11 Leadership Styles That Will Hurt Your Business

The starting place for developing an authentic leadership style is to make an extension of your best personality traits.

For example, if someone is a hard worker that likes to get in the trenches, this can be a key differentiator in how they run a particular organization. Likewise, abilities such as thinking big or being able to articulate a clear vision can also translate well in growing a successful team. Developing a leadership style this way is authentic and genuine, and it provides a helpful starting place for leading others.

However, good leaders know that they are not perfect, and that their own idiosyncrasies and insecurities also tend to shine through without them even recognizing it. In fact, often these shortcomings can even be amplified in unexpected ways within an organization, resulting in massive challenges and inefficiencies.

11 Ineffective Leadership Styles

A good leader knows that they must work hard to fix their own shortcomings, otherwise their team will never reach their full potential.

Today’s infographic comes to us from Colonial Life, and it shows 11 ineffective leadership styles that can have negative impacts on an organization’s productivity or culture.

Shortcomings aren’t always obvious, and it can take some serious self-reflection to see the weaknesses in one’s leadership style.

Styles to Recognize and Avoid

Here’s a summation of the 11 types of leadership styles to avoid:

1. Micro Managing
Helping employees is one thing, but it’s also important to know when to take a step back. Over-management leads to an unempowered team.

2. Anything Goes
The opposite of micro management is also problematic as well. By letting everything fly, there is no order and it can lead to missing deadlines or low expectations.

3. Autocratic
In many situations, having just one person making the decisions can lead to employees carrying out projects that they disagree with or do not think will work.

4. The Charge-Ahead General
Charging ahead on every new project usually comes with a key weakness: a lack of patience. If managers continually get impatient with employees, it affect trust and respect within the organization.

5. Complete Self-Reliance
If a manager can’t trust others, then the work will pile up for that manager until it becomes unbearable. Meanwhile, employees have a tough time becoming independent in their roles.

6. Dictatorial
If decisions cannot be questioned, it leads to employees feeling like they are incapable or that they have no input.

7. Excessive Consistency
A manager with this leadership style has inflexible boundaries, and tends to be over-strict with employees. This can create resentment and lower motivation.

8. Mushroom Management
Severe lack of communications between management and employees leads to misunderstandings, confusion, and limited responsibility.

9. The Morale Buster
Criticism is important, but too much of it can hurt employee morale.

10. The Screamer
Too much expression of authority, or expressing it in unprofessional ways, can lead to a lack of respect between employees and management. There are other ways to articulate authority and constructive criticisms.

11. Seagull Management
Managers only interact with employees when there is a problem – this means employees never get praise or encouragement when it is needed.