Entrepreneurs don’t set out to become leaders. They’re driven by a desire to create something meaningful, to solve big problems — not necessarily to lead a team of people or an organization.

And even those who do seek out leadership may find themselves at some point in their career scrambling from one emergency to the next, watching employees under perform, dreading conflict with their management team and wondering if there is any method to the madness.

Becoming a better leader isn’t something that happens in a day, or even in a week. Building that set of skills requires intentional thought and effort. Understanding your innate leadership style can help you determine where to start. Once you’ve made an honest assessment of your strengths and weaknesses, you can begin to make change by playing to your strengths and minimizing or mitigating your weaknesses.

We’ve shared six common leadership styles here. Most people will find that they have a dominant style mixed in with a secondary style or two.

See: 7 Characteristics of Effective Leaders

The Collaborator

Collaborators prefer a consultative style of leadership, seeking input from their teams and delegating some of their decision-making authority. These leaders often engender a sense of belonging and purpose among their team members, who appreciate feeling like an integral part of the organization.

Collaborators generally have a great reputation among their staff and are often held up as models of good leadership. However, collaborators can have difficulty taking decisive action, especially when conflicts exist among their team or when they have to act quickly and without significant input from others.

Key to success: Collaborators find their greatest success when they balance their openness to consultation with a readiness for definitive steps when necessary. Some collaborators may need someone on their team that can act as a foil to their own receptivity.

The Dictator

Dictators lead with authority and tend to make decisions on their own. While the word “dictator” sometimes has a negative connotation, these leaders are not necessarily tyrants. In fact, many leaders who prefer to lead as a dictator are benevolent and provide a sense of focus and security that can be appealing to employees that appreciate the clarity that often comes from unquestioned authority.

Even a benevolent dictator can experience poor employee morale if team members feel excluded from the decision-making process. For instance, one of our coaches worked with the team at a small architectural firm that was experiencing conflict about which projects had priority. The president of the firm felt justified in asking staff to drop what they were working on to turn their attention to something else — after all, he was the boss. Staff, on the other hand, were frustrated that they were diligently working on projects they believed to be important only to be told to stop in the middle and work on something else, without their input on priorities.

Key to success: Self awareness and clear channels for feedback are critical for dictators. Without a recognition of their own leadership style, they are in danger of missing obvious signs of employee frustration. Opportunities for feedback provide a mechanism to ensure that the leader’s decisions are not made in a vacuum.

The Delegator

Many people in positions of authority struggle to relinquish control over even small tasks — but not delegators. Like collaborators, delegators appreciate group decision making, but they’re also happy to hand the process over entirely. They place a great deal of trust in their teams and their employees and are willing to cede control of large projects and decision-making authority.

But delegators can sometimes be at risk of becoming too hands-off. When these leaders don’t give enough direction, team members can have a too-limited or unclear understanding of their roles or expectations.

Key to success: For a delegator to be effective, they must have developed a structure for managing top-down goals and measurement systems that are clearly designed as well as teams that are highly motivated to succeed.

The Patron

Patrons focus on getting to know their individual team members and helping each employee meet their own personal and professional goals. They’re also skilled at identifying team members whose talents and roles work well together to create complementary teams. They often build loyal, cohesive workforces.

The danger for patrons lies in the delicate balance between serving the needs of employees and serving the needs of a business. In many ways, happy and effective employees create a happy and effective business. There will be times when business objectives must be placed above a particular employee desire, and patrons can sometimes struggle to take an action they believe is letting down an employee.

Providing that level of personalized coaching is also very time intensive. Patrons must be sure that they maintain the time and energy to engage in other important tasks.

Key to success: Patrons must be able to set clear boundaries for themselves and for their employees. Documenting business goals and remaining accountable for them can help avoid some of the conflict between employee and business needs.

The Visionary

Pushing people outside their comfort zones is the hallmark of a visionary leader. They see great value in setting ambitious goals — for their business, their employees, and themselves — and doing whatever it takes to achieve them. Visionaries often lead growth-minded companies to results that seemed unthinkable mere months before. They are usually highly skilled at inspiring and motivating their team.

Some employees can be overwhelmed by the pace of transformation, especially if everyone on the team isn’t operating from the same learning curve. Visionary leaders might need to get help providing individualized goals or coaching to new employees or those who need more direction. They may also struggle to “operationalize” their vision, sometimes to the point of creating chaos.

Key to success: Visionaries succeed when they partner with someone who has operational strengths and can complement them by integrating the ideas with priorities, plans and metrics.

The Stickler

Sticklers value doing things by the book and often strive for perfection. They can sometimes get a bad rap, but sticklers are excellent at defining clear roles and responsibilities and developing task-based incentives. They have often developed effective systems and processes that provide continuity and efficiency.

However, their rule-oriented behavior can discourage risk-taking, especially if they’re seen as closed to new ideas. In those situations, a stickler may limit innovation and negatively impact employee morale. Their attention to detail can also pull them into the weeds when making decisions.

Key to success: Like visionaries, sticklers benefit from partnering with or hiring someone who can provide balance to their leadership style, someone who operates effectively outside of their comfort zone and can be decisive.

Final Thoughts

Do you see your own leadership style in any of these descriptions?

Identifying your leadership style is just a starting point for becoming a better leader. Some people find that once they start digging deep into the ways they lead, they’re confronted with issues they hadn’t anticipated — personal fears, insecurities, and anxieties.

Those who face these challenges by discussing them with a coach, a peer group, or a therapist are more likely to move through them or even harness them in ways that make them a better leader.

If you’re ready to maximize your effectiveness as a leader, we’re ready to help. Contact us about leadership coaching.