Behavioral Leadership Theory and Leadership Styles: A Practical Guide for Today’s Leaders
Blog Updated on July 3, 2025.
Technological and societal shifts have always presented challenges for leaders, but in the 21st century, the world is changing faster than ever. According to McKinsey & Company, leaders a decade ago only had to manage four or five “critical issues” at once. Today, leaders face double that.
Effective leadership enables individuals, teams and organizations to thrive through change. Yet, perspectives vary widely on what makes an effective leader. This blog post explains behavioral leadership theory, one approach to developing effective leadership.
Keep reading to learn about the relationship between behavior and leadership effectiveness, plus the pros and cons of various leadership styles. You will also explore how formal education can provide aspiring leaders with the advanced preparation needed for a successful leadership career.
What Is Behavioral Leadership Theory?
Behavioral leadership theory attempts to explain how people become leaders and what makes leaders effective. It suggests that successful leaders learn and adopt specific behaviors rather than having any inborn traits of effective leadership.
Behavioral leadership theory categorizes leadership behaviors as task-oriented and people-oriented:
- Task-oriented leadership behaviors help accomplish tasks. They aim to improve the commitment and participation of team members, clarify roles and allocate resources.
- People-oriented leadership behaviors facilitate interaction among team members, aiming to satisfy team members’ emotional needs and create a respectful, positive working environment.
Both types of leadership behaviors are effective in the right scenarios and contribute to a well-rounded leadership style.
What Are the Pros and Cons of Behavioral Leadership Theory?
Behavioral leadership theory has its strengths and weaknesses, just like all leadership development theories. The advance of this theory is that all people can become more effective leaders by learning and adapting their behavior to meet the needs of various organizational scenarios. However, knowing which behaviors to apply and when can be challenging.
Flexibility
Behavioral leadership theory is one of the more flexible approaches to leadership. It asserts that leadership effectiveness depends on behavior, so leaders can change their behaviors to lead more effectively.
For example, an organizational leader may find that the behaviors effective in managing a small business are less so in a large international organization. A leader who oversees an entirely remote workforce may need to behave differently than one who manages in person.
The downside of this flexibility is that knowing which leadership styles to follow can be challenging. There are no written rules, and few scenarios have one ideal leadership style.
Attainability
Another advantage of behavioral leadership theory is that it assumes anyone can learn and replicate the behaviors of effective leaders. Hypothetically, anyone can become a successful leader if successful leaders are developed and not born.
In practice, becoming an effective leader may be more complex. Someone could learn the “right” behaviors for effective leadership in a given scenario but not enact them effectively. Or they may not choose the proper behaviors for the circumstances.
Effective leadership takes awareness of leadership styles and when to apply them.
What Are the Different Leadership Styles?
When organizational leaders begin to understand the full spectrum of leadership styles, they can choose the most effective approach for any situation, team or goal. The twelve styles that follow represent a sample of the many options, each with distinct strengths and weaknesses that influence organizational efficiency and effectiveness.
1. Authoritarian Leadership
Authoritarian leaders exert a high level of control, often limiting others’ autonomy and self-determination. They tend to prioritize compliance and results over emotional awareness.
An authoritarian leader may:
- Demand that others meet high standards
- Reprimand others for underperformance
- Make decisions with little input from others
- Set non-negotiable goals, rules and expectations
A systematic literature review concluded that authoritarian leadership is one of the least effective leadership styles. It’s associated with adverse outcomes like poor work climate and team performance.
However, authoritarian leadership has been shown to positively influence team performance in stressful environments where quick decision-making and strict compliance are essential—such as crisis management, emergency response or military operations.
2. Laissez-faire Leadership
“Laissez-faire” is a French phrase meaning “allow to do.” Laissez-faire leaders are hands-off in that they allow and encourage others to work autonomously. This style is the opposite of authoritarian leadership.
The behaviors associated with laissez-faire leaders can include:
- Establishing few rules and policies
- Providing guidance only when requested
- Monitoring performance from a distance
A laissez-faire approach can build trust, often leading to high job satisfaction. But it can also reduce productivity if team members lack self-motivation, direction or time management skills.
3. Pacesetting Leadership
Pacesetting leaders drive performance by demanding excellence of themselves and others. Their main goal is to achieve results more efficiently and effectively, often modeling the pace and intensity they expect from team members.
