In recent decades, new business theories have focused on the need for leaders to manage companies, as opposed to the traditional idea of a manager, boss, or entrepreneur. These theories can be learned in a Professional Master’s Degree Executive MBA because they explain the main axis of leadership and management, which are not always related, and highlight the figure of the leader and the benefits it has for the company compared to other profiles.

The business leader is an essential figure for the survival of any organization thanks to the skills to help to grow the company, and the possibility of achieving goals and business success through the ability to influence a group, guiding, and directing them.

Types of business leadership

There exist distinctive types of leadership, diverse ways of exercising it, each of them with specific characteristics which influence the type of relationships set up in the work environment, as well as being a decisive factor in achieving business aims. Currently, we can talk about 5 types of leadership.

In the first instance, we can find three classic and representative leadership styles:

1. Autocratic leadership: This class of leaders is recognized for being authoritarian, likes to be in control and does not usually take other opinions into account. It generates a well-organized work environment and allows quick decision-making; however, this kind of behavior usually creates a tense and nonparticipator work environment.
2. Democratic leadership: They consider other opinions; it is participatory and offers the opportunity to have a broader point of view before making decisions. It generates a positive, participative, and collaborative work environment, but in some situations can be negative for the company due to the need to consult decisions first.
3. ’Laissez-faire’ leadership: This expression comes from French and means “let do’’, this leader let their employees do their work without control and designed responsibilities. It can contribute to supplying a decent work environment because they have freedom and autonomy, however, without sufficient control and support it creates conflicts.

In the second instance, there are two new concepts used today:

• Transactional leadership: This one focuses on the role of supervision, organization, and the whole performance of the group through prizes and punishments to reward responses offered.
• Transformational leadership: It is one of the most complete types of business leaders that exist. This kind of leader is democratic when making decisions and implementing them, trusts in the autonomy of collaborators and, although he does not exercise authority like an autocratic leader, is aware of the role and of the need to centralize some actions and to delegate others.

Skills you must develop to be a leader

Personal skills are necessary to be a good leader, they can be learned and developed to achieve best practices within a company. There are some introspective aspects that leaders should internalize to improve those abilities.

• Self-knowledge is the key to success, you must know yourself, how you are, your virtues and defects, your abilities, and your weaknesses. According to it, an improvement plan can be found, set your goals, and boost your skills that will help to be a good leader and human.
• Having a positive attitude and being optimistic is essential to overcome daily challenges. The good vibes influence how you perceive adversity and likewise, the people around you will have the same enthusiasm.
• Boosting your communication skills is the principal factor to have in mind to effective business activity, in addition to active listening will be helpful to practice assertiveness.
• Strengthening your resolution ability is necessary for decision making, searching for solutions, negotiating ability and your conflict resolution skills will be improved.
• Teamwork is important to offer trust in collaborators, have other opinions and ideas, encourage participation to improve processes and achieve company aims.
• And the last point, but not less important, you must keep updated about your profession, get new knowledge about the latest developments and strategies, and discover new methods.

Strategies and values of leadership to improve your role

Business leadership is something that can be enhanced within an organization and implementing best practices can help evolve towards a more effective, and influential leadership model as a permanent goal. Bearing in mind the skills and the diverse types of leaders you should identify, here are some strategies you should consider to reflect the role of a good leader:

1. Emotional balance that supports decisions. It is important to keep the figure of a stable leader.
2. Be a reference of responsibility and excellent work, in this way people will take it as an example to replicate.
3. Motivation is an excellent opportunity to enhance this figure and influence collaborators to generate change.
4. Have criteria following justice and balance on the results received.
5. Establishing a more direct relationship with the people who make up the work teams will help identify you as a figure they can count on.
6. Set goals that are realistic and achievable, the decisions that are made must be based on a high sense of knowledge and responsibility so that they are workable.

However, these strategies are useless if you do not have the most important thing: human quality and credibility. Therefore, having set up values such as ethics, ability, courage to face different situations, consideration, serenity, conviction, strategic vision and adaptation, strategic values, investment in talent, and disciplined and relentless execution will help to carry out the previously exposed information about best practices to be a good leader.

In conclusion, leadership strategies are shaped over the years and are based on experience. Due to this fact, business schools place great emphasis on the need to develop this ability to ensure good management and administration of companies.

With all the above, the leader is not born a leader, they are made and trained to become one, being clear is not enough to be able to motivate, they must be empathetic, train and connect with the members of their team to be successful.