August 6th 2022
In modern business, there are many different styles of leadership that managers can use to get the best out of their employees. It can also be helpful to change up a leadership style from time to time. This can drastically affect the outcomes of certain projects for the better, either giving employees more space to breathe or ensuring everyone has a fair say.
In this article, we’re going to outline four of the most effective leadership styles being utilised in today’s business world. You may be able to see yourself in some of these or even discover new ways in which you can work with your employees to get the best out of them.
1. Visionary Management Style
The Visionary Management style is very common. Managers using this will typically take a macro approach to leading the team. They will provide a clear set of expected outcomes and leave their team to fulfil those objectives themselves. This requires more autonomy and problem solving on the employees’ part, but also affords them the freedom to work as they choose to get the job done.
This is not a one-size-fits-all approach, however. Many businesses can require a more active role from their managers and team leaders, needing them to be on the ground with the team, in a more hands-on sense.
Visionary Management allows employees to work towards an overarching strategy, without the overbearing element of eyes being on them at all times. A manager will provide the purpose and direction of the work and allow the team to fill in the blanks. These managers tend to be firm but fair, not allowing expectations to slip, but still affording workers the freedom to reach the end goal how they see fit.
This style also allows for collaboration and input from the team if they feel as if things aren’t quite going to plan. A Visionary Manager will see these concerns and set a new course to follow. This, naturally, requires a lot of feedback and communication with team members, with regular check-ins to assess progress. It’s important to sell the vision to your employees if you expect them to action it effectively.
2. Democratic Management Style
A Democratic Management style takes into account all perspectives and possible outcomes before decisions on final processes are made. It essentially gives every employee a ‘vote’ on how they feel tasks should be undertaken. The manager then weighs and assesses these equally and comes back with a strategy that everyone is then expected to follow, based on that team input.
There are many pros to this management style, as it enables employees to feel as if they have a say in goings on in the workplace and approaches to work. This gives them more of a sense of purpose and involvement in the work, which could lead to a better end product. If everyone feels heard, no one should feel left out.
Another pro with this leadership style is that managers will be gaining valuable insights into the general feel of their team. With feedback and ideas always holding weight and being considered, democratic managers will understand the reservations of each team member and will be able to take these into account the next time a project begins.
While there are many pros to this style, two specific drawbacks spring to mind. There may be a conflict in minority opinions within the team. For example, if one employee has a differing opinion to the rest of the team, and is then expected to go with the majority, this can cause tension. A democratic leader in this instance will approach that team member and explain that the decision was reached by a majority, and that while their opinion is still very much valid, sometimes they may need to adjust their working style to see the bigger picture. This way of leading can also slow down the decision-making process, but over time this will likely get faster the more your employees understand how things work.
3. The Affiliate Management Style
The Affiliate Leadership Style is very much a people-first style. This approach allows the manager to focus on the people in their team, first and foremost. Much like the Democratic style, this is about weighing ideas and picking the best way to go about things. How this style differs though, is in its approach to team morale and interpersonal relationships.
Managers using this style will want to create lasting bonds between employees and management, as well as between team members themselves. It’s about creating a harmony between people and work, where wellbeing and emotion are just as important as deadlines.
In this style, as the manager cultivates strong relationships within the team, conflict resolution becomes much easier when things get rocky. It promotes high self-esteem and pride in the work that employees produce, praising them on a job well done each time.
Naturally, this kind of leadership requires many one-on-one meetings to build that rapport with workers, during which time you are able to ask them meaningful questions about their work, their life and how they are doing. This leads to a higher overall team morale, and positive office culture too.
We’re not going to tell you that this management style is without some drawbacks, however. You may see a slight decrease in performance over time as you focus more on the people over the work, but this will be negligible, as the growing positive nature of the team will likely lead them to wanting to do their best.
It may also take a focus off of the top performing members of the team too. While not necessarily detrimental to the team as a whole, it may leave them feeling as if the equal focus on all team members from the manager, sometimes leaves their efforts unnoticed at times. Make sure to acknowledge those hardest workers in your one-on-one meetings and tell them how much you appreciate them.
4. Laissez-Faire Management Style
‘Laissez-Faire’ means to leave things to take their own course without interference. That is exactly what this leadership style is all about. Similar to the Visionary style, this allows employees to set their own goals and work to their own timings. The main difference here though, is that the Laissez-Faire style manager will only interfere or assist if there is a problem or specific request from a team member, while the Visionary tends to favour inspiring employees and guiding them in the right direction.
This style gives the most freedom to employees than any other style, which can be appreciated as they take complete ownership of their work and how it fits into the bigger picture.
A manager using this style will typically kick-off a project, outlining the expected outcomes and providing some guidelines on how they can be achieved. They will then check back in at the end of the project to see how things went. A very much hands-off-unless-desperately-needed style of leading. This gives employees the autonomy to solve their own problems, whether they are in-house or client side, and can be a huge advantage to learning the intricacies of how modern business works.
A huge advantage of this style is that it allows employees to experiment with how they think things can be done, giving them more opportunity to learn and grow organically in their skills. This can give them a huge sense of job satisfaction too, as the freedom they are afforded allows them to try new things.
The only drawback of this leadership style is that sometimes employees may lack a sense of direction at first, which can be an issue for projects with tight deadlines. While this will likely subside over time as they discover new ways of completing objectives, it’s important to take into account their current skills and abilities before project kick-off and assess whether this is the right approach.
Managing a team can be a difficult endeavour. But, as we’ve discussed today, there’s many different ways you can go about it. From a democratic perspective taking into account everyone’s opinions, to leaving your team to figure it out on their own, you’ll need to pick the right leadership style that suits you and your employees each time.
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