Modern Day Leadership Strategies

As with many aspects of business, trends come and go. These trends shape supply, demand, business style, and business operations. For example, new management strategies rise, replacing more outdated styles.

That raises the question, what are the best leadership strategies for a modern leader? A modern leader is likelier to be inclusive, lead by example, and have open-door policies. Let’s take a closer look at some strategies that may come with this style and see if one suits your needs.

Visionary Leadership

As the name suggests, visionary leaders are all about inspiring their teams and empowering them to do more. Leaders practicing this style have made it a point to share their vision with the team. They’ve shared so much of this vision that their team can seamlessly move forward on their own.

A visionary style requires encouragement. It also requires leaders to be fully willing to listen to their employees, paying attention to those they trust. This particular style is highly effective for busy leaders who rely more on delegation than is typical.

Pacesetting Leadership

Pacesetting leadership styles have become more prevalent in recent years, as they do exceptionally well within tech-focused organizations. Leaders utilizing this style will commonly lean on showing by example and walking their team through how tasks should be done. This style does put more burden on employees for self-improvement, as they must be willing to watch and implement what they see.

Transformational Leadership

Transformational leadership is another style of leadership that has a very accurate title. Leaders using this style place more emphasis on change and transformation. Like visionary leadership, these leaders aim to inspire their team, encouraging them to achieve more together. This style is especially effective for leaders who want to focus on the future and what it can bring.

Affiliative Leadership

Affiliative leadership is essentially focused on peace and harmony within a team. Using this style, leaders will focus on creating environments full of trust, diminishing personal conflicts whenever possible. This style works particularly well for more nurturing and patient leaders. However, it is essential to know that affiliative leadership has a significant drawback. This style can encourage complacency within a team when not utilized in combination with a secondary leadership style.

Participative Leadership

Participative leadership is also known as collaborative leadership. This style emphasizes the importance of every individual within a team (or company). This style is ideal for leaders who want to hear the opinions of others, even those of drastically different ranks. This style increases communication and collaboration while providing leaders with an open avenue for information gathering.

Delegative Leadership

Delegative leadership, also known as laissez-faire leadership, is all about delegation. Leaders who utilize this method aren’t afraid to share the workload with their team, trusting them to help get the job done. These leaders will not micromanage and instead trust the team to come to them should there be a problem. Delegative leadership is excellent for competent teams but does require rigorous training. This style can cause problems when used on a team that isn’t adequately trained.

Authentic Leadership

Authentic leadership is possibly the most modern style of leadership on this list. It relies on development and growth to handle problems as they arise. These leaders focus on employee development, especially within their teams. This focus on their teams can become its reward, as each individual becomes the best version of themselves. In other words, they become better employees under their leadership.

Authentic leadership is deceptively simple. On the outside, it looks like the most straightforward form of leadership to enact. However, doing it properly takes time and commitment. Leaders must create solid and organic bonds with each team member. Doing so will allow them to help each flourish professionally.