Survey of leadership styles in different cultures

Survey of leadership styles in different cultures

Short summary:

Leadership is a process of having dominance on group activities in order to realize common objectives. Managers, which want to become leaders, should decide priorities, motivate and direct people under their supervision to achieve the organizational goals. However, there is no universal leadership strategy for every life situation. Everything depends on specifications dominant in the particular environment and the most powerful is often a culture context. That is why in business leadership, there is a diversity of models and approaches: popular and rare, widely spread and narrowly focused. Comparative analysis of leadership styles in different countries just proved the basic statement – every culture expect to find its own qualities in a leader – positive leadership attribute in one culture is not necessarily positive in other cultures.

Leadership qualities

Part 1 (qualities of a good leader)

1. Empathy: ability to create a rapport with subordinates. People will more likely to work with and share in a vision of the person, whom they trust.

2. Flexibility: ability to find extra-ordinary and unusual solution, to perform with high effectiveness in unexpected situations.

3. Commitment: a strong loyalty to the mission and work, willingness to inspire.

4. Delegation skills: ability to work in a team, trust them and share all ideas, tasks, points of view. Manager can delegate something only if (s)he knows the level of competence of workers, their advantages and spheres of weaknesses.

5. Confidence, decisiveness: ability to stay calm and sure in success, to think sober and decide for all the team.

6. Intuition: natural or experience-based, but the one which will activate instincts and show the right way.

7.  Professionalism, competence: ability to answer the questions, lead and help with ordinary and new tasks. Leader, who knows the sphere in which (s)he works can adapt to changes and challenges quicker.

8. Strategic thinking: ability to think 10 steps ahead, drawing details, pros and cons of every possible outcome;

9. Time & resource management skills: the ability to organize the work in the most effective way;

10. Responsibility and risk taking: ability to take a negative outcomes of own and collective decisions, to decide to choose risky alternatives when it is applicable.

Part 2 (identifying leadership qualities in yourself)

1. If I were leading a group in any activity, the main goals to accomplish would be:

- establishing a trustful and inspiring atmosphere inside the team,

- providing clear understanding of everybody`s tasks and

- ensuring that all kind of resources (time, human, finances) are used in the most effective way.