Leadership Styles to Give Up & Become a Better Leader in 2020

Are you trying to become a leader then you may find plenty of training institutions and online courses that will shape you up as one. However, when choosing a particular leadership style, we often don’t realize the cons of it and merely focus on the pros. In a way, it’s a good thing for a leader, but for his/her subordinates, not so much. If a leader is unable to keep his/her team intact then how come he or she is going to lead them through & through. 

Leadership styles such as democratic, autocratic, strategic, and transformational might sound interesting to adapt to. But if you’ve become a leader in 2020, times have changed and so the fact of how leadership once used to be. Now, we can have an hour-long debate on what leadership style has pros and what cons, but that’s not our agenda. I took my inspiration for today’s blog from Lolly Daskal and here’s what she believes some leadership styles must go.

She’s a coach and consultant who shapes up leaders of the future. 

So without any further adieu, here are five leadership styles that are strongly discouraged. 

Leaders Who Are Absent All the Time

One of the leadership styles that you don’t want to adopt is that of absent leadership. Are you a busy personality who is always attending conferences and sitting in meetings? If you spend less time with your subordinates then you easily fall into the category of absent leadership. An absent leader is one who is not physically present in a location or a situation when people want to look up to him/her as a leader. They are often too preoccupied with their own responsibilities to heed much attention to what others are seeking. Although some leaders are physically present they are not mentally available. Their mind is always preoccupied with their own thoughts and they don’t listen to their employees. 

Such leadership style is not basically a style but a flaw. If you’ve the tendency of being absent, then it’s best you don’t follow the path of leadership and instead choose a different way to stay safe & sound. 

Leaders Who Are Very Inflexible

Are your employees unable to give their best to a particular task? And you as a leader are almost forcing them to accomplish it, then beware, you’ve already put yourself in the inflexible leader category. Leaders who are inflexible are the worst leaders and send out a very wrong message to other people working as his/her subordinates. Inflexibility often results in frequent absences, demotivation, poor performance, and in worst-case scenarios, employees giving away their position. On the contrary, what employees seek is motivation, energy, enthusiasm, and the will to strive more. 

If a leader is able to provide them with that positive energy, the entire team scores big. But, in case, if a leader fails to establish such a relationship and be very rigid, the team will eventually dissociate. 

Leaders Who Prefer to Micro-Manage Everything

Do you know that micromanagement has the worst impact on individuals and destroys the morale & productivity of just about any person? How would you feel if some started cherry-picking your flaws & keep highlighting them every now and then? It’s the worst form of motivation that you’re giving to your subordinate leading them to believe that they are not good enough at what they do. As a result, they stop performing at what they are trying to improve and put their best into it. As a leader, your focus should be on the big picture rather than the nitty-gritty. It’s not like you won’t be able to achieve big if you stop pestering one of your employees, but what if that pestering results in creating a negative image for you among other subordinates? Look at the big picture & keep yourself focused. 

One of the signs of being an effective leader is to stop micromanaging and focus on improvements. Do not stand over your employees’ shoulders are they will find you very troublesome and disturbing. 

Leaders Who Feel Intimidation is the Right Way Forward

Are you one such leader who has a tendency to intimidate employees so they perform their respective duties? If you’re one such leader, then you need to give up on your habit of intimidation. Such leaders often fail to share the vision and objectives that they are supposed to achieve but instead use threats & complaints to get their way around things. If you find yourself doing such a thing with your subordinates, then it’s time to quit on that and adopt a very different strategy. Be the leader who motivates! Analyze problems, look for solutions, help them find solutions! Only then you will truly be able to become the leader who has the best team. If you’re lacking in these areas, then it’s a high chance you’re going to survive long as a leader and instead find yourself becoming a bully personality. 

Nobody likes to be bullied, whether they are in an office or they are elsewhere. Don’t adopt the wrong attitude, give up on it to become the best version of yourself. Be the inspiration for others in ways. 

Leaders Who Think They Know Everything

The world around us is rapidly changing and if we are unable to adopt with these changes, we can fall behind. But what if our perceptions have become rigid. What if we don’t want to listen to others and instead create a false belief that we know everything, may it be from the past, present or future? When you start achieving big, you start falling into the wrong mindset and as a leader this can be your downfall. Don’t become a leader who believes they know everything. Instead, give room to others so they can express what they know too. By doing so, you will learn new things and in fact, you will learn that they know those things better than you. However, they are not that good with execution and that’s where you come in. As a leader, the art of properly executing is in-bred within your experience. 

Grasp the ideas, commemorate your subordinate on sharing the idea and then start working on it. 

It’s how big leaders transform into great ones. 

Good leaders don’t adapt to the surrounding by absorbing the energies from external environments. They lead from within, they have the trait of leadership within themselves and they know how to take everything in a perfect flow. Are you one among such leaders motivated to achieve big? 

Time to choose a different leadership style to help you become a better leader in the year 2020.