Leadership styles in psychology. Presentation with examples

Leadership is a social phenomenon, the study of which has interested many scientists from different historical eras, from hoary antiquity to the present day. The relevance of studying this issue has led to the emergence of different approaches and interpretations of understanding this phenomenon.

The most popular leadership theories are developed within the framework of political psychology, which studies political leadership. Gradually, political leadership became the subject of detailed analysis in political science, where many scientific studies are related specifically to this topic.

In addition to political psychology, leadership is studied by social psychology, management psychology, management, and other branches of social sciences. Let us consider in more detail the main theories and styles of leadership that modern science operates with.

“Delegate” style

The “Delegate” style is applied at a qualitatively different level, i.e. suitable for performers whose maturity level corresponds to the highest level. This means that the performers, firstly, are adequately competent to perform the functions assigned to them, secondly, they are fully aware of their involvement in the work being performed, and thirdly, they are ready and willing to take responsibility for obtaining the required result .

This determines that a manager can apply a management strategy in which equally less attention is paid to solving problems and building harmonious relationships than in other situations, because he can calmly delegate responsibility - allow his employees to make decisions and implement them independently.

Examples of authoritarian leadership type

Henry Ford, the owner of automobile factories, is considered a classic example of authoritarianism. He achieved worldwide fame because he not only carefully selected employees, but also took full responsibility upon himself, trying to develop his company. He paid attention to detail when structuring tasks.

Sonic Diner owner Jack Hartnett is a great example of how an authoritarian management style benefited the business. Having created a network of 54 branches, the manager took into account the nuances of working in the fast food industry. Since this environment involves mainly young and unskilled employees, Jack Hartnett took full control into his own hands. He delegated minimal powers to his subordinates, clearly defining his responsibilities.

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Permissive leadership style (liberal)

A leader with this style behaves passively, shifting all decisions onto the shoulders of the members of his group.

Levine found that this leadership style was the least effective. The researcher noted that in such a group, children demanded orders and decisions from their leader, did not know how to work independently and were extremely reluctant and ineffective to work together.

However, such leadership can be beneficial if all team members are highly skilled in a specific area, but in most cases it leads to low motivation of team members and unclear distribution of roles.

Lewin's focus on individual behavior in relation to the environment, rather than past experience, was a turning point in the development of psychological science; this scientist is rightfully considered one of the founding fathers of social psychology. His application of the principles of Gestalt psychology, understanding of the influence of situational factors, and work in the field of group dynamics significantly influenced the approach of modern psychologists to the study of group behavior.

Paul Kleinman: Psychology. People, concepts, experiments.

What style suits the team

If the team or company is currently in critical condition or consists entirely of assholes, then the authoritarian style is preferable. If you are making something unique, for example, a neural network that will launch a human brain in a jar into deep space for aliens to study, then most likely the team members are unique specialists and will feel good about exemplary style. A team consisting entirely of juniors will most likely produce better results with a teaching style. If the company has an offline business, and IT is just a support department, then I would prefer a friendly style: there will be no interesting work, but at least the conditions will be as comfortable as possible. In all other cases, an authoritative person will do a better job.

To answer the question: “What style suits the team now?”, you need to study a lot of information. Carefully read the available sources: starting from the vacancy (what requirements are put to the candidate) and ending with the company blog (if there is one) and reviews of former employees.

Leadership styles in organizational management

In terms of the role of leadership in an organization, there are 3 types of leadership:

1. Business leadership. The basis is the implementation of production tasks. The leader is competent in the professional field and demonstrates the following qualities: the ability to solve complex organizational problems, business acumen, and efficiency. This leadership style in innovation is based on experience and business authority.
2. Emotional leadership. Implemented on the basis of human sympathies within the team. An emotional leader in a group, as a rule, inspires the trust of others, inspires confidence, and is able to relieve psychological tension in the team.
3. Situational leadership. It appears unstable depending on the specific situation. May combine signs of emotional and business leadership. Example: organizing the removal of people from a building in case of fire.

Each classification of leaders, leadership styles and their characteristics has the right to life. Scientists continue to work in this area, so over time new species and types will appear.

Additional materials for this lesson

You can also read useful materials on leadership in the special “Leadership and Relationships” section of our blog. The topic of this lesson is complemented by articles:

• Adizes model: how to become an effective leader
• Fred Fiedler's Model of Effective Leadership

Please also note that some test questions for this lesson, as well as for the leadership exam, are based on the material in the above articles.

"Sell" style

The “Sell” style is adapted primarily for performers with an average level of maturity. It is expressed in the fact that the manager’s action strategy should be equally focused on solving assigned tasks and building harmonious relationships with employees.