Pacesetting leadership behaviors can include:
- Leading by example, often working faster than others
- Taking over tasks when others don’t meet their expectations
- Expecting self-motivation and independence from others
- Prioritizing results over team morale
- Providing minimal guidance
This leadership style can help maximize team potential in achieving short-term goals. But the relentless pressure to perform to high standards, lack of support and limited room for error can become stressful for team members.
4. Democratic Leadership
Leaders with a democratic approach actively involve others, allowing everyone to participate in task completion and the decision-making process.
Democratic leaders can exhibit the following behaviors:
- Seeking out and considering others’ input
- Engaging in two-way communication
- Fostering collaboration and teamwork
- Delegating responsibility
- Recognizing individual contributions
The inclusive approach to democratic leadership can improve team members’ job satisfaction, productivity and motivation. However, democratic leadership can also be inefficient because ensuring broad participation takes time.
5. Affiliative Leadership
Affiliative leadership is about happiness and harmony. Affiliative leaders prioritize people over processes to build strong, collaborative relationships among team members.
A leader with an affiliative style:
- Ensures the emotional well-being of others
- Shows empathy and care
- Seeks meaningful conflict resolution and team bonding
- Provides regular praise and recognition
- Listens intently to feedback from others
Research shows that affiliative leadership can strengthen team communication. It may also improve a team’s ability to adapt to change because it avoids unnecessary restrictions. However, affiliative leaders may sometimes overlook problematic behavior or underperformance to maintain harmony.
6. Coaching Leadership
Coaching leadership focuses on developing others while ensuring they feel heard, seen and valued. Leaders who use this style align team members’ personal goals with organizational objectives, offering guidance and support to help others reach their full potential.
Leaders with a coaching style:
- Encourage self-reflection and accountability
- Align others’ roles with their strengths and weaknesses
- Celebrate progress as well as results
- Empower others to learn through their mistakes
- Provide constructive feedback
The characteristics of coaching leadership can improve team members’ job satisfaction, productivity and ethical behavior. This style may be less effective in fast-paced environments, as individualized coaching can take too much time.
7. Visionary Leadership
Visionary leaders inspire and guide others toward a compelling long-term vision. They set the direction and mentor team members as they work together toward shared goals.
Key behaviors of leaders who use this style are:
- Guiding team efforts through a shared sense of purpose
- Motivating through inspiration rather than control
- Supporting individual growth and development
- Maintaining confidence and clarity
- Connecting daily work to long-term goals
Visionary leadership can foster high engagement by aligning individual efforts with a shared sense of purpose. At the same time, it can lead to micromanagement if leaders become too involved in execution, which some team members may find overbearing.
8. Strategic Leadership
Strategic leaders bridge present demands with future needs. They steer organizations toward long-term goals while managing short-term performance and responding to evolving challenges and opportunities.
Strategic leadership relies on these behaviors:
- Aligning short-term decisions with long-term goals
- Anticipating challenges and opportunities
- Encouraging a collaborative and data-driven decision-making process
- Clearly articulating the vision, goals and directives
- Resolving conflicts and fostering teamwork
By managing both high-level vision and daily operations, this leadership style promotes organizational alignment and immediate results. Achieving this balance takes a blend of analytical and interpersonal skills—capabilities that leaders must cultivate intentionally.
9. Emergent Leadership
Emergent leadership arises when peers recognize a team member as a leader based on their skills, knowledge, expertise or behavior. Unlike formal leadership styles, it allows leaders to emerge organically rather than being appointed. Emergent leaders embody a variety of leadership styles because context and individual traits shape how they rise into leadership.
This approach can foster a collaborative culture by reducing reliance on top-down authority. It can also expedite decision-making and execution because there is no team hierarchy. Yet without clearly defined leadership roles or expectations, teams may face confusion, conflict or challenges with accountability.
10. Bureaucratic Leadership
Bureaucratic leaders operate within rigid hierarchies and expect strict compliance with established rules and processes. They tend to prioritize control, consistency and predictability.
Their behaviors can include:
- Making decisions based on formal procedures and hierarchy
- Relying on job descriptions and organizational charts
- Emphasizing compliance over collaboration
- Communicating impersonally
- Avoiding risk
Because bureaucratic leaders rely on a fixed decision-making process, they can stifle progress, flexibility and creativity. Still, bureaucratic leadership can be effective in settings where compliance and safety are top priorities, like healthcare and manufacturing.
