Emerging leadership styles breaking traditional leadership moulds

How would you describe your leadership style? Do you enjoy supporting others ahead of yourself, or sharing responsibility with your experienced colleagues? If so, chances are your approach to leadership is aligned with one of the four lesser-known emerging leadership styles explored in this article. And by recognising where your strengths lie, you can gain a greater understanding of who you are as a leader.

Servant leadership

In many ways, servant leadership traits can be found in other more established leadership styles, including transformational and coaching styles. But servant leadership also stands out on its own as an emerging approach embraced by many. The greatest attribute of a servant leader is to support and help others without total self-sacrifice; they’re a servant by name, not by nature. Other key attributes of a servant leader include:

• The ability to listen, show empathy and compassion while recognising important verbal and non-verbal messages
• Recognising when and where guidance and support will help others better achieve their tasks and goals
• Servant leaders have a willingness to momentarily set aside tasks
• Strong persuasion skills without an ulterior motive
• Commitment towards long-term growth and a deeper understanding of how present-day outcomes can and will benefit individuals and groups in the future
• Strong relationship-building skills and a belief in community/shared input when working together

In addition to seeing the benefits of helping others, servant leaders experience their own personal growth through service. Elements of altruism, humility and care mean there’s an acceptance of helping others to genuinely help yourself. 

Authentic leadership

Now, shouldn’t every leader be authentic? While that should be true, there are individuals who don’t see or express their authentic selves in the workplace. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but by being your true self as a leader, it’s possible to bring out the absolute best in colleagues and employees. 

• Authentic leaders do not lose sight of their own personal values even when they’re at odds with company values
• They are able to express their own thoughts and feelings without fear
• With a strong sense of integrity, authentic leaders provide genuine inspiration and motivation to others
• Trust and openness allow for strong workplace relationships
• There is a sense of accountability when things go wrong and a willingness to learn from mistakes
• Growth and development are common for authentic leaders who have the ability to self-reflect

Critically, authentic leaders have a clear purpose and they invest a large part of themselves into their work. In some ways, there is overlap with servant leadership through a mixture of relationship building and a willingness to support others, but rather than serving others, they are focused on leading others.

Distributed leadership

There are similarities between distributed leadership and democratic leadership, including a desire to share the workload and utilise the experience of others. However, leaders who adopt the distributed method of power aren’t entirely focused on democracy; they understand that leadership itself needs to be distributed across different levels. So rather than just allocating tasks, there is shared responsibility and accountability.

• While there’s no sense in rejecting order, distributed leaders often go against traditional hierarchies and chains of command
• They believe distributed power enables faster work with less bureaucratic burden
• By recognising the importance of development and trust, leaders who distribute responsibility encourage employee engagement and commitment 
• Leaders who want to learn and collaborate enjoy the benefits of knowledge-sharing
• A leader who distributes power is not letting go of their responsibilities but is placing more emphasis on how others can impact outcomes when they have more influence

Distributive leaders aren’t focused on power, either. There’s no belief in creating titles or elevating others into roles purely for the sake of it. The focus is on empowering others to be their best through trust and increased accountability.

Complexity leadership

Although the name might not allude to any particular traits, it’s better to think of the complexity leadership theory as a framework where three different approaches are combined to overcome turbulent times. So if you are someone who fits the bill, you likely have features of:

• Administrative leadership: you know when more formal structures, coordination and control are essential in achieving common goals.
• Adaptive leadership: Despite following those rigid structures, when the time’s right, you flick into being adaptive. This is a transformational period where innovation and learning are essential to creating change.
• Enabling leadership: It’s a hard task to create change all on your own, so you have the skills to enable growth and success by facilitating relationships and supporting others. 

Through the combination of adaptive, administrative and enabling leadership, you do have a complex mixture of leadership styles requiring a considerable amount of oversight and confidence. Leaders with high levels of experience are the most likely to achieve success when mixing together these approaches.