Leadership Styles: the Classics: Autocratic, Democratic, and Laissez-Faire Leadership

This book teaches you the meaning of the Autocratic Leadership style, the Democratic Leadership style, and the Laissez-Faire leadership style and opens your eyes to why you need to go beyond these leadership styles to become a truly great leader.
I will walk you through the advantages and disadvantages and general characteristics of each leadership style using my theoretical knowledge as well as lessons learned during twenty years in leadership roles. You will also learn how to use these styles effectively and why you should avoid using some of them as much as possible. On top of this, you get real-life examples of autocratic, democratic, and laissez-faire leadership situations from the author's career as a global leader.
Autocratic, Democratic, and Laissez-Faire leadership are known as the Lewin leadership styles. This book walks you through the experiments that Kurt Lewin executed, their findings, and some criticism against their report.
Several of the leadership styles Lewin defined have imprinted on subsequent research, and the concepts of Laissez-Faire leadership, Autocratic Leadership, and Democratic Leadership exist in many other models, although sometimes under different names. Regardless of the usefulness of the Lewin framework and its criticism, it has profoundly influenced the progress within leadership research, making it a good study topic for anyone with leadership ambitions.
If you are a student, want to become a manager, are an informal leader, an executive, or anything else, there will be plenty of learnings for you in this book. You will learn the following:

That leadership is way too complex to boil down into just three leadership styles

The pitfalls, problems, and strengths of autocratic, democratic, and laissez-faire leadership so that you can use them properly and limit the use of the harmful styles

That multiple leadership styles should be used, and why you should not limit yourself to the extremes

An exciting piece of leadership research history that has managed to dominate many of the present-day leadership discussions

How important it is to not rely on personal behaviors but rather to use the appropriate leadership style depending on the situation and the people involved.

Furthermore, this book provides you with:<ul class="a-unordered-list a-vertical">

In-depth understanding of autocratic, democratic, and laissez-faire leadership

An extensive information resource on the Lewin styles, based on hours of research

Insight into the often unheard and substantial criticism of the framework

Ample examples of these leadership styles from real management situations that have actually happened, something which is a bit of a rarity

An overview of the research before and after the Lewin experiments, including introductions to the findings of the Ohio State Leadership Studies and the Michigan University Leadership Studies

General recommendations on which leadership styles toolbox to use in your future leadership and why the Lewin leadership styles do not fit the job