Affiliative Leadership Explained: What Is Affiliative Leadership?

Affiliative leadership is an approach to management that prioritizes emotional intelligence and strong emotional bonds between managers and team members. Affiliative leaders embrace the theory that high-performing teams enjoy good communication and a sense of belonging. With this in mind, they embark on a people-first approach as they establish their team’s work culture.

The concept of affiliative leadership traces back to the six leadership styles described in psychologist and reporter Daniel Goleman’s 1995 text, Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ. Goleman outlines a number of different leadership styles including the coaching leadership style, democratic leadership style, pacesetting leadership style, commanding leadership style, and visionary leadership style. Goleman highlights the affiliative leadership style as one that prioritizes employee well-being as a pathway to effective teams.

An affiliative leadership style is characterized by the following principles.

1. 1. Prioritization of employee trust and employee morale: Affiliative leaders work to build trust with their direct reports. They prioritize that trust, as well as team morale, above all other values—even productivity.
2. 2. Constructive feedback: Affiliative leaders are honest with their employees, but they balance constructive criticism with positive feedback. Even if they have legitimate suggestions for improvement, this type of leader wants employees to sense their own value and never get bogged down by one instance of poor performance.
3. 3. Emotional intelligence: Affiliative leaders have a strong sense of their team’s psychological wellbeing and emotional needs. Their team-building skills rely on truly understanding the desires and motivations that drive each team member.
4. 4. Participative dialogue: Affiliative leaders offer broad communication channels for employee input. This facilitates conflict resolution and opens the floor for team members to share exciting ideas to improve the company.
5. 5. Strong moral compass: An affiliative leader leads with their morals. They do not place their direct reports in ethically compromised situations.

Note that these values and competencies are not exclusive to affiliative leaders. Many types of leaders—like a democratic leader, a pacesetting leader, or a visionary leader—can showcase these same leadership skills. However, these values are especially intrinsic to the affiliative leadership style.

Consider why the affiliate leadership style can be so effective.

1. 1. High employee morale: Workers who report to an affiliative leader are likely to feel noticed and listened to, which can improve their overall morale and job satisfaction.
2. 2. Employee empowerment: Team members may feel greater autonomy and empowerment under an affiliative leader than they might under a more coercive leader. This empowerment can stave off burnout and it can unleash workers to make greater contributions to the overall business.
3. 3. Open communication channels: Employees may feel more comfortable communicating and sharing ideas under affiliative leadership, especially when compared to more authoritative leadership styles.

While affiliative leaders bring a lot of value to their organizations, the affiliative leadership style may not be right for all situations.

1. 1. Poor performance can slip through the cracks. Due to their emphasis on positive feedback, affiliative leaders can sometimes let poor performance go unchecked. The best affiliative leaders are always honest with their direct reports and tell them—albeit gently—if they need to make improvements.
2. 2. It may be insufficient for transformational change. Sometimes companies need to make big, bold changes, such as in the period after a merger or acquisition. Affiliative leaders may not always be able to marshal the support for such changes due to a more deliberative style of leadership. When big changes need to happen in a short period of time, authoritative leadership may be in order.
3. 3. Affiliative leaders can be perceived as too hands-off. Some affiliative leaders can be mistakenly assumed to be too laissez-faire if they aren’t conscientious about nipping bad behavior in the bud. To be a great leader in the affiliative style of leadership, you must proactively address problems before they metastasize—even if you do so in a positive, evenhanded way.

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