Styles of Leadership

Ramayana & Mahabharata are considered to be two of the greatest epics India has ever produced. While Ram is easily identified as the hero of Ramayana, there are many claimants for the title of hero of Mahabharata - the most popular one being Krishna. When Arjuna asked Krishna to be part of the Pandava army, Krishna famously agreed with one condition – that he would be just a charioteer. When the Pandava army had warriors like Arjuna, Bheem and all, it made sense for Krishna to take a role of someone who would just show the path and let the warriors run the show. Krishna had to step in only during crucial junctures in the war, when the warriors looked genuinely defeated and needed help. On the other hand, in Ramayana, poor Ram did not have that choice. He had to lead from the front and be actively involved in the war, since he was leading an army of monkeys.

This is one of the greatest leadership lessons that we can learn from Ramayana & Mahabharata. The approach taken by Ram is called as “Coaching style” of leadership where the leader is hands-on and sets clear goals and tasks to each member. He “guides” them to achieve success. On the other hand, the approach taken by Krishna is called as “Affiliative style” of leadership, where the leader forms emotional bonds with his team-members and “motivates” them to achieve success. 

Coaching leader guides the team

Affiliative leader motivates the team

A coaching style of leadership works best when the team is young or inexperienced or made up of not so great players. On the other hand, Affiliative style of leadership works best, when the team is made of experienced professionals who just need some direction, not hand-holding.

The third type of leadership style that is commonly observed is the “Authoritative style”. As the name suggests, it works with an authoritative person on the top, who sets the vision & agenda and mobilizes the team-members towards that vision. This style of leadership works very well when the team is adrift and clueless as to what really “needs to be done”. Steve Jobs is a classic example of this style of leadership. 

Contrasting to the authoritative leadership style is the “Democratic style”. This style emphasizes on collaboration & cooperation within the team and helps the team-members set workable goals and celebrates their achievement. This style is very popular in creative organizations that require constant innovation and exchange of ideas. It normally leads to a very participative work environment where contribution by all team-members is encouraged. Other than these four leadership styles, i.e. Affiliative, coaching, authoritative & democratic, there are more styles like altruistic leader, bureaucratic leader, pace setting leader, etc.

When it comes to individuals, each of us has streaks of these leadership traits in us and, we subconsciously pick the style that would work best for that situation.  So the next time you have to push your team to achieve a larger than life goal, take a step back and first think whether you are leading warriors or monkeys and then be the leader that the situation demands.