In this situation, the average indicator of the level of maturity of performers indicates that they have a desire to take responsibility for the implementation of a decision to complete a specific task, but cannot do this due to the fact that they are not competent enough in this matter and do not have the proper experience.

Hence it turns out that the leader must choose behavior that will be task-oriented, i.e. to provide clear and precise instructions on what employees should do. And at the same time, he must maintain the enthusiasm of his subordinates and their desire to solve assigned tasks, bearing full responsibility for this.

Leadership styles psychology. Leadership styles

In psychology, there is such a thing as leadership styles; in essence, this is a set of methods and techniques that a person uses to influence other members of the group. Depending on the leadership style, group management and relationships within it can be either more informal or based on strict adherence to the laws of hierarchy.

Leadership and management styles

Currently, the classification of leadership styles assumes the presence of one of three types of management of relationships and group work by the leader, formal or informal:

1. Authoritarian. When using this style, the manager or informal leader builds his relationship with the group in the form of “order - report on the work done.” Such a person makes decisions almost single-handedly; the opinions of other group members are not taken into account. The downside of such relationships is that gossip, distrust of each other, and attempts to bait other members of the team rather than support them often begin to appear within the group. A positive feature of this management style is the high speed of work and the confidence of team members that they are doing everything correctly, since there are precise instructions for each work situation.
2. Democratic. In modern business structures and management, this leadership style is often called the most effective, although, of course, it is not suitable for all organizations and groups. The main characteristic of this style is collegial decision-making, that is, the leader takes into account the opinions of the group or those who are considered experts on the issue under consideration. With this kind of management, the carrot and stick method is used, the leader controls the execution of tasks and, depending on the result, rewards or punishes subordinates.
3. Liberal. With such management, the work group begins to resemble a family; the leader, in fact, will occupy a formal position, since decisions will be made by the team, and the manager’s opinion about the chosen direction and the quality of task completion is taken into account last. This style is also called conniving, because in reality, the leader does not solve a single problem in the team, lets everything take its course and does not influence the process.

#2. Democratic

A key feature of a democratic management style is collective discussion of problems. The decision is made after everyone has spoken and/or voted. At the same time, a democratic leader is not afraid to delegate authority and strives to maintain team spirit in his work.

This style is most effective for managing a team of professionals who know their job and do not need constant supervision.

Famous followers of the style:

• Indra Nooyi, CEO PepsiCo
• Mukhtar Kent, CEO of Coca-Cola
• Ginni Rometty, CEO of IBM
• Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook
• Steve Jobs, founder of Apple

Authoritarian leadership style

Authoritarian leadership implies sole rule, based on orders and coercion. The politician makes all decisions on his own and does not listen to arguments from his colleagues. He strives to minimize all contacts between people in the team. Communication between subordinates occurs through him and under his control. Authoritarian style and leadership theories involve motivating employees through administrative methods, orders and coercion.

Typically, leaders who use this management style come into office through appointment. They first take their place, and only then achieve public recognition through administrative methods. Authoritarian styles of political leadership are the main ones in totalitarian regimes.

#3. Paternalistic

Paternalistic leadership is partially similar to authoritarian leadership. The leader strives to dominate subordinates and partners, likes to keep everything under control, demands or encourages maximum output in work.

At the same time, he treats his employees like “family.” He strives to create comfortable conditions for everyone, takes care of the needs of his subordinates, listens to their opinions, is ready to make concessions and encourage talented people.

The paternalistic management style is considered flexible and can be successfully combined with other types of leadership. Particularly popular in Asian countries, where family values ​​traditionally play a large role in culture and business.

Courses on the topic:

Business and management

Project management 2.0

Pavel Kharikov, Head of IoT at Veon Group (Kyivstar, Beeline)

Business and management

Top manager

Vitaly Nuzhny, ex-Vice President, Automotive Engineering at Luxoft

Famous followers of the style:

• Henry Ford, founder of Ford Motor Company
• Jose Mourinho, football coach, at different times headed the football clubs Chelsea, Manchester United, Real Madrid
• Dhirubhai Ambani, founder of Reliance Industries
• Lee Gong Hee, Chairman of Samsung

The principle of non-interference

Most often, this type of management is called laissez-faire, which translated from French means “let go of the situation.” Subordinates are not given specific requirements and are allowed to work at a convenient pace.

Employees make decisions on many issues independently; the leader readily delegates authority to them.

Individualistic employees and specialists whose work does not require constant feedback from their superiors work most effectively in this mode. Creative areas are most suitable for the principle of non-interference.

