Leadership Styles

Basic Leadership Styles

The four basic leadership styles of the project manager are described below.

Autocratic

The project manager is primarily focused on getting the tasks done, with little regard to the team member’s feelings.

Directing

The project manager tells the team members what, when, where, and how to do things.

Democratic or Participative

The project manager encourages the team members to actively participate in the decision-making process.

A lot of authority is delegated to the team members and they play an active role in managing the project.

Laissez-faire

It’s a French term, literally meaning “let do”.

The project manager turns things over to the team members, and only monitors the work at a high level.

Other Leadership Styles

The PMBOK Guide, 6th Edition defines a few other styles such as:

Servant Leader

A servant leader demonstrates commitment to serve and put other people first. Agile approaches emphasize servant leadership as a way to empower teams. Read Servant Leadership for a better understanding of this topic.

Transactional

Rewards are based on accomplishments against goals.

Transformational

Empowering, motivating and inspiring the team members.

Charismatic

Able to inspire; is high-energy, enthusiastic, self-confident; holds strong convictions.

Interactional

A combination of transactional, transformational, and charismatic leadership styles.

Situation Leadership Styles

Hersey and Blanchard proposed four situational leadership styles of the project manager as described below.

The maturity and skill levels of team members are described below.

Mapping of Leadership Styles and Maturity of Team

The following matrix shows the appropriate situational leadership style based on the maturity and skill levels of the team members. Also read Tuckman Ladder for the various stages of team development and the corresponding leadership styles to be adopted.

Also refer to the mapping of agile coaching styles to the Shu Ha Ri model.