Here is a good, brief summary over at the Wall Street Journal of six different leadership styles, as summarized by Daniel Goleman (author of Emotional Intelligence and Primal Leadership: Learning to Lead with Emotional Intelligence). The six styles are:
- Visionary
- Coaching
- Affiliative
- Democratic
- Pacesetting
- Commanding
“The most effective leaders can move among these styles, adopting the one that meets the needs of the moment.” However, some of the styles need to be used very sparingly.
I think that these six styles probably do not capture the full range of useful leadership styles, but this is a helpful initial context.