BICOL UNIVERSITY

GRADUATE SCHOOL
Rizal St. Legazpi City, Albay Philippines

BABY JOY M. DAYTO

MAELM 214 – Leadership Theories & Practices
1st Semester – Saturday 8:00 AM – 11:00 AM
Topic: Leadership; Leadership Styles; Leadership Approaches; Transformational
Leadership

Leadership is the ability of an individual or a group of people to influence and guide followers
or members of an organization, society or team in achieving common goal.
According to Livingston – ‘Leadership is the ability to awaken the desire to follow a common
objective’.
According to Bernard Keys and Thomas – ‘Leadership is the process of influencing and
supporting others to work enthusiastically towards achieving objectives.’
Alford and Beattey, “Leadership is the ability to secure desirable actions from a group of
followers voluntarily without the use of coercion.
What is a Leadership Style?
It refers to a leader’s methods and behaviors when directing, motivating, and
managing others.
Why is it important?
It provides adequate guidance and feedback to employees, and better understand
your thoughts, how you make decisions and strategies you can consider implementing when
making business decisions.
LEADERSHIP STYLES

Democratic Leadership is exactly what it sounds like — the leader makes decisions based
on each team member ‘s input. Although a leader makes the final call, each employee has
an equal say in a project’s direction.
Democratic leaders often have the following characteristics:
Inclusive Empowering Trust-building
Collaborative Supportive and empathetic
Effective communicator Emotionally intelligent

Why this leadership style is good for the team? The democratic leadership style is one of
the most effective because it encourages everyone to participate in all processes, share their
opinions, and know that you will hear them.

Autocratic Leadership. It is the inverse of democratic leadership. In this leadership style,

the leader makes decisions without taking input from anyone who reports to them.
Autocratic leaders often have the following characteristics:
• Centralized decision-making
• Direct and top-down communication
• Minimal delegation
• Limited autonomy for team members
• Emphasis on hierarchy and status
• Resistant to feedback or criticism
Why this leadership style is good for the team? This type of leadership is most effective
when an organization makes difficult decisions that don’t benefit from additional input from
others who aren’t fully knowledgeable on the subject.
Laissez-Faire Leadership. The French term “laissez-faire” literally translates to “let them
do.” Leaders who embrace it give nearly all authority to their employees and don’t often
interject unless the situation calls for it.
Some key characteristics of laissez-faire leadership include:
• Limited guidance, direction, and feedback
• Minimal interference and control
• High autonomy and freedom
• Empowerment and trust
Why this leadership style is good for the team? This type of leadership put complete trust
in their employees. Because of this high level of trust, employees working for laissez-faire
leaders feel valued. They get the information they need and use their resources and
experience to meet organizational goals.

Strategic Leadership. Strategic leaders sit between an organization’s primary operations

and its growth opportunities. This form of leadership requires vision, competitive awareness,
and adaptability. These leaders accept the burden of executive interests but also ensure that
working conditions are stable for everyone else. Strategic leaders aim to guide their
organization toward its long-term goals.
Why this leadership style is good for the team? Strategic thinking supports many
employees at once. It encourages visualization, planning, and making the most of existing
resources, and it can motivate employees.

Transactional Leadership. It is based on reward and punishment to motivate and direct the
behavior. These managers set specific rules and standards, and they closely monitor their
employees’ performance. This leadership style is concerned with maintaining the status quo
and ensuring that predetermined goals and standards are met. It also assumes that teams
need structure and monitoring to meet organization goals and that they are reward motivated.

Why this leadership style is good for the team? Transactional leaders can offer helpful
clarity and structure of expectations, which can help employees feel safe because they
understand expectations. Employees also have a clear view of what they get in return for
meeting organizational goals.
Coaching Leadership. A coaching leader focuses on identifying and nurturing the individual
strengths of each member of the team and developing strategies that will enable teams to
work better together. Coaching leaders focus on building trust and establishing strong
relationships with their team members. They foster an environment of open communication
and psychological safety that encourages individuals to share ideas, seek feedback, and
work together toward common objectives.

A leader with this leadership style might help employees improve on their strengths
by:
• Giving them new tasks to try
• Offering guidance
• Meeting to discuss constructive feedback.

Bureaucratic Leadership. Bureaucratic leaders follow the rules. Unlike autocratic

leadership, they might listen and consider the input of employees, but they might reject input
that doesn’t align with company policy or past practices.
Some key features of bureaucratic leadership include:
• Centralized decision-making
• Strict adherence to rules and
• procedures
• Clear chain of command
• Limited autonomy
Why this leadership style is good for the team? It lowers the risk of favoritism and replaces
it with central duties, job security, and predictability. This clear and efficient leadership style
can lead to high levels of creativity for some employees.

Visionary Leadership. It focuses on future and long-term goals. They aim to inspire and
guide their team towards the achievement of a shared vision. It encourages collaboration,
emotional intelligence, and teamwork. They also foster a culture of innovation and change,
encouraging individuals to embrace new ideas and approaches.
Why this leadership style is good for the team? Teams can do more and enjoy their work
more if they have a vision to work toward. This type of leader offers vision statements and
other tools to inspire and motivate teams to engage at work.
Pacesetting Leadership. A pacesetting leader sets ambitious standards and expects
employees to meet those goals in the exact manner they’ve laid out. These leaders expect
productivity and high-quality outputs from employees, and they may step in to ensure things
are done correctly and on time.
Some characteristics of a pacesetting leader include:
High performance standards
Leading by example
Results-oriented
Preference for speed and efficiency
Why this leadership style is good for the team? Skilled and experienced teams often
thrive under this kind of leader. They use the abilities of motivated and competent team
members and make meeting goals feel urgent and exciting. Skilled and experienced teams
often thrive under this kind of leader. They use the abilities of motivated and competent team
members and make meeting goals feel urgent and exciting.

