Leadership Styles You Should Consider as a Female Executive

You don’t have to be a leader to recognize different leadership styles. As you continue your growth into management and leadership, you might have tested out several different styles of leadership to see which fits well for yourself, and for your subordinates. Here are three different leadership styles you should consider as a female executive and see how they fit into your ongoing management work.

1. Transformational leadership. Transformational leadership focuses on facilitating organizational collaborations to help drive a vision forward. The goal of a transformational leader is to inspire your employees in ways that go beyond exchanges and rewards. This way, you will increase your team’s intrinsic motivations by explaining the value and purpose behind the project they are working on.

2. Democratic leadership. Another leadership style is democratic leadership. Democratic leadership, as the name implies, actively involves the people being led, and these leaders often seek feedback and input from their subordinates. Large organizations today usually utilize employee engagement surveys and forums to gather feedback from their team. This helps workers feel like they are part of something greater than themselves, and that they have some agency in improving the business.

3. Laissez-faire leadership. Finally, laissez-faire leadership is another leadership style you should try as a female executive. Laissez-faire comes from the French term for “leave alone”. Now, in this type of leadership, it does not mean you have to ignore your employees. Instead, it means you should have an attitude of trust towards them to let them do their jobs. Laissez-faire leaders do not micromanage or get too involved. Instead, they let their employees use their creativity, resources, and experiences to meet their goals.

There are many different leadership types, and they can be mixed and matched to create the ideal leader for a company. There is nothing wrong with trying different leadership styles and changing how you do things as you find your footing as a female executive. Especially with changing landscapes of work including working from home and hybrid work environments, leadership is not one-size-fits-all. It is important to take a leadership style that fits your personality, your team, and your work.