Solidarity Sunday: What Kind of Leader Are You?
We dropped our son off as a first-year cadet at our state's military college. He's embracing the Army leadership track and developing the skills to lead, perhaps one day within the Corps, or even the U.S. Army. Watching him step into that journey got me thinking about leadership in a broader sense. I curiously asked him, "What kind of leader do you think you'll be?"
Decades of leadership research point to a consistent truth: how you lead directly shapes the morale, productivity, and innovation of your administration and your local union.
As far as leadership styles, you will likely fall into one of three categories. Which one are you?
- Transformational
- Democratic
- Autocratic
Transformational Leadership: According to Bass and Riggio (2006), transformational leaders inspire their team with a shared vision, provide individualized support, and encourage creative problem-solving. Multiple analyses have found that transformational leadership correlates strongly with employee commitment, innovation, and job satisfaction. In public sector and union environments, this style fosters unity and resilience in the face of change. Examples of Transformational Leaders: Barack Obama, Elon Musk, Steve Jobs.
Democratic Leadership (also called Participative Leadership): Research dating back from landmark studies in the 1930s, to recently confirmed 2025 analyses confirms that involving employees in decision-making increases buy-in, sparks creativity, and improves both morale and performance. This is particularly powerful in union contexts, where collective voice and representation are core values. Examples of Democratic Leaders: Richard Trumka (AFL-CIO), Abraham Lincoln, Ghandi.
Autocratic Leadership: Lewin's early findings, and a wealth of subsequent research, have consistently linked autocratic styles to short-term compliance but long-term harm: lower job satisfaction, higher turnover, reduced creativity, and poorer group performance. A 2025 IJIRT study noted that autocratic environments "suppress initiative and erode trust," especially damaging in organizations dependent on solidarity, such as labor unions. Examples of Autocratic Leaders: Martha Stewart, Joseph Stalin, Henry Ford.
A 2020 analysis in The Leadership Quarterly found that transformational and participative leadership styles were, on average, 25-30% more effective at driving employee engagement and productivity than autocratic approaches.
So which style is most effective for organized labor?
While there are leaders of all kinds throughout the trades, union leadership is unique. It's not just about managing operations, it's about representing the collective voice of workers, building solidarity, and sustaining trust across diverse groups.
Democratic leadership aligns naturally with union principles: open dialogue, shared decision-making, and representation.
Transformational leadership adds the ability to inspire members, articulate a compelling vision for the future, and drive collective action toward it.
Autocratic leadership undermines the sense of shared ownership that unions depend on, replacing participation with edicts, and often, resentment.
In the next Solidarity Sunday, we'll elaborate on these styles, and the role that trust, delegation, and positive reinforcement plays not only in leading an administration and a membership, but also when it comes to election time.