No one style of leadership is right for all situations, all people, at all times. People are different, and this includes managers and leaders. Good leaders learn to work with their strengths and compensate for their weaknesses while focusing on overall objectives. 

But if the goal is to bring about the highest possible achievement from personnel, what objectives are most important?  Despite differences in people, there is a way to manage that maximizes achievement across the board. It involves what may at first seem to be a contradictory combination of features.

Four crucial qualities of Maximum Achievement Leaders

Of the mind-boggling array of activities and skills that leadership actually involves, a combination of four specific dimensions directly produces high achievement. Rating leaders on these four dimensions produces four different styles of achievement of management that produce varying levels and qualities of achievement.

Demandingness:   The dimension of demandingness has to do with the degree of clarity in stating, and requiring compliance with, high standards of excellence.

Control:  Control is the willingness to give specific directives, to be strict and decisive about them, and to be intolerant of deviation. Control includes hands-on supervision and monitoring and a willingness to use sanctions when necessary.

Warmth:  Warmth is a combination of acceptance, encouragement, and support that expresses a personal interest in and involvement with the persons managed.  Warmth includes a willingness to mentor, teach, and further the careers of those managed.

Granting Autonomy:  Granting autonomy is the degree of independent action and judgment the leader allows and encourages in those he or she oversees.

Four management styles

Authoritarian leaders undercut self-confidence and self-esteem, and thereby produce adverse long-term effects on career development: experiences that would foster a sense of competence and independence are restricted.  This style of leadership also produces covert resistance and other passive forms of aggression.

Permissive, or indulgent:  Permissive or indulgent leaders are rare because the fail to actually lead. They demonstrate high warmth and grant much autonomy but are low on demands and control.  These leaders often espouse an ideological orientation which they claim involves trust, but which can result in ongoing chaos.  They create room for creativity but also for sloppiness.

Permissive leadrs care about those they manage and this is appreciated, but they run the risk of not being respected for good reason:  they fail to take hold and lead at crucial moments.

Projects slip behind without their raising significant objection and lackadaisical efforts are tolerated.  Those working under this generally unstructured style of management, especially in early career, develop uncertainty about what is required to succeed and concomitant sloppy habits.

Disengaged:  Passive, neglectful managers, low on three of the four dimensions, are the management equivalent of grammar school substitute teachers.  Disengaged and seemingly not caring, they do not involve themselves in the dirty work of setting limits or of making demands.  They do grant autonomy but inappropriately and for reason of their own disconnection.

These managers not surprisingly come in dead last in producing achievement. The lack of demands or involvement produces aimless drift and low morale, and low self-confidence.

Authoritative:  The authoritative style is high on all four dimensions: demands, control, warmth, and granting autonomy. Authoritative leaders demand excellence, and are engaged.  They exercise control not only by keeping their finger on the pulse and knowing what is happening, but by getting in the face of anyone who slacks. Authoritative managers, thus, know how to be tough.  Their personal warmth, however, makes their demands seem fair and suggests their belief in people.

Furthermore, their clarity eliminates mixed messages, political intrigue, and having to guess.  Under an authoritative leader you know what is expected and this allows you to perform accordingly.  Due to the warmth factor, those led feel they can count on help when they ran into a snag or unexpected opposition and receive explanations.

Finally, once ground rules and clear expectations are established, authoritative leaders allow their managers to run with the ball.  By granting autonomy within clear guidelines they allow those they manage to develop self-reliance, self-direction and independent decision-making.  By welcoming give-and-take they foster independent thinking.  This produces buy-in, emotional investment, and very high achievement.

Best Outcomes

Clearly, authoritative leaders are well ahead of the pack when it comes to producing maximum achievement. Under this style of leadership, people thrive.  Their morale is high, they are clear about what is expected and they perform well.

By combining high control and demands with warmth and granting autonomy, authoritative leaders meld what superficially seem to be contradictory elements into a style that provides not only structure and guidance but also support and autonomy.

Authoritarian leaders, by contrast, produces compliance in relation to overt objectives, but at a high cost.  Those managed feel hammered into submission, demoralized, and hesitant to trust their own judgment, much less look for new, independent, creative solutions to business problems.

Under permissive and disengaged leadership, personnel sometimes develop self-sufficiency and creative approaches but are inconsistent in their achievement and reliability and many consequently languish.

Bottom line, while there is room for all types of personal styles in management, it simply makes sense for managers to cultivate the components of the authoritative style.  In fact, it is imperative.