and Music

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Styles of Leadership
The aforementioned skills, qualities and processes can be used within different styles of
leadership. There are various styles that have been proposed, identified and discussed in the last
few decades by leadership experts, such as democratic, authoritarian, anarchic (laissez-faire),
manipulative, transactional, and transformational (Walker, 1989; Byrnes, 2008). Depending
on her/his personality and character, each leader is inclined to follow a different style, within
which she/he utilises her/his soft skills toolkit.
According to theorist Darwin Walker, the democratic style is the most effective in a music
education environment.
“Although the leader participates in the formulation of policies in the democratic style of
leadership, group action or decision-making is also involved. In this style, the group, along with
the leader, determines what the tasks are and how to organise and accomplish them. […] This
leadership style promotes excellent group productivity. Personalities shaped by democratic
participation are more mature, more capable of objectivity, and less aggressive.” (1989)
Professor William Byrnes, on the other hand, suggests that leadership expert Bernard M. Bass’s
model, in which he distinguishes the transactional (someone “who motivates people to perform
tasks and objectives”) from the transformational leader (someone “who motivates and inspires
people to go beyond their normal work behaviour”) proposing that a good leader should be able
to perform both behaviours, is the ideal leadership model in arts management.
On another front, in his book Management and the Arts (2008), Byrnes states that there are two
kinds of leadership that a leader possesses and can use in the workplace: formal and informal.
“Formal leadership is the leadership by a manager who has been granted the formal authority
or the right to command.” An orchestra conductor, a football team’s coach, an artistic director,
have been all formally appointed by their organisation to act and make decisions on behalf of
the latter. “Informal leadership exists when a person without authority is able to influence the
behaviour of others.” An experienced actor or dancer in a company, a bright student in a class,
a gifted singer in a choir, are all people who may act at points as informal leaders of their groups,
due to the respect they have earned from their peers.
In the case of formal leadership, the power that the leader uses is position power, which comes
from her/his high post in a company or organisation. A CEO of a large business corporation or
a conductor who is also the artistic director of a major symphony orchestra, are both people
whose position power is very strong, since they have the granted liberty to hire or fire employees
in their working place. In informal leadership, the power the leader makes use of is personal
power, meaning the power that comes from the personal and professional qualities she/he has,
which make her/him respected and looked up to in the workplace.
Successful leaders rely much more on their personal than their position power. Personal power
is less threatening for an employee, since it is based solely on good communication and mutual
respect and recognition. Position power is mostly used in cases when the leader is unable to
properly communicate and interrelate with an employee in the workplace, so a formally granted
rule or direction needs to be enforced in order to reach an agreement.