Many professionals who take on leadership roles feel overwhelmed at first. Depending on company philosophy, personal traits, and values, different things become important in the new job.

Of course, employee satisfaction shouldn't be neglected. Most employees quit because of their boss's behavior. You don't want good people leaving the team because of you. Your employees are the reason the company succeeds!

With this in mind, let's explore what makes a good leader and the skills they should have. We'll also look at the four classic leadership styles and their pros and cons. This will give you some guidance and the chance to adjust if things go off track.

What is a Leadership Style?

A leadership style is how a leader behaves towards employees and how they execute tasks and use leadership skills.

Leadership Tasks

Some core tasks of a leader include:

• Defining goals: Set measurable goals with employees (e.g., using the SMART formula) and provide necessary resources (time, budget, tools, etc.)
• Enabling goal achievement: Remove obstacles that prevent employees from reaching their goals
• Making decisions: Leaders must make overarching decisions about personnel, organization, and processes. Employees can be consulted depending on the topic
• Developing and supporting employees: Act as a mentor and coach, strengthen skills, provide motivation, praise, and recognition, and convey the purpose of their work

Leadership Skills

Leadership skills are abilities and traits beneficial for leadership roles. These include:

• Social Skills
• Decision-Making Ability
• Resilience
• Determination
• Solution Orientation
• Reliability
• Authenticity

The 4 Leadership Styles by Kurt Lewin

Psychologist Kurt Lewin defined the following four classic leadership styles:

• laissez-faire
• charitable
• authoritarian
• cooperative

The Laissez-Faire Leadership Style

Laissez-faire translates to "don't worry about it." This style emphasizes individual freedom and employee independence.

The advantage is that employees make their own decisions and develop their strengths and interests.

The downside is that leaders show little interest in tasks or employees. Without praise and recognition, motivation drops, and performance declines. This often goes unnoticed due to the leader's lack of involvement.

Employees without real guidance often feel lost and uncertain over time. Most people then prefer more leadership, not less.

Advantages	Disadvantages
✅ Personal freedom	❌ Poor performance may be recognized late
✅ Develop individual strengths and interests	❌ Can lead to disorientation
	❌ Lack of praise and recognition

The Charitable Leadership Style

This style focuses on employees, supporting and developing them individually. There's a risk that leaders take on many tasks themselves, leaving less time for their main duties.

Often, leaders shift from laissez-faire to charitable after noticing poor performance.

Advantages	Disadvantages
✅ Individual support and development	❌ Result orientation takes a back seat
	❌ Leaders may do tasks employees should handle

The Authoritarian Leadership Style

This style prioritizes performance with little interest in employees. All tasks and processes are dictated.

The advantage is tasks are completed and instructions followed. However, personal growth, independent thinking, and creativity are stifled, making innovation difficult.

This style is common in traditional companies.

Advantages	Disadvantages
✅ Performance-oriented	❌ Lacks space for creativity and innovation
✅ Quick decisions

The Cooperative Leadership Style

This style blends performance and employee focus. Employees are involved in decisions and individually supported. Expectations for employees and leaders are transparent.

The downside is decision-making can take longer due to diverse opinions.

Advantages	Disadvantages
✅ Transparent expectations	❌ Decisions may take more time
✅ Personal freedom within set boundaries
✅ Encourages innovation and creative ideas

Conclusion

There's no perfect leadership style. The right style depends on the situation. We've covered classic styles here, but there are others and hybrids not discussed.

The cooperative style is ideal, offering the most benefits for leaders and employees if done right. However, leaders should step in for quick, transparent decisions when needed.

To avoid moving from laissez-faire to cooperative, clarify expectations between leaders and employees as early as possible.