The three leadership styles

- Managing and leading a young team isn't always easy. A lot of employees have a strong opposition to authority, and they tend to be against bureaucracy, rules, and regulations, all of which can make your job as a manager or supervisor challenging. How do you train, manage, and lead employees so that you can accomplish your goals and targets within the company? Well, let's first look at the three different leadership styles, their advantages, and their disadvantages. This will help you choose the strategy or combination of strategies that work best with your team. The first leadership style is authoritarian. This is where the leader makes all of the important decisions, and the employees essentially do as they're told, usually within a predetermined hierarchy. This leadership style works well with specific systems where it's vital to the safety, legality, or precision of your objective. There's very little gray area as to who does what, when, and how. The military, police departments, and government organizations are examples of where this leadership style is used often. The disadvantage of this style of leadership is the risk of stifled creativity, lack of innovation, and a negative culture. The second leadership style is exemplary. This is where you lead your young team by example. You show them how to behave, react, problem solve, and serve through your example. Young employees will follow a leader that's authentic and cares about their wellbeing, so be sure to share goals, why you do what you do, and how you do it. There's a saying by Ralph Waldo Emerson: "Your actions are so loud, I can't hear what you're saying." The advantage of this style is that your employees will do things your way. They only need to look to you for guidance. The disadvantages are some of your employees will try to be you. They may become frustrated when they can't emulate you perfectly. You also risk losing their creativity and original ideas. The third leadership style is collaborative. This leadership style allows you to extract ideas, solutions, and input from your team as you set goals and make major decisions. This is a great strategy to use with millennials because they want their voices to be heard. They're often very creative and put a lot of energy into causes that they believe in. The disadvantage of this style of leadership can be that employees believe their opinions are more valuable than yours. They may make suggestions that they don't have enough experience to back up. Be authentic and open with your team, and also be clear that you're tasked with making the final decisions as the manager or supervisor for the good of the team. Once you get to know your team and the individuals on it, you can choose the leadership style or styles that work best with each. Don't be afraid to try all three or blend them to find the leadership style that's best for you and your young team.