Situational Leadership. This leadership style involves analyzing specific situations,

assessing the competence and commitment of individuals, and adjusting the leadership
approach accordingly. It is proactive and recognizes that change is the only constant.
Why this leadership style is good for the team? Situational leaders are great
communicators and use team feedback to make decisions. They also analyze market
changes and can quickly evaluate and update processes to ensure success.

Transformational Leadership. Transformational leaders gain the trust and confidence of

their teams, encourage team members, and lead employees toward meeting organizational
goals. The goal of a transformational leader is to create a lasting positive impact, uplift their
team to achieve their full potential, and drive success for the organization.
Why this leadership style is good for the team? This is a highly encouraging form of
leadership where employees are supported and encouraged to see what they’re capable of.
When starting a job with this type of leader, all employees might get a list of goals to reach
and deadlines for reaching them. The goals might begin quite simple, but as employees grow
and meet their goals, leaders will give them more tasks and challenges to conquer as they
grow with the organization.
 APPROACHES TO LEADERSHIP
TRAIT APPROACH
It is the oldest approach to leadership and theorizes that certain individuals are born
with specific personality or communication traits that enable leadership. In this approach,
personal factors associated with leadership. The six basic categories of characteristics that
were associated with leadership: physical, social background, intelligence and ability,
personality, task-related and social.

SITUATIONAL OR CONTIGENCY APPROACH

This approach focuses on specific organizational contexts or situations that enable
leadership.

FRED FIEDLER’S CONTINGENCY THEORY OF LEADER EFFECTIVENESS

It examines an individual’s preference for either task or relationships and then
theorizes that leaders who find themselves in situations that favor that type of leadership will
be fine while leaders who are out of balance need to either change the situation or adjust
their leadership styles.

PAUL HERSEY AND KENNETH BLANCHARD’S SITUATIONAL LEADERSHIP THEORY

It examines how leadership is dependent upon whether a follower is someone being
developed or someone who has already been developed. Hersey and Blanchard theorize,
need more guidance leaders should focus on the task and at hand and not on relationships
with these followers. Old followers, on the other hand, need little guidance and little
relationship building.

FUNCTIONAL APPROACH
This approach posits that a leader is someone who looks like, acts like, and communicates
like a leader. This approach posits that a leader is someone who looks like, acts like, and
communicates like a leader.
Chester Barnard’s Functions of the Executive posits that leaders should engage in
three specific functions:
1. formulating organizational purposes and objectives
2. securing essential services from other members, and
 3. establishing and maintaining a system of communication.

KENNETH BENNE AND PAUL SHEATS’ CLASSIFICATION OF FUNCTIONAL ROLES IN

GROUPS
This functional approach examines how different people take on various team roles
to keep the team striving towards a specific goal. Each of the roles that team members take
on serve a specific function in the team decision making and implementing process.

RELATIONAL APPROACH
This approach theorizes that leadership is a matter of building and maintain
relationships with one’s followers.
Robert Blake and Jane Mouton’s Managerial Grid
They have examined the intersection of relationship oriented or task-oriented leader
perspectives. They have proposed five distinct types of leadership:
1. Impoverished Management
The leader places someone in a job or assigns that person a task and then just
expects it to be accomplished without any kind of oversight.
2. Authority-Compliance Management
This has a high concern for tasks but a low concern for establishing or fostering
relationships with her or his followers.
3. Country Club Management
This leader empowers her or his followers and believes that the followers will
accomplish the task and do it well without any kind of oversight. “If you can’t say
anything nice, don’t say anything at all.”
4. Team Management.
This type of leader realizes that “effective integration of people with production
is possible by involving them and their ideas in determining the conditions and
strategies of work.
5. Middle-of-the-Road Management
These leaders believe that any kind of extreme is not realistic, so finding some
middle balance is ideal. If, and when, an imbalance occurs, these leaders seek out
ways to eliminate the imbalance and get back to some state of moderation.
GEORGE GRAEN’SLEADER-MEMBER EXCHANGE (LMX) THEORY
A second relational approach which looks at the exchange relationship between a
follower and a leader. Under LMX theory, leaders take on protégés into an interpersonal
communicative relationship that enables a follower to succeed within an organization.

TRANSFORMATIONAL APPROACH
This is espoused by James MacGregor Burns that looks at leadership as a
comparison to the traditional transactional model of leadership. In the transactional model of
leadership, leaders promise to punish or reward followers in order gain support.
Transformational leadership, on the other hand, occurs when a leader utilizes communication
to increase follower morale, motivation, and performance to accomplish organizational goals.

TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP
Transformational leadership is a leadership style that can inspire positive changes in
those who follow.

COMPONENTS OF TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP

Intellectual stimulation. Transformational leaders not only challenge the status quo; they
also encourage creativity among followers. The leader encourages followers to explore new
ways of doing things and new opportunities to learn.

Individualized Consideration. Transformational leaders keep lines of communication

open so that followers feel free to share ideas and so that leaders can offer immediate
recognition of the unique contributions of each follower.

Inspirational Motivation. Transformational leaders have a clear vision that they can
articulate to followers. These leaders can also help followers experience the same passion
and motivation to fulfill these goals.

Idealized Influence. The transformational leader serves as a role model for followers.
Because followers trust and respect the leader, they emulate this individual and internalize
their ideals.

Transformational Leadership Traits

• Able to encourage others to communicate and participate.
• Active listening skills
• Adaptability
• Authenticity and genuineness
• Creativity
• Emotionally intelligent
• Inspirational
• Open-mindedness
• Proactive problem-solvers
• Self-awareness
• Supportive
• Willingness to take responsibility.
• Willingness to take well-informed risks.
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