Leadership styles that are gonna work in software company

Every leader possesses a distinct leadership style, whether they are aware of it or not. In this article, we will introduce the four most prevalent leadership styles within the realm of software leadership.

Why is this important? Understanding these styles will empower you to become a more effective leader. You'll be better equipped to discern which style is most suitable for specific situations and groups of developers, ultimately enabling you to achieve the best possible results.

Authoritatian Leaders

Leading a team involves managing a diverse group of individuals, each with their unique personalities, backgrounds, and preferences. Achieving successful outcomes amidst this diversity is a commendable accomplishment for any leader. Some leaders prefer to maintain a tight grip on their software development team, providing explicit instructions on what to do, how to do it, and when to do it. This leadership approach is commonly known as authoritarian leadership.

Authoritarian leaders possess distinctive characteristics that set them apart from other leadership styles. For instance, in addition to exerting control over projects and tasks assigned to their developers, they tend to make decisions unilaterally, with minimal input from their team.

It's important to note that while this leadership style is highly structured and inflexible, it shouldn't resemble a dictatorship. In a Harvard Business Review article, emphasizes that authoritarian leaders excel in situations requiring rapid change and swift decision-making. He defines an authoritarian leader not as someone who needlessly bullies others, but rather as the managerial equivalent of an emergency room surgeon, compelled to take whatever measures necessary to save a patient's life.

However, while authoritarian leadership can yield results and propel a business forward, it may not be the preferred choice for many employees whose intension is to have same skills but could not get it through because of soft skills.

In an industry like software development, characterized by innovation, creativity, and employee autonomy, authoritarian leadership may feel out of place. However if the leader is open to listen but have a strong thought of taking a decision, this is definetely going to work.

Incorporating some elements of authoritarian leadership into your own leadership style can also have benefits. Authoritarian leadership is suitable for specific situations, such as when employees require clear direction or lack the knowledge to execute their ideas. If you observe these traits in your team, it may be worthwhile to consider implementing this leadership style.

Coaching Leadership

A proficient coach possesses the ability to identify individuals' strengths and talents, facilitating their further enhancement. This holds true not only in sports teams but is equally effective within software development teams.

Coaching leadership shares certain attributes with democratic leadership, as it prioritizes the team's collective interests and involves collaborative decision-making with the team.

However, coaching leadership places a distinct emphasis on fostering the personal growth and advancement of individuals, and feedback plays a pivotal role in the leader-team relationship.

The cultivation of a growth mindset is a key characteristic of coaching leadership. A growth mindset revolves around expanding skills and knowledge, ultimately leading to enhanced overall performance, as emphasized by Carol Dweck.

Satya Nadella's coaching leadership is characterized by the promotion of a growth mindset. Since assuming the role of CEO at Microsoft in 2014, he has championed a leadership style founded on growth, empathy, and individual empowerment. Similar to a coach, he encourages employees to embrace challenges as opportunities for learning.

Nadella's empathetic approach allows team members to learn from their mistakes and make improved decisions, fostering their growth under his guidance. Facilitating feedback is an essential component of coaching leadership, as mentioned earlier.

Fortunately, most employees value feedback, with 96% expressing a preference for receiving regular feedback, according to Officevibe's data.

Coaching leadership leverages feedback to establish trust and create a secure space between the leader and team members. This underscores the importance of not only providing feedback but also soliciting it.

In contrast to laissez-faire leadership, which will be explored in the next section, coaching leadership involves actively monitoring and guiding developers toward learning and improvement.

As an effective coaching leader, it is crucial to strike a balance between providing specific guidance to your developers and granting them the autonomy to work independently. Finding this equilibrium allows you to inspire and harness your developers' strengths for the betterment of your team and organization.

Democratic Leadership

If your leadership approach involves actively engaging your developer team in decision-making, assigning them responsibilities, and fostering collaboration, you squarely fall under the democratic leadership style.

Promoting group involvement is the core principle of democratic leadership, and cultivating a team-oriented mindset is essential for this style.

However, one shared characteristic with autocratic leadership is that the ultimate decision-making authority rests with the leader.

It is unsurprising that today's software development teams exhibit similar preferences, given the innovative and autonomous nature of the field. However, this style has both advantages and drawbacks. While it encourages high levels of team buy-in and well-informed decisions, it can sometimes be slow and inefficient.

For instance, Signetic sought input from his team regarding project-feature bundling but retained decision-making authority over marketing materials. This allowed him to combine the benefits of teamwork with the expediency of leader-driven decisions.

Another drawback of democratic process is that if there is any dissatisfaction with any of the team member, then a group of people forming a union to get the person out may cause the adverse effect for the team. Democracy doesn't mean to follow everyone's thought. It is impractical. It actually means to listen to everyone's thought and take a right decision that is good for the team either for short period or long period.

Notably, one of the world's largest tech companies, Apple, is led by a democratic leader—Tim Cook. After the passing of Steve Jobs, Cook adopted a democratic approach distinct from his more autocratic predecessor. He surrounded himself with capable individuals he could trust and is known for empowering his team's talents while still making essential decisions for the company. Unlike Jobs, Cook refrains from excessive micromanagement, allowing his team to handle detailed aspects of projects, such as the Apple Watch.

If you are working with capable developers, consider involving them in your leadership approach to harness their potential effectively.

Laissez-faire Leadership

Letting your team work on their own terms, at their own pace, and using their preferred methods while getting excellent results sounds like a dream come true for most leaders and developers.

That kind of approach to leadership is known as laissez-faire.

Leaders who practice this kind of hands-off leadership style seem relaxed and confident in their developers’ abilities. All they need to do is delegate and let the collaboration between developers take it from there. Delegation of work is crucial for laissez-faire leadership since the idea is for a leader to do as little managing as possible. Those leaders who are good at delegating report a higher three-year growth average for their companies.

To successfully implement laissez-faire leadership, it is essential to have a capable team that knows how to be autonomous.

The goal is to empower every developer to execute without depending on others, be it their colleagues or leaders. Laissez-faire leadership isn’t easy to practice, and it requires a certain mindset to be adopted by the leader, as well as the developers.

However, if done correctly, it can build creative, independent teams with a very high potential for producing exceptional results.

Conclusion

Some employees respond better to autocratic leadership, and others prefer a more relaxed approach, either with or without the final input from the team leader.

Others still produce the best results under coaching leadership.

A good leader will likely favor one of those styles over the others, but he or she will always combine multiple features to get the best results.

For me, I prefer the mix of Authoritarian and Coaching leadership. Our country is experiencing a tech boom, and the world is rapidly advancing in innovation. However, if we merely try to mimic global trends without truly understanding the core principles and roots of each technology, we risk losing our unique identity and purpose. It's crucial that we don't just follow the crowd but instead focus on gaining a deep and comprehensive understanding of the technologies we adopt. This way, we can harness their full potential to drive our own innovation and contribute meaningfully to the global tech landscape.

So for achieving this leap, we need to follow 1 leader and ask for their mentorship. We do not have time for following democratic process and giving time to make decisions.

Use the knowledge wisely, and you’ll bring out the best in your developers. Find the developers who are willing to listen and learn.

Think rationally and kick-off.

References:

• shakebugs.com - for facts and figures
• emeritus.org - for getting more insights about the style in global landscape