Day 5: What’s Your Primary Leadership Style?
Do you lean more Authoritarian, Democratic, or Laissez-faire?
TL;DR: Your leadership style reveals how you distribute decision-making authority within your team. Understanding whether you lean more Authoritarian, Democratic, or Laissez-faire helps you lead more strategically and recognize when to flex between approaches.
Welcome to Day 5 – the final day of our Leadership Styles Challenge!
Let me ask you this: How do you distribute decision-making power in your team? Do you keep most decisions in your hands, involve your team in the process, or set the direction and trust others to figure out the details?
Knowing the answers to these questions can help you better understand your decision-making patterns so you can use them strategically when the situation calls for it. (Because when you know your default style, you can recognize when it’s serving you well and when you might need to shift.)
That’s our focus for today – helping you determine your go-to leadership styles!
If you just want to know your primary and secondary leadership styles instead of guessing, take our Leadership Styles II Test to find out. It takes about 20 minutes to complete and can be accessed as part of your Premium Personality Profile.
Before we embark on the final day of this challenge, here’s a recap of everything we’ve covered together this week:
Day 5: What’s Your Leadership Style? (You Are Here)
What’s Your Leadership Style?
Your leadership style explains how you allocate decision-making power. Think of it as a continuum: on one end, all decisions flow through you; on the other, your team makes most choices independently.
Most effective leaders move fluidly along this spectrum depending on the situation.
Let’s explore where you might naturally fall, shall we?
Authoritarian Leadership Style
If you’re an Authoritarian leader, then you believe clear directions followed with precision lead to the best outcomes. You have a vision and tell your team exactly how to achieve it. When team members question your instructions, you see this as wasting time or even showing disrespect.
You might be an Authoritarian leader if you:
Stay closely involved in processes and approve most decisions
Prefer giving specific instructions rather than general guidelines
Believe one person overseeing ensures everything functions well together
Take full responsibility for outcomes
The benefits: This approach delivers efficiency and coordination when time is short and decisions need to be made quickly. Having one person oversee the entire operation ensures everything functions well together, especially when logistics are complicated or many people are involved. Authoritarian leadership works particularly well with inexperienced or untested team members who benefit from following established best practices before making independent decisions later.
The drawbacks: It’s rare that any single person has nothing to learn from the people they lead. Over time, this style risks alienating smart, capable, experienced team members who need recognition as more than just worker drones. You also miss opportunities to improve processes in ways you hadn’t imagined – dynamic, collaborative teams often innovate new solutions that would never emerge under strict orders. Finally, if you can’t delegate effectively, you may lack the time and energy to sustain the very outcomes you’re trying to achieve.
Democratic Leadership Style
If you’re a Democratic leader, then you balance control with team input. You make final decisions but actively seek feedback and encourage creativity. You might call meetings to gather perspectives before assigning responsibilities, ensuring everyone feels heard even if you don’t take every suggestion.
You might be a Democratic leader if you:
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