A management style describes the particular way a manager supports employees and motivates them to achieve their goals. It shapes the interactions and power dynamics between a manager and their employees.
The right management style could mean the difference between keeping employees happy and losing them to turnover. According to a Gallup survey, 42 percent of employees who left their company within the past year said their manager or organization could have taken steps to prevent their decision.
Management styles vary, and adopting one style to use all the time doesn’t necessarily work. The best managers master a range of management styles and know how to apply them to the appropriate settings.
Common Management Styles
- Autocratic
- Paternalistic
- Democratic or Participative
- Consultative
- Transformational
- Laissez-faire
What Is a Management Style?
A management style encompasses the way team leaders, managers and executives interact with their teams and departments while setting goals, making decisions and delegating the work. And it’s not a one-size-fits-all situation.
“I tend to think of management styles as a continuum or a spectrum that is driven by a lot of contexts,” Richard Yu, chief product officer for workplace productivity company Formstack, told Built In. “These contexts can be my team, the organization, the tasks that need to be done, or tasks at hand.”
Management style differs from leadership style, Mohamed Elshenawy, executive vice president of engineering at Cruise, told Built In. Management is a position a person holds, and they can leverage that role to get action from their team. By contrast, a leader knows how to influence people and entice them to follow their vision, even if they’re merely an individual contributor and don’t hold an official position of authority.
12 Types of Management Styles
While there are a variety of management styles available to managers, below are some of the most common approaches.
Autocratic
Autocratic managers make unilateral decisions without seeking employee input and discourage unsolicited ideas and discussions. Under this style, managers may even micromanage employees and punish them for failing to follow their decisions.
An autocratic management style — also known as an authoritarian management style — may be the right management style to use in certain circumstances, said Jennifer Mueller, associate professor of management at the University of San Diego.
“It helps coordinate people quickly and you can start to see the benefits of it right away,” Mueller told Built In. “It can also make some employees feel more comfortable and confident when a leader comes in and says, ‘OK, this is what we’re going to do.’”
That said, an autocratic or authoritarian approach runs the risk of stifling employees’ growth and reducing intrinsic motivation.
Authoritative
With an authoritative style, managers may not seek feedback very often, and they tend to make the final decisions on all matters. Although an authoritative management style can save time in executing tasks — since no discussion is entertained in making decisions — over the long haul, it may hurt the manager’s ability to grow the company.
“An authority management style doesn’t work if you want to scale the organization because people won’t be happy when you do that and you will end up losing top talent,” Philippe Clavel, senior director of engineering at Roblox, told Built In.
Paternalistic
In a paternalistic approach, unilateral decisions are explained and presented in the best interest of employees, who are characterized as “family” members. Although a manager may truly have the employees’ best interest at heart when they use this management style, it could backfire on them because it may come across as condescending and also lead to a blurring of the lines between work time and family time, Yu said.
Persuasive
With this style, managers use persuasion to convince employees that their unilateral decision is the best one to follow.
A persuasive management style is what Yu adopted when he worked at a manufacturing company years ago. He found it useful when working with newer or junior team members who were looking for guidance.
“I’m not a fan of being authoritative and just telling people what to do,” Yu said, “so I tend to lean towards a persuasive management style versus authoritative.”
Democratic or Participative
A democratic — or participative — manager asks for input but still makes the final decision. Even if they don’t make the call, employees still play an active role in the discussion and decision-making process.
“A democratic leadership style is something that’s misunderstood because it doesn’t mean you’re building decisions by consensus,” Elshenawy said. “It means you’re really considering the strength and input from everyone else who you’re working with.”
Atish Das Sarma, head of growth engineering at Patreon, uses a participative management style because it gives employees a chance to be heard and weigh in on the decision-making process.
“We have a democratic approach, but then we have the clear decision-makers — me and the chief product officer move ahead with a plan, even if it leads to some disagreement on the teams,” Das Sarma told Built In.
Consultative
When following a consultative management style, managers solicit information, then mull it over before making a decision. Consultative managers constantly seek feedback and often take on a mentor role, encouraging employees to share insights that can inform their decision-making.
Elon Musk and the late Steve Jobs use a consultative management style, soliciting ideas from others and then melding them into actionable ideas.
“They would act like an orchestra conductor, going from one group to another but synthesizing it for themselves,” Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, senior associate dean of leadership programs and a professor at the Yale School of Management, told Built In. This allows them to reap the benefits of gathering the wisdom of others while maintaining quick decision-making.
Collaborative
According to a collaborative management style, a decision is made based on the majority view of the group after it holds discussions. Collaborative managers not only solicit input from employees across departments, but they also feel comfortable letting others take on leadership roles when making important decisions.
Clavel first learned this management style as a senior engineer at a wireless entertainment company. The CTO asked Clavel to gain consensus from a team of employees on how to launch Guitar Hero on mobile. He learned to listen to all arguments, aggregate the information and present it to the group — all while keeping an eye on the calendar for when the company needed to launch the product.
