall into to better choose your next step. Find out which leadership style you naturally lean towards by taking our leadership style quiz.

Democratic leaders welcome the input of their whole team, encouraging each employee to work together to reach an agreement on how to move forward. A leader with a democratic style will ultimately have the final say when it comes to business decisions. However, each employee has equal input on the direction of the decision.

This style of leadership is heavily invested in the future well-being of the organisation. It aims to give every employee the chance to understand and participate in an organisation’s larger long-term goals and values.

A laissez-faire style of leadership is the most hands-off of the leadership styles. Employees are often left to make their own decisions concerning projects, deadlines and policies, while the leader focuses on the major business procedures.

This style of leadership encourages employee autonomy and innovation, as this leadership style gives minimal direction. How often a laissez-faire style leader chooses to guide, give feedback or direction to their employees varies depending on the person and the competency of their team.

Similar to a democratic style of leadership, coach-style leaders focus on team cohesiveness and participation. However, they do this by focusing on the professional development of the individual team members rather than the team as a whole.

This leadership style is very feedback orientated, as each employee is encouraged to reach their maximum potential. This type of leader works very well one-on-one with their employees and invests a lot of time and care into each person. They also have excellent observation skills to identify where each employee fits into the overall cohesiveness of the team.

A transformational leadership style is categorised by high levels of inspiration, motivation and positive reinforcement. Leaders with this leadership style focus less on the smaller repetitive responsibilities of the organisation and more on the bigger picture goals. These leaders will push their employees to step out of their comfort zone and will always push for bigger, brighter and better from their team.

This leadership style is very results-orientated and demands fast-paced work while maintaining high quality. This type of leader is heavily involved with the going-ons of their team and often asks for updates to ensure no unexpected roadblocks will affect a project’s deadline.

This leadership style moves forward with firm confidence, choosing to lead by example to inspire their team to follow their ideas and procedures. In times of uncertainty, this leadership style brings an anchor of direction and clarity within a workplace. In addition, a form of mentorship often grows between leader and employee with this leadership style.

Often considered to be the opposite of democratic leadership, autocratic leaders rarely incorporate input from other employees when making business decisions. Out-of-the-box thinking and creative methods are often discouraged when this leadership style is in place. Leaders who lean towards this style prefer rigid structure and strict operational procedures.

Now that you’ve identified which style you naturally refer to, it’s time to address which critical skills you need to develop to become the best leader you can be.

Leadership and management courses are a great way to address any gaps in your skills that may cause stress or trouble in your future leadership role. By partaking in focused learning that aims to build great leaders, you can enter the next step in your career with more confidence in your abilities.

With courses ranging from certificates to postgraduate MBAs, there’s a course suitable for anyone, no matter your educational background. Furthermore, with most courses now being offered online, self-paced learning allows you to continue working towards your other commitments while still investing in your personal career development.