Types of Leaders

Essay by EssaySwap ContributorUniversity, Bachelor's February 2008

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There are four types of leaders, each with a slightly different style, each with slightly different strengths. The four leadership styles are telling, selling, developing and delegating (Beck and Yeager, 2001).The first leader exercises his power by directing or telling employees what to do, when to do it and how to do it. This is the most dominant form of leadership and it can be destructive to a team. The second leader gets together with the employees and listens to their ideas before coming to a decision. This style of leadership can be criticizes as over-involving the employees rather than making a decision and delegating authority. The third leader develops his ideas with his staff. The leader supports the employees and solves any problems that come up. In its negative form, this type of leadership is over-accommodating, as some leaders allow the employees to simply flounder around without stepping in and exercising authority.

The fourth leader delegates responsibility to others. This leader assumes that the employee knows what to do and assumes that the task is being done without further direction. In its negative form, the leader can be seen as abdicating; simply assuming the task is being carried out. This paper aims to further describe each of the four types of leaders, identifying top leaders who use one of these styles as their main way of leading.

The first type of leader is the Teller who focuses more on the job and less on the group that is doing the job (Interaction, 1980). This leader often just states the problem and takes charge of the job, instructing other members on what to do as he is tacking the job. The leader single-handedly looks at the options, considers alternatives, chooses one, and tells his team members what to do. He...