My leadership style is not restricted to one type of leadership but is an amalgam of several complementary approaches: situational, transactional, transformational, team leadership, and psychodynamic. Within each of these approaches, I have identified dynamics that I already use or that work well for me and have appropriated them for my personal leadership style. The end result is an effective leadership style that makes best use of my inherent abilities while leveraging the information I have learned about them for maximum success.
In the situational leadership model, I choose one or more of the four behavior approachesùsupporting, coaching, delegating, and directingùbased on the development level of the followers (ôFamous Models: Situational Leadershipö). This is an approach that can easily be taught to others, using the grid developed by Ken Blanchard that shows the relative proportion of supportive and directive behaviors (ôFamous Models: Situational Leadershipö). Although I am comfortable and conversant with all four approaches in the model, I tend to incline naturally toward the directing-coaching continuum, which means that I am especially effective at leading followers who truly need direction or coaching in order to succeed.
Transactional leaders tend to use contingent rewards, passive management by exception, active management by exception, or laissez-faire leadership as an approach (Thomas); I most often incorporate contingent rewards for influencing behavior. I make sure that the worker understands what work needs to be accomplished, and then I employ rewards as incentives to encourage the worker to meet my expectations. I sometimes use management by exception, but only rarely use the laissez-faire leadership approach, which offers too little contact with the workers to be effective.
Transformational leaders go a step beyond transactional leaders by motivating their followers to do more than they think ...