Transformational
Transformational managers push employees past their comfort zone to achieve new ideas, processes or goals. These managers strive to create a culture that centers around adaptability and innovation.
As the head of Apple’s cloud machine learning, Das Sarma used this type of management style to his advantage. Half of his team were machine learning engineers; the other half were data scientists. To maximize the impact on Apple, he would tell the ML engineers and data scientists to consider the challenges that software engineers faced and try to walk in the shoes of a software engineer.
Coaching
Employee growth is a top priority for coaching managers. A coaching management style encourages leaders to evaluate employees’ strengths and weaknesses, so they can provide personalized training and professional development to help individuals become top performers.
When Clavel joined Roblox, the team was small and he realized he could not hire the 40 people he needed on his own within an 18-month period. So, he coached his managers on what to look for in each job candidate, he added. Today, Roblox’s engineering team has grown by hundreds of people over the past few years.
Laissez-Faire
Laissez-faire managers give control of decision-making and problem-solving to employees. Embracing a hands-off approach, these types of managers give employees full autonomy to make decisions on their own.
A laissez-faire management style makes sense when you’re working with a group of people who do not have a lot of interdependence among themselves, Sonnenfeld said.
Delegative
Following a delegative management style, a manager assigns a task and reviews it at the end to provide feedback, allowing the employee to pursue the task as they see fit.
Yu, for example, favors a delegative style once his team is high-functioning.
“I’m a fan of empowering them to make their own decisions and take the actions they feel are needed,” Yu said. “Giving them a lot of empowerment helps build a lot of trust.”
At the same time, it’s key to remain aware of tasks and projects and offer timely support. If you’re too hands-off and not providing enough value to your direct reports, they may begin to resent you.
“People resent someone who’s not working and adding value, especially if they are in a supervisory role,” Sonnenfeld said. “They’ll start wondering why they have you in a corner suite that could be used as a meeting room or lunchroom.”
Visionary
A visionary manager inspires employees to move toward the goal they outline but leaves it up to the employees to execute the vision. As a result, a visionary management style places the emphasis on broader goals, letting employees decide how to go about their day-to-day tasks to accomplish those goals.
But a visionary management style can sometimes be teamed with a less desirable management practice, Yu warned.
“Visionary managers and leaders can inspire others with their big vision, but may be short on details,” Yu said. “So, on the flip side, they may also be authoritative in terms of telling you how to deliver on their vision.”
Management Styles to Avoid
In addition to embracing healthy management styles, effective leaders avoid the following management styles that contribute to toxic workplaces.
Threatening Behavior
Threatening behavior is a management style that should be avoided at all costs. This can take the form of managers pitting employees against each other under the guise of fostering competition or yelling at employees for making mistakes.
Humiliation Tactics
Humiliation is another ineffective management style. In the workplace, this might look like publicly silencing an employee or singling out employees with criticisms during team meetings and in the company Slack channel.
Overly Optimistic Outlook
Management styles that exude overly optimistic forecasts that border on white lies should also be avoided at all costs. There’s a delicate balance between painting an optimistic scenario to inspire the team and providing a realistic assessment of what you are trying to achieve, Das Sarma said.
Future of Management Styles in the Workplace
The workplace is constantly evolving, so managers must adapt as well to be successful. While it’s difficult to say how work will continue to change over the years, there are trends that hint at traits managers will need to be effective leaders moving forward.
Increased Openness to Collaboration and Delegation
Self-organizing teams and autonomous teams will become increasingly common in the workplace, forcing supervisors to adopt management styles that do away with a siloed approach where you are the only one managing your team, Yu said.
Inclusive Leadership for Remote and Hybrid Workers
More options for hybrid models and remote work means managers must adopt new management styles or ramp up aspects of their existing style.
For Clavel, he is making a proactive effort to expand the inclusiveness he uses in his management style.
Greater Compassion for Employees
Flexible work situations have given employees opportunities to work outside of the city where their employer is located. As a result, managers need to be more willing to work with their employees and accommodate their individual circumstances to retain them.
Emphasis on Communication and Transparency
With workers distributed across multiple offices and enjoying more remote and hybrid work models, managers must communicate their goals, visions and expectations. Even if managers make the final call, they still need to take time to explain their decisions and maintain a high level of transparency with their employees.
“It’s more important than ever before to articulate vision, set priorities, and build trust as employees become increasingly hybrid or remote,” Priyanka Carr, chief operating officer at Momentive (now part of Symphony Technology Group), told Built In. “People have a lot more choice in how they work, where they work and who they choose to work with. Managers need to adapt.”
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the four basic management styles?
The four basic management styles are autocratic, democratic, laissez-faire and paternalistic.
What's the best management style?
The best type of management style often depends on the company and particular scenario. However, a management style that is often effective is democratic, which allows for feedback from employees but still gives the manager the power to make the final call.
What is an ineffective management style?
An autocratic or authoritarian management style is ineffective because it often results in managers micromanaging their employees. This undermines trust and employee growth, contributing to a toxic work environment.
