Leadership style is the system of methods of influence on the members of a group (subordinated) typical for a leader. There are three styles of leadership: authoritative, democratic and anarchical.
Authoritative style assumes rigid ways of management, suppression of an initiative of group members; absence of a group discussion of the accepted decisions. The head makes decisions, supervises and coordinates the work of group members himself.
Democratic style presupposes a joint discussion of problems, encouragement of the initiatives of subordinates by the head, active exchange of information between the management and subordinates.
Anarchical style is shown in a voluntary refusal of the head from the administrative functions, transfer of management functions to the members of a group. Each style has own strengths and weaknesses. It is probable that the most successful leaders and heads are guided by all three styles.
It is inexpedient to state that the role of a leader is executed by one person throughout the whole period of work of an informal group or a team. In some situations, it is completely not obligatory to have an active leader focused on the performance of the task that employees have successfully accomplished. There are leadership substitutes, who will provide successful performance of set tasks, if a leader is absent. Modern leaders understand that it is necessary to share a part of control to receive results, in other words, they act as instructors, not as bosses. Instead of considering leadership as a synonym to dictatorship, leadership is more subtle art connected with the human aspects of activity.
Effective leaders possess an accurately structured system of the ideas based on the knowledge and the system of values, which can be perceived by the followers completely and without difficulties. Moreover, training of new leaders in such organizations becomes a part of a corporate culture.
Leadership is the process of directing the behavior of other people in order to achieve overall aims. Leadership is an influence on people in order to achieve results, showing the standards and quality of work above the usual level. Garner (2002) states “leadership facilitates the accomplishment of the work and develops the employee; non-leadership accomplishes the work at the expense of the employee. A leader inspires the employee to do his/her best to accomplish the tasks at hand; a non-leader drives or pushes the employee along. A leader assumes the obligations and consequences of the role; a non-leader will pass blame to others”.
Being the element of social interactions, leadership is a difficult activity including the process of influence, participants – both leaders and followers, a number of possible results – not only purpose achievement, but also adherence of people to these purposes, interaction improvement in a team and change of a corporate culture.
The management of changes is the basic function of a leader. A leader is necessary where changes occur. In modern quickly changing economy, they occur continuously and quickly. It is unpredictable when and where the role of leaders will sharply increase.
The attributes of a leader are internal, personal qualities, which are the components of effective leadership. These attributes include a wide spectrum of characteristics, such as the system of values, character, motives, habits, characteristic features, competence spheres, style, behavior and abilities.
In the twenty-first century, a leader is a motivational leader, who is capable to lead and motivate others. The leader of motivation understands that people are a source of progress and innovations, and thus they are a key of success in any organization.
When a leader is effective, he will learn to reveal basic desires and requirements of the personnel; he can operate properly and motivate the personnel to effective work.
Effective leader possesses a high personal culture, strong professional knowledge of all aspects of human resource work, good practice of management, aspiration to self-improvement, good physical health, and the most important thing – creative thinking. Kumuyi (2007) considers “leaders who cling to the old idea of know-all-tell-all leadership style can’t move their organizations forward in this modern time. Leadership used to be one-man command-and-control practice-but no more. The challenges of modern organisations are vast and more complex than leaders can handle solo”.