There are many types of leadership model. Below is the one I find most useful for discerning the kind of leaders I am working with. Leadership can move through each of these categories, depending on the situation, but usually a leader belongs primarily to one of these five categories.
Noninterventionist Leadership
A noninterventionist leader does not apply direct supervision to managers or employees, and rarely provides regular feedback to those under his/her supervision. Such a leadership style is successful only if the leader’s team comprises highly experienced and trained managers and employees, with a strong track record of success, professionals who require little supervision. In dentistry, few of the leader’s managers and employees possess these desirable characteristics. In my experience, noninterventional leadership is rare in dentistry, except at the most senior levels of a few large group practices and DSOs.
Dictatorial Leadership
This type of leadership allows managers and employees to make decisions unassisted, without the input of others. It is a straight, vertical chain with no horizontal components. With this leadership type (leader at the top), senior managers possess total authority and impose their will on employees. No one challenges the leader’s decisions. This leadership model helps employees who require close supervision since they are always told what to do. Although creative employees detest this leadership style and leave, it is not uncommon in many smaller group practices run by autocrats – benevolent dictators, who always put themselves at the top.
Participatory Leadership
A kind of democratic leadership type that values the input of team members, but vests responsibility for making final decisions in the leader. Participatory leadership boosts employee morale because employees are encouraged to contribute to the decision-making process. This causes employees to feel as if their opinions matter. When a company needs to make changes within the organization, the participatory leadership style helps employees accept changes easily because they play a role in the process.
Although most leaders in dentistry would say this is their leadership style, if closely examined, it is not. Usually, they have their strategy, their tactics, and goals already set in mind and do not let the managers determine what strategies or tactics should be used. They are much more “domineering” than they think.
Transactional Leadership
Such leaders define certain tasks to be performed and reward or punish team members based on performance results. Leaders and team members set predetermined goals together, and employees agree to follow the direction of the leader to accomplish those goals. The leader has the power to review results and train or correct employees when they fail to meet goals. Employees receive rewards, such as bonuses, when they accomplish goals. This is by far the most common leadership type in group practices and DSOs.
Transformational Leadership
The transformational leadership type depends on very high levels of communication from the leader. Leaders motivate managers to enhance productivity and efficiency through constant communication and high visibility. Leaders focus on the big picture within their organization and delegate smaller tasks to the team to accomplish goals. Transformational leadership is also deeply committed to the personal development of team members beyond job performance and results. Such leadership holds that the development of employees is a major key to success. In my experience, there is very little transformational leadership in group practices and dentistry as a whole.
When you examine the top leaders in other industries, their leadership is transformational. In transformational leadership, leadership is not only getting work done through people, it is developing people through work.
If people grow to be more powerful and effective human beings, if they become more emotionally intelligent, if they become more self-aware, if they become more conscious about how they operate and react, if their development as human beings expands by working in and for the enterprise, if it shows up at home, at work, and throughout their lives, it will directly and powerfully impact their level of commitment to the company, to their coworkers and to their leader.
