Book excerpt: From New York Times bestseller Mark Murphy comes the definitive guide to leadership styles!What's your leadership style? You have a particular style, of course, but do you know what it is and how it compares to the styles of other leaders? Do you know what types of employees respond best to your leadership style? And in which situations your particular leadership style is likely to generate the best results?Based on a study of more than 300,000 leaders, we've discovered the four fundamental leadership styles: Pragmatist, Idealist, Steward and Diplomat. Each one has strengths and weaknesses, so if you want to be an exceptional leader, you need to understand how to best leverage your personal leadership style to achieve maximal results from your team.Mark Murphy is a New York Times bestselling author, contributor to Forbes, and the founder of Leadership IQ, a research and training firm. Mark has consistently been ranked as one of the Top 30 leadership gurus in the world, and his books include Truth At Work: The Science of Delivering Tough Messages, Hundred Percenters: Challenge Your People to Give It Their All and They'll Give You Even More, Hiring for Attitude, and HARD Goals: The Science of Getting From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be. His work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Fortune, Forbes, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, and U.S. News & World Report. Mark has also appeared on CNN, NPR, CBS Sunday Morning, and ABC's 20/20.