The objectives of the study were:  (1) To study the pattern of leadership styles of the school head masters in general. (2) To understand the dominant leadership style of the high school head masters in general. (3) To find out the relationship between the leadership style and school effectiveness. (4) To find out relationship pattern, age, experience, qualification and in service training programs attended and leadership styles of the head masters. (5) To find out the innovative school.

The hypotheses of the study were: (1) Bureaucratic style and authoritarian style of leadership are negatively correlated with school effectiveness. (2) Nurturant leadership style, participative leadership and task oriented leadership are positively correlated with school effectiveness. (3) The age of head masters is positively correlated with participate and nurturant style of leadership. (4) The experience of head masters is positively correlated with participative and nurturant styles. (5) More qualified head masters and those who have attended in-service training courses are practicing participative nurturant on task oriented style rather than bureaucratic or authoritarian style.

For the study, head masters and 620 teachers were selected randomly from 124 high schools of Nashik districts.

 The tools used for data collection were: Leader’s behavior Scale (S001; LBS), Leader’s Style (S002; LSS) Scale by Jai, B.P. Sinha, Subordinates Preference Scale (S003; ISPS) and Behavior Preference Scale (S004; BPS) developed by T.N. Sinha and Jyoti Peasad and data blank was prepared by the investigator.

Coefficient of correlation was used for data analysis.

The findings of the study were: (1) The bureaucratic and authoritarian styles of leadership are negatively correlated with school effectiveness. (2) Nurturant as task oriented: task oriented, nurturant and participative style sound well. (3) The NT style is correlated with school effectiveness, such leaders have affection about subordinates and they provide warmth for developing the organization. It was found the most dominating style. (4) New entrants, group of head masters with less experience than 5 years also started following T and NT style, such leaders utilize all the resources for the betterment of the school system. (5) Age old and experienced personal are practicing P, NT styles. (6) Head masters who have undergone the orientation courses show better scores for NT, P styles. B, F styles are leaser preferred.