Leadership styles: The federation leader

The federation leader cares more about individuals and their emotions than about tasks and goals. It’s a completely people-centered command style. The federation leader takes care that his collaborators are satisfied and takes care of promoting team building. By building strong emotional ties, the federation leader manages to gain loyalty to the test. 

It is a style that encourages communication, the sharing of common ideas and objectives. It is a style that, by promoting a friendly context of mutual trust, enhances flexibility and reassures people by allowing them to innovate and take risks. 

The federation leader does not exercise strict control over the times and methods of carrying out the tasks, but leaves ample discretion of method while respecting the obligations assumed. Therefore, the federation leader will not militarily control the hours of entry and exit from the work of the collaborators, but will instead concentrate on enhancing and rewarding the efforts of the resources whenever there is an opportunity. 

Federative leaders must be born a little. A strong relational attitude is needed. The federation leader creates a sense of belonging by celebrating the results with his team over a glass, but also by going to the cafe with his collaborators taken individually. 

The federation leader creates empathy not only by knowing how to listen to people, but by sharing his emotional and, to a certain extent, personal sphere with his team. 

As Daniel Goleman¹ says, the “federator leadership style has an almost always positive impact, and therefore befits the most varied situations. It is particularly suitable when a leader wants to consolidate the harmony of a team, raise the morale of his collaborators, improve communication or restore mutual trust with his subordinates “. 

“A leader is one who manages to get others to do, with the impression of having fun, what they don’t want to do,” said Harry Truman², but federative leadership alone is not enough. Being a good leader means knowing how to master multiple leadership styles according to the occasion. Always applying the federator style can in fact lead to lax resources and create a climate of tolerance towards mediocrity. The federator style, leaving ample freedom of maneuver for the team, may lack clear directives useful for maintaining the route as well as being lacking in terms of individual growth: the lack of constructive criticism does not in fact stimulate the progression of the collaborators considered individually. It is therefore extremely useful to combine the federator style at least with the authoritative style.³

¹ Daniel Goleman is an author and scientific journalist. In addition to his books on emotional intelligence, Goleman has written books on topics such as self-deception, creativity, transparency, meditation, social and emotional learning.
² Harry S. Truman (Lamar, May 8, 1884 – Kansas City, December 26, 1972) was an American politician and military man, 33rd president of the United States of America from 1945 to 1953.
³ https://www.digital4pro.com/en/2019/12/20/leadership-styles-the-authoritative-leader/ 

Bibliography: 

• Harward Business Review, “Leadership That Gets Results”, Daniel Goleman