In general, there are many leadership styles for leaders. None of them can be considered to be the best leadership style in all circumstances. The Situational theory states that the best leaders utilize a range of different styles depending on the environment.

Well. I believe focus the people and avoid the shortcut is the best leadership style for teams in an agile setting.

The basic feature of an agile setting is that all participants react to changing task parameters during an ongoing process, realign the affected process as quickly as possible and regularly question how the process can be implemented even more efficiently. This form of agile work requires employees with the highest level of communication competence and the willingness to constantly loop feedback. A correspondingly agile leadership must be based on the principle of "shared leadership": The manager stands by a highly competent team as a moderator and mentor who advises and coordinates.

I think situational, visionary and contingent approach can be used. But note "No one best approach to solving team issue, but as the situation dictates. So don't be static but dynamic to situation and think about future implication to the solution. Be strategist."

I would say, the ideal type should be situational, innovative/flexible and 'listening' (not just hearing). In any case, definitely not the 'I am THE BOSS' type.

I called cooperative leadership, many years ago (1995) put together such a concept but never published it. In my concept the leadership process was placed into a social context of cooperation in groups. These days, it is called shared or collectivistic approaches. For example,

YAMMARINO et al. (2012) Collectivistic Leadership Approaches: Putting the “We” in Leadership Science and Practice

Thank you so much for the responses!

Some of you suggested a "shared leadership style" - but I also wrote that a "servant leader" would be beneficial. Would someone agree/ disagree?

re: servant leader. Different labels are used, the key issue is how the process of leadership is placed into processes of cooperation in groups/teams.

Very Intersting Topic

see Exploring the impact of higher management’s leadership styles on Lean management

Marcel F. van Assen

but for my point of view there are an evolutionary style to fit with organization growth maturity

the key factor

-Learning mechanisms and knowledg organizational memory

Agility and autonomy are closely linked. Autonomy fosters decision-making as close as possible to the work that is being done. A collaborative style of leadership fosters trust, autonomy and a shared sense of responsibility in a team. Team members are encouraged to problem-solve, to find synergies, to take initiatives, to make decisions within a defined frame of work. This style works best if information is shared, if the leader tolerates and fosters mutual feedback and the leader takes ultimate accountability for errors or failures in the team.

From a personal point of view, in such a case I think the mixed leadership style is appropriate. In the area of procedures and evaluation we need a dictatorship.

No matter the situation a strong team is necessary, even with dissent they should be able to follow the answer proposed to a problem quickly. The leader should not be a person who decides, but rather a person that builds good teams.

In my opinion, the leadership style that best faces an agile environment is that situational leadership style is a leadership style that is based on the existing situation. The use of situations to determine what things will be done will be very important so that an organization can run well. Changes in the situation will cause changes in the needs of subordinates. These differences make leaders have to choose different leadership styles in different subordinate situations. thank you

Natali Blem