Final answer:
Leadership that lacks active skills and employs a hands-off, management-by-exception style is known as laissez-faire leadership.
Step-by-step explanation:
Leadership behavior that is characterized by a lack of leadership skills, such as the management-by-exception style, is referred to as laissez-faire leadership. Among the presented options, laissez-faire leadership is best described as a hands-off approach where leaders allow group members to make their own decisions.
It contrasts with transactional leadership, which is more focused on supervision and organizational goals through rewards and punishments, and with transformational leadership, which aims to inspire and transform followers to achieve higher levels of performance.