Which leadership style emphasizes serving followers and prioritizing their needs?

• A. Servant leadership
• B. Autocratic
• C. Laissez-Faire
• D. Transformational

Answer: (A)

The leadership style that emphasizes serving followers and prioritizing their needs is servant leadership. This approach centers the leader on serving others—listening, supporting growth, and removing obstacles so the team can thrive. By putting people first, the leader builds trust, empowerment, and a collaborative culture, which tends to improve engagement and performance over time.

Autocratic leadership focuses on the leader exercising control and making decisions single-handedly, which often ignores followers’ needs. Laissez-faire leadership is a hands-off approach with minimal guidance and support, which can leave followers without direction. Transformational leadership aims to inspire and motivate toward a shared vision, emphasizing change and outcomes rather than the explicit service to followers; it may still consider followers’ development, but its defining feature isn’t prioritizing followers’ needs as the core purpose.