How do democratic, consensual, consultative, and free-rein leadership differ?

"Participative leadership has three types: democratic, consensual, and consultative. Democratic leaders solicit input from all members of the group and then allow the group members to make the final decision through a voting process. This approach works well with highly trained professionals. The president of a physicians’ clinic might use the democratic approach. Consensual leaders encourage discussion about issues and then require that all parties involved agree to the final decision. This is the general style used by labor mediators. Consultative leaders confer with subordinates before making a decision but retain the final decision-making authority. This technique has been used to dramatically increase the productivity of assembly-line workers. The third leadership style, at the opposite end of the continuum from the autocratic style, is free-rein or laissez-faire (French for “leave it alone”) leadership. Managers who use this style turn over all authority and control to subordinates. Employees are assigned a task and then given free rein to figure out the best way to accomplish it. The manager doesn’t get involved unless asked. Under this approach, subordinates have unlimited freedom as long as they do not violate existing company policies. This approach is also sometimes used with highly trained professionals as in a research laboratory. Although one might at first assume that subordinates would prefer the free-rein style, this approach can have workers to meet new account quotas."