How to Choose a Leadership Pattern

Since 1922, Harvard Business Review has been a leading source of breakthrough ideas in management practice many of which still speak to and influence us today. The HBR Classics series now offers you the opportunity to make these seminal pieces a part of your permanent management library. Each volume contains a groundbreaking idea that has shaped best practices and inspired countless managers around the world and will change how you think about the business world today. Modern managers face a dilemma when leading. To relate to subordinates, they may choose a pattern of leadership that ranges from making all the decisions themselves to allowing their subordinates to make decisions within prescribed limits. In deciding how to lead, managers must be aware of their values, confidence in subordinates, leadership inclinations, and tolerance for ambiguity. They must also consider whether their subordinates have the independence, maturity, interest, and knowledge to share in decision making.