34 www.virtual-teams.eu 4.Skills of effective team leaders 4.1. Necessary skills for effective virtual team leaders A manager, now more than ever, must become a leader. A leader capable of motivating, inspiring and coordinating his/her team to run like clockwork. The problem is that many companies assume that manager and leader are the same concept and therefore it is still easy to find organizations in which managers lack the necessary skills to assume that responsibility. According to Daniel Goleman (2008 and 2019), it is not IQ or technical skills, but emotional intelligence, a group of five skills that allow the best leaders to maximize their performance and that of their followers. For Goleman there are 6 styles of leadership: ● The Coercive style: The "do what I say" approach can be very effective in a renovation or natural disaster situation or when working with problematic employees. But, in most situations, it inhibits the flexibility of the organization and lowers the motivation of workers. ● The Authoritarian style: An authoritarian leader takes a "come with me" approach; It stipulates the general objective, but gives freedom for people to choose their means of reaching it. This style works especially when a company is drifting, but is less effective when the leader works with a team of experts who are more experienced than s/he is. ● The Affiliative Style: The hallmark of the affiliative leader is a "people first" attitude. This style is especially useful for creating harmony or raising morale in a group. But just emphasizing compliments can also cause uncorrected poor performances. Likewise, affiliative leaders rarely offer advice, often putting employees in a dilemma. ● The Democratic style: the impact of this style on the organization's environment is not as great as one might imagine. By giving workers a voice in decision-making, democratic leaders foster flexibility and responsibility in the organization and help generate new ideas. But sometimes the price is endless meetings and confused employees who feel they lack a leader.
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