Leadership Styles

Understanding the importance of choosing the appropriate leadership style for every situation is necessary when attempting to become a successful leader. It is choosing the appropriate leadership style that helps determine the success or failure of the task or goal. In this task we are asked to discuss the leadership styles of authoritative, democratic and consultative and then determine which leadership style would best be used when training new police recruits.

The first leadership style is authoritative. In this style the leader makes all of the decisions without any input from their employees. In the authoritative leadership style the leader will know the “who, what, when and how “(Olden, 2013) of the situation they are in charge of. and they will have clear expectations on how they can achieve their goal. The authoritative leader will tell their subordinates their duties in clear terms and not welcome suggestions and it offers little acknowledgement of the work of their team. It is important in this type of leadership that the leader does not abuse their power or lose effective communication with their team. The authoritative leadership style is best used in the military, police department or correctional facilities as these are areas where life and death and public safety are involved and it is important to follow rules handed down in the appropriate fashion.

The second leadership style is the democratic style. In this style the leader asks the team members to take a more involved role in the decision-making process and they actively welcome their input. In many areas the democratic style is considered the most effective in many business situations as it displayed increased employee morale and increased productivity. The disadvantages of the democratic style are that it can possible leave roles undefined, tasks incomplete and a breach in communication (Cherry, 2013). The democratic style of leadership is best used in fields where a decision is...