History tells the tale of those who lead for all the right reasons and others who chose more dangerous routes. Mark Dickinson of DONE!  Hospitality Training Solutions examines how different leadership styles affect decision-making processes and what to keep in mind.

The spectrum of leadership embraces the good, the bad and everything in between. Consequently, it is essential that there’s a framework in place to promote good leadership. Here are five types of leadership that you may encounter.

Strategic leadership
This leadership style involves taking decisions that form a direction for the company, strongly influencing its future. Some of the core questions that face leaders include: Why does the organization exist? What is its purpose? What is our goal? How will we know when we succeed? Answering these critical points requires skill, experience and a degree of wisdom combined with vision. Gut-feel leadership Practiced most frequently by those with strong survival instincts, gut-feel leadership involves reacting to situations as they unfold. This style of leadership is important when an unexpected or unplanned situation arises. However, once the situation begins to normalize, the need for this type of leadership begins to fade. Gut-led leadership is not generally required in well-organized and structured businesses.

Gut-feel leadership
Practiced most frequently by those with strong survival instincts, gut-feel leadership involves reacting to situations as they unfold. This style of leadership is important when an unexpected or unplanned situation arises. However, once the situation begins to normalize, the need for this type of leadership begins to fade. Gut-led leadership is not generally required in well-organized and structured businesses.

Intuitional leaders
These types of leaders are often associated with companies that are just starting out. Being entrepreneurs, intuitional leaders have a flair for “showmanship.” Their fire burns brightly, but it is also hot and can cause damage. The energy required to start is very different from the energy to sustain; thus, intuitional leaders are often trapped in chasing the buzz — the new and exciting — which tends to lead to an ego and loss of compassion and empathy.

Egoistical leadership
These types of leaders make everything about them. They tend to achieve this by being charming at the start, but often an air of authoritarianism kicks in. This leadership style is great in the short term, but it is destructive in the longer term. Decisions often reflect the leader’s past experiences, so if you know what they have accomplished before, you can be fairly accurate in predicting what you will get in the future.

Inspirational leadership
Inspiring leaders love to listen to everyone.
More often than not, these leaders encourage you to make the decision and to take risks, and then review the results and learn from the experience. Inspirational leaders get everyone else to take responsibility, yet master the art of remaining accountable, allowing a true spirit of self-value to emerge.

Twelve tools in the master framework
1. Will this improve our customer experience?
2. Is it a real problem?
3. Who can solve this better than me?
4. Do I need to answer this question myself,
or can another person answer it?
5. Is it a system or process that is missing or at fault?
6. Is it an issue of skill/lack of skill?
7. Do I have all the information I need?
8. Do I need to answer now?
9. Will this contribute to the growth/success of the company?
10. Will this create a no-ROI expense?
11. Would someone from outside our business take such a decision with the facts presented?
12. Can I justify this decision in court?

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