Shaan Rais

Coach Style Leadership

Coach style leadership is a form of leadership that inspires individual accountability and growth. There are forms of leadership that ‘get the job done,’ that ‘check the box,’ and there are those that ensure that the job does indeed get done, but while the job is getting done, more is taking place.
 
Coach style leadership is a transformative style of leadership. Coaching is a future-focused, goal, and action-oriented process. The goal is the result, the future focus makes the subordinate a better person. The action orientation ensures accountability and responsibility for the job getting done, and the individual growth.
 
If you have ever had a job where you were shown what to do, then someone assisted you in doing it yourself and then left you to do it on your own, that is a phase of coach-style leadership.
The Next Phase is to make sure you have the ability to attend multiple pieces of training and developmental opportunities. These opportunities are key within coach-style leadership because they are always preparing you to be a better version of yourself. Good organizations know that their growth as an organization is proportionate to the growth of their individual staff members and teams. Not just Team Leaders and Management.
 
The determining questions here are 1) is your leadership challenging you, and forcing you to learn different skills constantly to keep up, and 2) are you growing? If the answer to both questions is yes, you are receiving coach-style leadership. Another few questions would be A) have you and your leader developed a growth/development plan for you, and B) are you having regular sessions to discuss any difficulties you may be experiencing, with them providing guidance and suggestions on how you can get better and move up in the company?
 
If you said yes to the above questions, think hard before you leave, because this is a coach-style leadership and it is tough to find.
 
Congratulations!

Autocratic Leadership

Autocratic Leadership is a leadership style that is top-down. Top-down leadership is leadership that comes down to the people from ‘on high.’ This is a leadership style that is offensive to many and speaks at, not to, or with the people. It is a control-oriented leadership style that has more to do with the role than responsibility.
 
Autocratic leadership is also referred to as Authoritarian leadership. This is the form of leadership that makes decisions, enacts policies, passes laws, makes things up as they go along with very little participation or inclusion of subordinates or followers, and this is why they often have defectors.
 
These are your leaders who have a hard problem letting go of the work. They are accused of micro-management, and result in low levels of autonomy, self-esteem, feelings of appreciation or organizational citizenship or buy-in from their constituents. Most people who are under this form of pressure leadership are only there because they feel they must, and as soon as a better opportunity arises, i.e. time or freedom, they will escape.