Famous followers of the style:

• Warren Buffett, investor, founder of Berkshire Hathaway
• Queen Victoria (ranked among the most famous laissez-faire leaders because she often trusted others to handle important business matters)
• Steve Jobs, founder of Apple

Life cycle theory

As has already become clear, it was Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard who first proposed the life cycle theory. According to them, the most effective and efficient leadership styles depend on how “mature” the leaders themselves are. The term “maturity” here should be understood not as a person’s age, but as his level of education, experience in solving specific tasks that need to be completed, the ability to be responsible for his behavior, and the desire to achieve his goals. Moreover, the term “maturity”, in relation to an individual or group of people, must be considered together with the characteristics of each specific situation, and cannot be considered in relation only to a person.

Based on this, the leader has the opportunity to change his own strategy of behavior, which will depend on the maturity indicator of an individual or group of people. The manager must determine the indicator of this maturity by assessing the level of responsibility, desire to achieve the goal, level of education and existing experience in performing assigned tasks.

According to the life cycle theory of Paul Hesry and Ken Blanchard, there are four types of leadership in total, which correspond to the level of maturity of the performers we discussed above. These styles are:

• "Giving Directions" Style
• "Sell" style
• "Participate" style
• “Delegate” style

Let's talk about each style in more detail.

Algorithm for selecting a suitable manager

It was not for nothing that I changed the way of expression. I hope by now you have realized that there are no leaders with bad or good style. Styles are only suitable or not. Just as hiring managers are taught to interview suitable, not ideal, candidates, I will talk about how to find a suitable, not ideal, manager. And in order to decide which leader is right for you in a particular situation, you need to answer the questions:

1. Which styles do you personally prefer as an employee?
2. What style suits the team you are considering at the moment?
3. What style will suit the team in a year, two, five (depending on how long you plan to stay with it)?
4. What style does the leader use?
5. Is he able to change his style?

We’ll talk about how to answer these questions below, but for now let’s figure out how to interpret the answers:

1. Write down the answer to the first question, most likely you will come up with several preferred styles.
2. The styles from questions 2-4 should be from your preferred list.
3. The answers to questions 2 and 4 must be the same.
4. The only situation where this question can be answered in the negative is if all the previous answers are the same and the manager must use, is using and will use a leadership style that is suitable for you.

Leadership theories

The famous French political scientist Jean Blondel believed that the concept of political leadership arose at the same time as the first associations of people arose. In his opinion, leadership qualities were the basis for assessments of political power, both by the authors of Antiquity, and the cornerstone of all the main elite concepts of modern times.

Classical leadership theories. The personal theory of leadership is rightfully considered classic. The approach to studying the qualities of a leader from the point of view of the characteristics of his personality can be traced already in the texts of ancient authors. They tend to define the portrait of an ideal ruler as a composite image of previous successful leaders. Early works were based on the fact that only someone who has a set of certain character traits (qualities) can become a leader; they studied them using the example of previous rulers and gave behavioral recommendations. The oldest sources for studying this theory can be the Indian “Arthashastra”, the teachings of Confucius on management, the ancient Chinese treatise “Tao Te Ching”; The works of outstanding thinkers of Antiquity stand apart, especially Plato (“State”, “Politician”, “Laws”) and Aristotle (“Politics”).

In the 19th century, the theory of the “great man” personality was transformed into the theory of leadership qualities developed by T. Carlyle (Trait Leadership Theory), which, in fact, improved and gave a complete form to the personality theory

In contrast to the beliefs of their predecessors, who noted that a leader must be born, the authors of the new concept (Carlyle, Galton), studying the character traits of famous personalities of the past, also focused attention on the external attributes of leadership, such as education, experience acquired in the process of life. Read more about this theory here

Another classic theory of leadership grew out of criticism of trait theory. Contingency Theory explains leadership not as a set of personal characteristics, but as the environment, the situation that determines the leader and his actions. Developed in the late 1940s and early 1950s, this approach was shared by Stogdill, Mann, and others. New concepts of leadership grew from their developments, and behavioral and situational analysis of this phenomenon was applied. At the same time, environmental theory began the emergence of an integrative approach to the study of leadership, which combines it and trait theory. The latter, by the way, is being developed by many scientists today.

Basic modern theories of leadership. Contemporary leadership research builds on refined approaches to defining and studying leadership developed over the past 50 years.

Behavioral theory of leadership (Behavioral Theory), in contrast to the theory of qualities, is more progressive, since it states that leadership qualities can be acquired in the process of life, one can learn them, because they are not always inherent in a person from birth. As a result of research conducted at the universities of Ohio and Michigan, scientists came to the conclusion that two behavioral categories predominate in leadership - task orientation and people orientation. This approach also studies leadership styles in detail, which forces many authors specializing in the problems of effective management to turn to this theory.

