Are you leaning into your leadership strengths?

June 6, 2025

Leadership can seem like a nebulous concept, and it’s sometimes used interchangeably with management — but it’s not just for top-level positions. 

Anyone can be a leader for their organization, and everybody has different strengths that help them guide the direction and efficiency of their team. 

Some of the most commonly recognized leadership style frameworks include Lewin’s Leadership Styles, the six emotional leadership styles and transactional vs. transformational leadership.  

The styles they encompass go by many names and may overlap — and most people use a combination of them throughout any given week. So don’t worry if you don’t come away with a singular label for your leadership style: You won’t be sticking to just one for the rest of your career! 

The goal of exploring your leadership style is simply to identify where your innate strengths lie and how to use them with purpose. 

Which of these feel like a natural fit for your personality and position within your organization? 

Lewin’s Leadership Styles 

  • Authoritarian (Autocratic) leaders: Make decisions independently and maintains firm control, often best applied in time-sensitive situations or when high expertise is required. 

  • Participative (Democratic) leaders: Actively involve their team in decision-making, promoting collaboration, consensus and collective ownership of the results. 

  • Delegative (Laissez-faire) leaders: Offer minimal guidance and allow full autonomy that works best with a team of highly skilled, self-motivated individuals. 

Emotional Leadership Styles 

  • Visionary leaders: Inspire others by communicating a strong long-term direction, especially helpful in times of major change or uncertainty. 

  • Coaching leaders: Focus on developing team members’ strengths and tying personal and professional growth to company goals. 

  • Affiliative leaders: Live by the mantra “people first.” Prioritize harmony, strong team bonds, celebrating accomplishments and developing a positive work environment. 

  • Democratic leaders: Seek input and build consensus before making decisions; team-oriented problem-solvers who excel in fostering engagement and a culture of transparency. 

  • Pacesetting leaders: Set high standards through example and expect others to keep up, which can drive quick results but risk burnout or a lack of delegating that causes overreliance on the leader’s contributions. 

  • Commanding leaders: Give clear direction and expect compliance; provide important role clarity in crises but potentially detrimental to morale if overused. 

Transformational vs. Transactional Leadership 

  • Transformational leaders: Create purpose and meaning for a team, lead by example, attend to individuals’ needs and growth and encourage creativity and risk-taking that serves the greater vision of the future. 

  • Transactional leaders: Specify expectations and hold employees accountable, operating through structure, rewards and discipline; task-oriented and focused on performance and efficiency. 

Find how you lead 

Start by reflecting on your values and natural tendencies. Are you more focused on big-picture vision or day-to-day details? Do you lead through relationships and collaboration, or clarity and structure? What do people consistently look to you for — reliable feedback, a listening ear for serious consideration of their ideas? How do you motivate others? 

Leadership assessments (like those from MindTools, Idealist and Leadership IQ) can offer helpful insights, and many of them are free and take only a few minutes. 

You can also ask your colleagues, mentors and direct reports who have direct experience with your leadership qualities. 

Context is everything 

Being adaptable is a hallmark of a great leader. Sometimes, what worked in one environment doesn’t translate to another. 

Self-awareness is key. When you understand your natural style and how others respond to it, you can lead more intentionally and spot when your default approach may need adjusting. 

The most effective leaders don’t just lead how they prefer but rather in ways that best serve their people and purpose. 

Learn from Beaver community leaders 

Check out our latest Ask Alumni webcast — available to watch on demand — to learn about becoming an inclusive and transformational leader capable of implementing lasting change. Our guest speaker, Marcia Torres, ’01, is herself a dynamic leader in the Oregon State community, serving on the OSU Alumni Association Board of Directors and the leadership council for Vamos OSU Alumni Network. Watch “Building Inclusive Excellence Into Everyday Work: From Transactional to Transformational.”