110 Reading: Leadership Styles
Leadership Styles
Leading an organization can be compared to conducting an orchestra. The leader directs the various parts of the orchestra—the string, brass, woodwind, and percussion sections—indicating when and how they should play. It’s fairly easy to pick up a baton, cue each section, and strike up the band. But it doesn’t follow that the music will be good.
What if your cues are ambiguous, ignored, or misinterpreted? Or what if your musicians don’t like your approach to the music and decide to walk away? On top of everything else, you don’t simply want to make music: you want to inspire your musicians to make great music. How do you accomplish this goal? How do you become an effective leader? What style or approach should you use to motivate others to achieve organizational goals? Unfortunately, there are no definitive answers to questions like these. Over time, every manager refines his or her own leadership style or way of interacting with and influencing others. Despite a vast range of personal differences, leadership styles tend to reflect one of the following approaches to directing and motivating people: the autocratic, the democratic, or the laissez-faire. Let’s see how managerial styles reflect each of them in a work situation.
- Autocratic style. Managers who have developed an autocratic leadership style tend to make decisions without soliciting input from subordinates. They exercise authority and expect subordinates to take responsibility for performing the required tasks without undue explanation.
- Democratic style. Managers who favor a democratic leadership style generally seek input from subordinates while retaining the authority to make the final decisions. They’re also more likely to keep subordinates informed about things that affect their work.
- Laissez-faire style. In practicing a laissez-faire leadership style, managers adopt a “hands-off” approach and provide relatively little direction to subordinates. They may advise employees but usually give them considerable freedom to solve problems and make decisions on their own.
At first glance, you’d probably not want to work for an autocratic leader. After all, you certainly don’t want to be told what to do without having any input. You probably like the idea of working for a democratic leader; it’s flattering to be asked for your input. Though working in a laissez-faire environment might seem a little unsettling at first, the opportunity to make your own decisions is appealing. In general, your assessments of the three leadership styles would be accurate. Employees generally dislike working for autocratic leaders; they like working for democratic leaders, and they find working for laissez-faire leaders rewarding (as long as they feel they can handle the job). But there are situations when these generalities don’t hold. To learn what these situations are, let’s turn things around and pretend you’re the leader.
To make it applicable to your curre