LEADERSHIP STYLES

Management consultants Charles Farkas and Phillipe DeBacker say that there
are five distinct leadership styles, each of which gives primary emphasis
to a different value:  strategy, people, expertise, procedures, or change. 

* The "strategic approach" is used when the chief executive is also the
organization's visionary, providing a map for the future. 
 
* The people or "human assets approach" concentrates on developing eamwork, 
building leaders, and empowering employees.
  
* The "expertise approach" focuses the organization by championing a specific 
proprietary expertise. 
 
*The "box approach" manages the organization through well-defined rules, 
systems, and procedures that seek to give it strength and invincibility. 
 
* The "change approach" allows the chief executive to act as an agent of radical 
change, forcing the organization to remain flexible.  

Which is best?  What ever works ... at a given time and a given set of 
circumstances. But times and circumstances change.  Digital Equipment 
Corporation, which became enormously successful based on its expertise, 
floundered when it lost touch with changing markets, and started its recovery only 
when it stopped acting as though it knew what its customers wanted better than 
they did.  

(Charles M. Farkas & Philippe DeBacker, "Maximum Leadership," Henry Holt & 
Co. 1996)