The Leadership Conception – Organizational Leadership 101
The key to becoming any sort of leader in the modern workplace is to be the person others choose to follow. Leadership as a concept is a continuous process of influencing behavior. Within an organization, leadership is a dynamic and a relational process encouraging others to accomplish an objective and directs the organization to a desired state. Leaders need to identify the appropriate and prevalent leadership style for the organization, and inspire others to follow their lead by altering their behavior and competencies to fit the required leadership style.
Leadership VS Management
Despite the overlap between the work encountered by leaders and managers, there is a significant variance between leadership and management, hence terms must not be used interchangeably. Peter Drucker reflected his thoughts on the conceptual variance by quoting “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” The below statements refer to the main characteristics of each concept:
-?????????Management is about structure; leadership is about flexibility.
-?????????Management is about a function; leadership is about a relationship.
-?????????Management is about budgeting; leadership is about motivating.
-?????????Management is about evaluating; leadership is about coaching.
-?????????Management is about planning; leadership is about selecting talent.
-?????????Management is about facilitating; leadership is about building trust.
Trust, it is all about building trust. A leader will go above and beyond to gain the trust and belief to get the team on board with their journey. A manager has a strategic vision illustrated in a road map that must be followed. A leader will enroll their team in charting a path for the future, while a manager would only focus on reviewing resources required to anticipate the needs along the way. A leader will inspire the team to comprehend their roles in the bigger picture, while a manager will invest efforts in establishing work rules, processes, and operating procedures.
Both roles are equally important to achieving organizational success, a leader would not succeed without managerial traits, and a manager will not inspire without leadership attributes. Remember, leaders may be managers, but not all managers are leaders.
Organizational Leadership Styles
Throughout history, leadership has emerged with different styles. At first glance, one might question a leadership style and imply that a certain style is better than the other. Word is, each leadership style has its own space in a handbook. A strong leader knows how to flex and customize their leadership style as the situation demands. Therefore, it is important to reflect on the efficiency and suitability of the leadership style employed. A leader could develop their own signature style and act on it accordingly. Therefore, it is safe to say that leadership is a highly multi-faceted subject and it is a mixture of many factors that help determine why some people become great leaders.
1.??????Autocratic Leadership
A management style wherein one person dictates the decision-making process with minimal or limited input from other group members. Micromanagement is a management form of autocratic leadership. This style is known to be both directive and controlling, and upper management dominates control even on the simplest tasks assigned to subordinates. This style is best employed when the company is managing less experienced employees.
The pro side of this style is that the time spent on making critical decisions is reduced, implementation mistakes are also reduced, and results are usually consistent as the input is limited to one person only. The con side of this style is that it constraints the ability of enthusiastic employees to be creative and to express their opinions. Micromanagement is known to be frustrating and leads to employee rebellion, as well as it kills group synergy, input, and collaboration. In business terms, autocratic leadership leads to a dramatic increase in turnover rate.
2.??????Laissez-Fair Leadership
Known as a delegative leadership style, where initiatives are delegated to team members. This leadership style requires an extensive degree of communication between management and subordinates. Employees are held accountable for the decisions made as they provide input to the decision-making process with minimal supervision. This can be a successful strategic style if employees are competent, knowledgeable, self-motivated, and prefer engaging in individual work. However, this style is not recommended in situations where employees are insecure about the manager’s lack of availability or when the manager is accounting team members to cover for his/her inability to make critical decisions and to create consistent results.
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Delegative leadership encourages experienced employees to take advantage of their competence and skills, and motivates the spirit of innovation and creativity within team members. On the contrary, the chain of command and accountability will not be properly defined, disagreements among members could lead to a toxic environment, low morale, and complicates the ability to adapt to change.
3.??????Democratic Leadership
A Participative leadership style which is rooted in the democratic theory. In this style, the leader usually has the last word in the decision-making process. This style of management is centered on?employee participation?and?involves decision making by consensus and consultation. The leader?will involve employees in the decision-making process and they will be?encouraged to give input and delegate assignments. Democratic leadership often leads to empowerment of employees because it gives them?a sense of responsibility for the decisions made by management. This?can also be a very effective form of management when employees offer?a different perspective than the manager, due to their daily involvement with work. A successful leader will know when to be a teacher?and when to be a student.
Democratic leadership is recommended when the team includes highly skilled and experienced members. It is very useful for change implementation, resolving group problems, and when the leader is not certain how to direct business decisions. Therefore, democratic leadership increases productivity levels and creates a strong team synergy. However, the decision-making process could become inefficient due to endless meeting required to make even the simplest decisions, hence it is not recommended when the business is in a critical situation and cannot afford any mistakes.
4.??????Transformational Leadership
This style is based on the leader’s ability to influence their team members as a role model and inspire them with a vision and then encourages them to achieve it. Transformational leadership is very behavioral oriented, and the behavior is influenced through intellectual stimulation and individual consideration. Therefore, the leader challenges their team to take greater ownership for their work, and tasks are assigned based on the leader’s comprehension to the strengths and weaknesses of each member.
The best part of transformational leadership is an extremely low turn-over rate as employees will feel empowered, challenged, and appreciated. However, employees would require consistent motivation and constant feedback, and could sometimes lead to lack of adherence to compliance and regulations.
5.??????Transactional Leadership
As the name states, this style uses “transactions” between a leader and their team. A transactional leader will control outcomes and strive for behavioral compliance. Under this leadership style, employees will lack self-motivation. Employees are only motivated with rewards and are only corrected with sanctions.
A transactional leadership creates a system that is easy to implement for leaders and easy to follow for employees, as will as it encourages the creation of SMART objectives that are achievable by team members. However, this style of leadership will only create followers not leaders as employees know that they are only praised if they follow instructions without the need to take initiatives or run the extra mile.
To conclude, the most effective leadership style is using a combination of styles.?Leaders should know when it is best to be autocratic and when to be?democratic. They can also be transformational and transactional at the?same time; these are not mutually exclusive styles and in fact can complement one another extremely well. In today’s competitive environment, leaders are continually searching for new ideas and approaches to improving their understanding of leadership.?They need to stay on top of the current trends influencing their company, their industry, their employees and attitudes toward the working world in general.
Reference
Financial reporting analyst at Nestlé
2 年Informative article, leadership skills lead to create positive environment in the workplace
Project Manager
2 年Very informative, I love this article ????
Enabling eCom in Middle East ~ Director of BD at REVTON
2 年It's a piece of art! Very useful and comprehensive
Finance & administration officer
2 年Agree ??