Implementing a fusion of leadership styles within an organization

OK, let’s imagine this scenario.

You are the leader of your organization and you’ve just arrived at work first thing in the morning.

After pondering over a cup of coffee for a few moments, you decide that, today, you are going to use an authoritarian leadership style in your approach to leading your employees.

However, it was only yesterday that you adopted a more free-rein leadership stance, when it comes to leading the same employees.

Don’t you think that changing your leadership style so radically and so quickly will confuse your employees, and even yourself as a leader?

Mixing different leadership styles

In the organizational world, no two situations are the same.

What is true on one day may no longer be true the next.

Thus, in order for a leader to be effective, he or she needs to understand that the ability to smoothly and effortlessly mix various leadership styles in his or everyday leadership practice is essential, and is, in fact, a key determinant of organizational success.

For example, using some elements of the laissez-faire approach to leadership, and mixing them with various aspects of servant leadership can do the trick, and help a leader unlock the potential of his or her organization and get out of a seemingly dead-end situation.

Therefore, it is the applicable conditions that call for specific attitudes toward organizational leadership, and a leader should be able to identify and mix various ingredients from different leadership styles to be successful in those conditions.

When leaders hesitate to mix different leadership styles

There are cases, however, where leaders don’t want to shift from one leadership style to another.

In these cases, leaders may be stuck to a single approach to leadership that they have followed for ages, without changing it or mixing it with other approaches as required in different circumstances.

These leaders have got used to their old ways, and find it really difficult to implement a fusion of different leadership styles.

They may also lack the necessary skills, experience, and a proactive attitude to ride the wave of change in the practice of leadership within organizations that calls for more flexible leaders.

This is where leadership coaching enters the picture as an essential component of a leader’s ongoing success and effectiveness.

Through leadership coaching, leaders can learn new skills and approaches, in order to refresh their possibly outdated knowledge portfolio in the practice of leadership on a lifelong basis.

Sources and further reading:

6 Common Leadership Styles — and How to Decide Which to Use When