11. Transformational Leadership
Transformational leaders are change agents who inspire others to create meaningful change and achieve more than they thought possible. Rather than micromanaging, they empower others to take ownership of creative problem-solving and drive progress within their roles.
The key behaviors of transformational leaders are:
- Communicating a compelling vision
- Challenging long-standing organizational beliefs or processes
- Encouraging accountability, innovation and experimentation
- Fostering trust and loyalty through strong interpersonal relationships
- Modeling adaptability and creativity
Transformational leadership is effective in environments that demand growth and progress, such as startups and technology companies. But in settings where predictability is paramount, this style can create disruption.
12. Transactional Leadership
The opposite of transformational leadership is transactional leadership. While transformational leaders inspire and motivate change, transactional leaders focus on task completion through structure, rules and performance-based rewards. Both styles can create effective leadership.
The behaviors of transactional leaders include:
- Setting clear rules and expectations
- Closely monitoring others’ performance to ensure compliance
- Rewarding and disciplining others for their performance
- Managing structured workflows
- Emphasizing efficiency over innovation
Transactional leadership can drive high-quality, timely task completion. It also encourages fairness by ensuring all team members are held to the same standards. But the focus on following specific rules and procedures can stifle innovation.
What Behaviors Are Associated with Effective Leadership?
Leadership styles have distinct behavior patterns that can be more or less effective depending on the circumstances. However, certain behaviors transcend leadership styles. Research shows a consensus that ethical reasoning, clear communication and innovative thinking all contribute to effective leadership.
Ethical Reasoning
The percentage of employees who reported working in a strongly ethical culture declined from 45% in 2020 to 40% in 2023. That’s according to the most recent ECI Global Business Ethics Survey® U.S. Trends Report on the State of Ethics & Compliance in the Workplace.
This decline underscores the critical role of ethical leadership in shaping workplace culture. Effective leaders practice ethical reasoning—demonstrating and encouraging honest, civic-minded and justice-oriented behavior. In doing so, they build trust and help ensure decision-making minimizes harm.
Effective Communication
Strong communication improves leadership success by clarifying expectations, building consensus and increasing engagement.
Gallup research supports this, showing that in today’s remote and hybrid work environments, effective leaders hold one meaningful conversation with each employee every week.
Leaders who communicate well also demonstrate logical reasoning and convey ideas accurately and appropriately, even in complex or cross-cultural contexts.
Innovative Thinking
Increasingly competitive markets call for leaders with an innovative mindset. In a recent global survey by McKinsey & Company, respondents identified innovation as the most important strategic driver of growth over the next 12 months.
Leaders who practice creative thinking can help organizations foster a culture of innovation at every level. Shifting paradigms takes not only new ideas but the ability to apply new perspectives and methods to complex challenges.
Dive deeper into 10 characteristics of effective leaders.
How to Develop Your Leadership Style Through Education
Leadership styles develop over time through life experiences, training and formal education. For professionals seeking to accelerate their leadership success, earning a Doctor of Education (EdD) in Leadership is a powerful way to refine your leadership skills.
EdD programs offer a terminal degree in leadership, combining theory with practice to help professionals lead effectively across diverse settings. Whether in business, education, social services or the arts, professionals in public, private and nonprofit sectors can benefit from this advanced education.
For example, Spalding University offers an online EdD in Leadership for current and future leaders who want to affect meaningful change across career paths. Students gain a fresh perspective on being transformative leaders, evolving their leadership approach and implementing what they learn in their workplace in real time.
Inspire Change with an EdD in Leadership from Spalding University
Do you want to inspire transformation in your workplace and community? If so, Spalding’s online EdD in Leadership program can help develop the leadership skills to amplify your influence. As a student, you will grow as a strategic and ethical leader, an extraordinary team builder, a systems thinker and a driver of change and innovation in a global economy.
Spalding’s accredited online EdD program allows you to earn your terminal degree while continuing to work full-time. You will benefit from:
- Flexibility: Complete your coursework fully online with no residency required.
- Accelerated Courses: Focus on one course at a time and graduate in two years.
- Capstone Research Study: Analyze, write and defend original research related to your passion.
Spalding supports you wherever you are in your leadership journey. Connect with an enrollment advisor to get started.
