Leadership That Gets Results

Goleman's HBR article on the six leadership styles — coercive, authoritative, affiliative, democratic, pacesetting, coaching — and the argument that effective leaders switch between them based on the situation. The piece is an accessible summary of his work on emotional intelligence as a leadership competence, and the six-style framework has survived two decades of consulting overuse without losing its diagnostic power. For product direction it is a useful self-audit: most product leaders default to one or two styles and avoid the others, often at specific cost. Read the original HBR piece rather than the summaries; it is short and clearer than its reputation.