Great leadership is, at its core, the ability to master multiple leadership styles to be able to adopt the one that fits the specific context and the team’s expectations. Because of the dependence on context, expectations and relationships, there are no leadership behaviors that are inherently positive or negative. It is more helpful to describe leadership behaviors as either more or less helpful within a specific situation. The way the leadership behavior is perceived by those affected is important in a given cultural context.
Being an effective leader does not mean using a coaching leadership style in every circumstance since this can be unhelpful, (or even harmful) in certain situations. An example is a crisis situation, or working with a team of people that expect clear directives. In both of these examples, a leader using a directive or demanding style can be a gold example of servant leadership. This is because they are intentionally adopting that behavior in a specific moment in the service of empowering them to be better and more autonomous.
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