For more information about the behavioral approach to leadership, you can see this

Psychology of leadership and management. Leadership and Guidance

Leadership in social psychology refers to relationships of dominance and subordination, influence and followership in the system of interpersonal relations in a group. Close to it, but not identical, is the concept of “leadership”, which, unlike the first, is an officially defined, predominantly social phenomenon in nature, since the leader is nominated by the group itself, and the leader, as a rule, is appointed. Management regulates relationships within social organizations; this is a purposeful and controlled activity, where the leader has more specific levers of influence on the group and each of its members (sanctions), and also represents the group outside. According to M. G. Yaroshevsky1, leadership can be considered as officially sanctioned leadership.

In social psychology, many concepts of leadership have been developed, among which the most famous are:

• trait theory - an earlier approach, according to which a leader becomes one who initially has special abilities and qualities, thanks to which he is promoted to leadership. One variant of this approach is the charismatic concept of leadership, according to which leadership is bestowed on individual outstanding individuals as a kind of grace (“charisma”). A leader is characterized by the following psychological qualities: desire for achievement, perseverance and initiative, self-confidence, a sharp and flexible mind, competence as a thorough knowledge of one’s business, strong will, the ability to understand the peculiarities of people’s psychology, and organizational skills. However, an analysis of real groups has shown that sometimes a person who does not have the listed qualities becomes a leader, and, on the other hand, a person may have these qualities, but not be a leader; • situational leadership theory, which places particular emphasis on aspects of the situation in which the group operates. According to this theory, a leader becomes the person who, when a particular situation arises in a group, has qualities, properties and experience that can optimally resolve this situation for this group. In different situations, a group may nominate different people as leaders; 1 See: Yaroshevsky M. G. Program-role approach to the study of leadership of a scientific team // Problems of leadership of a scientific team

M., 1982. • synthetic theories focus on the complex, holistic nature of the study of leadership, exploring the relationships between the main components of the process of organizing interpersonal relationships in a group: leaders, followers (or followers) and situations in which leadership is exercised.

Types of Leaders

Sociology and psychology, studying interpersonal relationships and the qualities needed by leaders, consider types of leaders, each of which brings together a group of people consciously or unconsciously.

• Patriarchal ruler or superstitious - a strict father who is loved, his opinion is respected. Can easily suppress unrest in a group. Exudes confidence. He is often chosen as a leader because of the feeling of security next to him, love and respect for his opinion.
• The leader personifies the desires of the people he leads. All members of the community try to copy his behavior, manner of dressing and behaving.
• A tyrant uses authoritarian leadership. Those around him are afraid to contradict him, so they do everything in accordance with his instructions. Such people often come to power on their own.
• The organizer knows how to organize the work of all operating units. He sees potential in everyone and knows how to redirect forces in the right direction. In the management process, it helps to realize the goals of the entire community, including its own. Quickly copes with the problems of subordinates, helps relieve feelings of guilt and uncertainty about the appropriateness of actions.

• Seducer - he develops his activities by taking advantage of the weaknesses of those around him. For driven people it becomes a driving force that helps to free themselves from suppressed emotions. Knows how to reduce conflicts. Attracts people to himself, skillfully manipulating their fears and experiences. The group he leads does not notice his shortcomings and completely obeys his desires.
• Hero: self-sacrifice for others is his main character trait that attracts society. Indispensable in the fight against an unjust regime. A bad example is a hidden leader who energizes those around him with his behavior and emotions. Can easily provoke conflict.
• An idol is an example to follow. Attracts and endows those led with its energy. He doesn’t always end up in this place by choice.
• An outcast or scapegoat refers to anti-leaders. It is a factor causing an aggressive attitude. A group of people band together to oppose him. As soon as he is gone, the team will cease to exist.

Types and styles of leadership

K. Levin, from the point of view of style and methods of work, identified the following types of leaders: authoritarian, democratic, conniving.

Authoritarian leadership style.

A person endowed with power makes all decisions himself and gives orders. Such a boss is a “despot”. The problems of his employees are of little concern to him; the work process and the solution of assigned tasks are important to him. He is the sole ruler.

Democratic leadership style.

The boss works in contact with his subordinates. The team takes part in discussing tasks and making decisions. This style simplifies problem solving and maintains warmer relationships in the team. But tasks are not completed as quickly as with an authoritarian leadership style.

Advantages and disadvantages of such management

Like any other, an authoritarian management style has its pros and cons.

The main positive points are:

• orderliness of employee actions;
• clear distribution of responsibilities;
• structured business management with a single approach to solving the problem;
• high level of responsibility for the manager;
• the ability of a manager to quickly navigate a problem and find ways to solve it;
• a system of penalties for failure to fulfill duties (fine or dismissal) forces employees to increase their productivity.

Basic disadvantages include:

• huge social distance between subordinates and management;
• lack of a fresh look at solving a problem;
• patterned behavior;
• Since all the responsibility rests with one person, he quickly becomes exhausted and his ability to act quickly in an emergency decreases.