Discover Your Leadership Style: Understanding Daniel Goleman’s Six Leadership Approaches
Picture this: You’re leading a team through a critical project deadline when a key team member raises concerns about the approach. Do you stick to your plan and direct them to follow it, pause to gather everyone’s input, or take time to coach them through their concerns? The answer might seem obvious, but here’s what’s interesting—there isn’t just one right answer.
This scenario illustrates why Daniel Goleman’s research into leadership styles has become so influential in executive development. His groundbreaking work revealed that the most effective leaders don’t rely on a single leadership approach; instead, they master multiple styles and know when to use each one.
If you’ve ever wondered why your leadership approach works brilliantly in some situations but falls flat in others, or why certain team members respond well to your style whilst others seem disengaged, Goleman’s framework provides fascinating insights.
The Foundation: Emotional Intelligence Meets Leadership
Daniel Goleman, a psychologist and science journalist, revolutionised our understanding of leadership through his research into emotional intelligence. His work with Hay Group studied over 3,000 executives and identified six distinct leadership styles, each rooted in different aspects of emotional intelligence.
What makes Goleman’s approach particularly valuable is that it’s based on measurable outcomes. His research didn’t just categorise different ways of leading—it demonstrated the actual impact each style has on organisational climate, team performance, and business results.
The key insight from his research? Leaders who master four or more styles, especially visionary, democratic, affiliative, and coaching, significantly outperform those who rely on just one or two approaches. This flexibility—what we call “leadership agility”—becomes increasingly crucial as you advance in your career.
The Six Leadership Styles Explained
Goleman identified six leadership styles, each with its own strengths, weaknesses, and optimal use cases:
The Commanding Style (“Do what I tell you”) focuses on immediate compliance through clear direction and tight control. Whilst often criticised in modern leadership, this style has its place in crisis situations or when dealing with problematic team members.
The Visionary Style (“Come with me”) mobilises people towards a shared vision. Leaders using this style provide long-term direction whilst giving people freedom in how they achieve goals. Research shows this style most positively impacts organisational climate.
The Affiliative Style (“People come first”) emphasises building emotional bonds and harmony. These leaders prioritise team relationships and are particularly effective at healing rifts or motivating teams during stressful periods.
The Democratic Style (“What do you think?”) builds consensus through participation. Democratic leaders value team input and use collaborative decision-making processes, making this style particularly effective when you need buy-in or are working with highly skilled teams.
The Pacesetting Style (“Do as I do, now”) sets high performance standards and leads by example. Pacesetting leaders expect excellence and self-direction from team members, which can drive high performance but may overwhelm less experienced staff.
The Coaching Style (“What’s your goal?”) focuses on developing people for the future. Coaching leaders help team members identify strengths, weaknesses, and development goals, making this style invaluable for long-term talent development.
Why Leadership Style Flexibility Matters
In today’s complex business environment, successful leaders regularly navigate situations requiring different approaches. Consider a typical week for a senior executive:
Monday might require authoritative leadership when presenting a new strategic direction to the board. Tuesday could call for democratic decision-making when working with department heads to solve a complex operational challenge. By Wednesday, you might need coaching skills to help a struggling team member, whilst Thursday’s crisis could demand commanding leadership to ensure immediate action.
Research consistently shows that inflexible leaders—those who rely on one or two styles regardless of context—limit their effectiveness and often create dysfunction within their teams. Conversely, leaders who can diagnose situations accurately and adjust their style accordingly create more positive organisational climates, achieve better results, and develop stronger, more capable teams.
The Business Impact
Goleman’s research revealed significant differences in how each leadership style affects organisational climate and performance. The most positive styles (visionary, democratic, affiliative, and coaching) improve team morale, clarity, and commitment. The more demanding styles (commanding and pacesetting), whilst sometimes necessary, can negatively impact climate if overused.
This has profound implications for your leadership development. Understanding your natural tendencies—the styles you default to under pressure—is the first step towards building the flexibility that distinguishes exceptional leaders from merely competent ones.
Discovering Your Leadership Style Profile
Self-awareness forms the foundation of leadership development. Most leaders have one or two dominant styles they naturally gravitate towards, often based on their personality, experience, and what’s worked for them in the past. However, these preferred styles might not always serve you or your team effectively.
Our comprehensive leadership styles assessment helps you understand your natural preferences, identify which styles you use most frequently, and reveal areas where developing additional flexibility could enhance your effectiveness.
The quiz takes just 10 minutes to complete and provides immediate insights into your leadership style profile. You’ll discover not just your dominant styles, but also understand when and why different approaches might be more effective.
Take our free Leadership Styles Quiz here to discover your leadership profile and receive personalised insights about your natural tendencies and development opportunities.
Developing Your Leadership Repertoire
Once you understand your current style preferences, the real development work begins. Building competency in new leadership styles isn’t about changing your personality—it’s about expanding your toolkit and developing situational awareness.
Some leaders find it natural to be democratic and inclusive but struggle with the commanding direction sometimes needed in crisis situations. Others excel at pacesetting and driving high performance but need to develop coaching skills to help team members grow. Still others are naturally affiliative and relationship-focused but need to build visionary capabilities to provide clearer direction.
The most effective development approach combines three elements: understanding the theoretical framework, practising new behaviours in low-risk situations, and receiving feedback on your leadership impact.
Our executive coaching programmes specifically address leadership style development, helping senior leaders build the flexibility and situational awareness that distinguishes truly exceptional leadership.
The Journey Ahead
Understanding Goleman’s leadership styles is just the beginning. The real value comes from developing the ability to consciously choose your approach based on the situation, your team’s needs, and the outcomes you’re trying to achieve.
In future articles we’ll explore each leadership style in detail, examining when to use each approach, what it looks like in practice, and how to develop competency in styles that don’t come naturally to you.
Whether you’re a seasoned executive looking to enhance your leadership effectiveness or an emerging leader wanting to build a strong foundation, understanding and developing flexibility across all six styles will significantly impact your ability to lead successfully in complex, dynamic environments.
Start your journey by taking our leadership styles assessment, then dive deeper into understanding how each approach can serve your leadership development and organisational success.
Conclusion
Leadership isn’t about finding the one right way to lead—it’s about developing the wisdom to know which approach serves each unique situation. Goleman’s six leadership styles provide a practical framework for building this crucial leadership capability.
The question isn’t which style is best; it’s whether you have the flexibility and awareness to lead effectively regardless of what each situation demands. Your leadership style assessment results will be the first step in building this essential capability.
