How to Recognize Your Emotional Leadership Style

The truth is, leadership isn’t a one-size-fits-all term. Unfortunately, that doesn’t stop people from boxing leaders into a few cherrypicked traits. We’ve all seen articles with titles like 5 Habits of Successful Leaders or Here’s What Every Great Leader Has in Common. These click-bait articles all have the same conclusion: leaders need to be disciplined, decisive, driven, empathetic and other obvious traits.

People rarely understand that leadership comes in many styles, and that embracing and understanding them is the true key to being a great leader.

The six emotional leadership styles

According to Daniel Goleman, Richard E. Boyatzis, and Annie McKee—authors of the bestselling text Primal Leadership—there are six core emotional leadership styles. Each one represents a defined set of strengths and weaknesses that translate into the work environment. The six emotional leadership styles are as follows:

1. Authoritative: Not to be confused with “authoritarian,” authoritative leaders are decisive and visionary. They see the big picture and are adept at getting buy-in from subordinates. These leaders often set goals, but allow subordinates to create their own success. They’re often demanding, but fairly recognize effort and reward perseverance. Authoritative leaders have very little patience for those unwilling to contribute.
2. Coaching: Coaches see their leadership role through the lens of mentorship and teaching. They spend time helping subordinates build skills and grow confidence, and favor one-on-one interaction instead of large group settings. They’re often well-liked by subordinates, which creates trust and buy-in. Unfortunately, they’re prone to spending too much time working with individuals and not enough time leading the group.
3. Affiliative: Are you the cool boss? The person everyone gets along with? If so, you’re like an affiliative leader. These leaders promote harmony in teams and see their primary job as maintaining that cohesion. These leaders have high emotional intelligence and constantly strive to broker compromise in the face of strife. However, their quest to please everyone can often lead to overcompensation, which can seem insincere.
4. Democratic: These leaders value the feedback and input of their team above all else. They’re known for polling teams in the face of questions and letting groups work through their own solutions with minimal intervention. They listen more than they direct, which makes their subordinates feel heard and valued. Democratic leaders need to serve their role as final decision-maker, lest they look like an absentee or disengaged boss.  
5. Pacesetting: Pacesetters demand excellence from their teams and often set lofty goals. They believe everyone has the potential to be great and that the best way forward is to shoot for the moon. In pursuit of this excellence, pacesetters tend to ostracize poor performers and those who can’t keep up. As a result, they have a reputation for being ruthless. To succeed, pacesetters need to embrace empathy.
6. Coercive: This leadership style is a toxic one, and is only effective in situations that demand absolute buy-in, such as crisis situations. Coercive leaders do whatever it takes to get results, often keeping employees in the dark or manipulating situations to create a desired result. This leadership style extinguishes any concept of trust in the workplace. It’s important to realize the difference between a take-charge approach and coercion.

Since the publishing of Primal Leadership, Laissez-Faire leaders have also come to prominence. These are leaders who empower their subordinates to operate freely and with few restrictions, believing that they’ll accomplish their best work when left to their own devices. It’s a popular style of governance at companies with Gen-Z employees.

Which leadership style do you gravitate toward?

As is the case with any classification system, there’s a strong likelihood that you fall into more than one leadership category. In fact, that’s a good thing. Chameleon leaders who can adapt their approach to the situation will find themselves in a better position to lead, regardless of the circumstances in front of them.

Look at the traits most important to you as a leader. Do you value harmony and collaboration above all else? You might be an affiliative leader. Don’t have time for underperforming employees? You might be a pacesetter. Want to give those people extra help? You could be a coach. As you break down what’s important to you as a leader, start looking at the category that’s conducive to your core traits and beliefs. Chances are, you’ll resonate with that emotional management philosophy.

Leadership sets the tone for culture

Whether you’re working on your own professional development or getting ready to hire leadership for your company, consider the six emotional leadership styles. The kind of leadership you exhibit or bring into your workplace is a fundamental contributor to its culture. Because leadership directly impacts employee performance and experience, your natural (or chosen) management style is likely to thank for the prevailing sentiment at your company.

While it’s true all leaders tend to possess similar characteristics and traits, how they execute and embody those traits is what matters. Understanding your own management style—its strengths and weaknesses—is what catapults leaders from effective to exceptional.