Be critical about this and any thought that could be taken into 'boxing people' kind of conclusion/thinking.This is just a conversation starter. A question, not an answer.
Leadership styles
We read about studies/research etc on leadership styles. A recent Harvard post lists the following: Autocratic, Bureaucratic, Coaching, Democratic, Laissez-faire, Pacesetter, Servant, Visionary.
But leaders lead other people, who must select for and flourish or despair with the different leadership styles.
So what are these attributes, behaviours and change potential on the other end?
Employee-ship styles
For the lack of a better term, I’ll call it employee-ship styles, since leaders often lead employees, and employees follow and report to leaders.
The following is an initial set of employee-ship styles that I could gather from a quick reflection on all observations and experience I've had so far:
Mandating: demands and challenges decisions, but make very few themselves. Often happy to provide input, do research and share an opinion on anything.
Mobile / Piggybacking: can move between teams, domains etc quietly and happily with little to no damage on their own performance, but sometimes equally mobile in the market (easy to churn).
Change Agent / Autonomous: high outcome, critical, manager of one, very allergic to micro management and management BS in general, but can handle it fine for a while.
Grinding (on the grind): high output and have simple incentive formula (typically it's one thing: remuneration, recognition etc).
These styles are derived based on the following dimensions:
Level of clarity of employee's understanding of the big picture, their role in it and their own personal growth and expectations: implicit to explicit.
Level of decision making driving capability of employee's own work and their influence on decision making of others' work: passive to proactive.
Level of belonging/commitment that ranges from a passerby to a "like-family".
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Questions to go further
Is there a key 3rd (or even 4th) dimension missing that might uncover other significantly different styles? (e.g. Commitment: missionary vs. mercenary, or Leadership potential: IC vs. Manager, or Success focus: personal development vs. company/team mission)
(has been incorporated) From feedback: one likely equally important dimension is 'sense of belonging' or 'commitment' or 'loyalty'. This can vary from 'make it home' to 'passerby'.Some styles that might emerge along that dimension in combination with the others:
Harmonious: family belonging and implicit/passive
Change agent: family belonging and explicit/proactive
Piggybacking: passerby, implicit and passive
How do typical leadership styles map onto employee-ship styles in terms as a good/bad fit?