It should come as no surprise to most of you that I would never recommend “bullying” or the command control style as an effective style of leadership. As you know, I’m all about leading through increased employee engagement, self-awareness, empathy, trust, and vulnerability. But if you pay attention to the subject of leadership in the news, you’ll notice that command and control styles of leadership are

Do You Know How to Communicate with the Next Generation?

One of the most important aspects of growing as a leader is the ability to continuously improve your communication skills. Simply put, great communication and effective leadership go hand in hand, which is why I’m always encouraging leaders to consider how they present themselves through verbal and non-verbal communication.

Self-Awareness and Evaluating Your Own Leadership Style

Are you on auto-pilot? Do you react without thinking things through? Feel stressed and overwhelmed by your workload? If so you might be on what I like to call “auto-pilot”. Navigating through your busy days in reactive mode, trying to survive vs. thrive. Stop the insanity and jump off the corporate hamster wheel!

Influential people get things done. Why? Because not only do they produce results on their own; they also have a knack for inspiring others to deliver. As a result, influencers transform their teams into ultra productive units, driven by a desire for excellence and a commitment to achieving the vision set out for them.

I’ve been writing a lot about the characteristics of effective leaders in my blog posts. If you’ve been reading, you know that self-awareness, emotional intelligence and a willingness to always improve are critical when it comes to operating effectively as a leader. But today I’d like to turn the tables a bit and examine leadership from a different perspective. 

All of us have had the distinct displeasure of working under leaders who — let’s face it — were simply terrible at leading. These leaders failed to inspire us and our colleagues, and they made us less interested in

How Can You Become a More Effective Leader?

If you’ve been following our blog posts on the six major leadership styles, you know that leadership can appear to be a complicated and a multi-faceted concept. Every leader has his or her tendencies, but the most effective leaders understand that employing different styles at different times is the key to success.

Today, I want to wrap up our series on the leadership styles with a review and some thoughts to help you move forward.

Understanding the Coercive Leadership Style

The Coercive Leadership style may not make sense when it comes to the day-to-day operations within an organization, but it certainly has its place among the six major styles of leadership. This style holds a lot of power, but it’s critical that it’s leveraged properly and only during times when it’s called for. It’s one of two leadership styles (the other being Pacesetting) that has an overall negative effect on workplace climate, but within certain types of scenarios, it’s the only style that is effective.

Understanding the Democratic Leadership Style

Democratic Leadership is, in fact, one of the most effective leadership styles when it comes to building a workplace environment where participation and equity of ideas are key. According to researcher and leadership expert Daniel Goleman’s findings, it is the style that’s most closely correlated with responsibility, which means that it’s particularly effective in environments where driving engagement is critical for success.