Leadership Styles in Management

Management and leadership are two very dynamic fields. They slowly become archaic and a new style and a new ideology replaces it. What worked then, may not work now. Today's business demands a different approach and different methods.

Modern Leadership Techniques

All leaders do not have the same attitudes, or the same way of looking at things. Some prefer the carrot approach, the others prefer the stick approach. Some see freedom as a way to let creativity and independent thought blossom, while others believe that a more than just modicum of control is necessary to achieve targets and get the work done. All of them do not have the same way of getting things done. The only constant here is that they all strive, in their own way, to achieve their dream and to get others to help them achieve it as well.

The leadership styles in management also vary on the type of people that the leader works with. Some need the iron fist, others need the velvet glove. So leadership styles is management basically hinge on two things, the leader himself and the people around him. And the style which he chooses ought to ideally be the one which will help him extract the best out of the people around him.

Autocratic Leadership

An autocrat runs the whole show. It is a one sided way in which he runs his business. He calls the shots, he tells the people what to do, he decides the targets and he himself ensures that the work, somehow, gets done.

An autocratic leader wants nothing to do with anyone else. He does not encourage criticism of his ways, or any suggestions of any sort. If he believes that there is a need to ring in the changes, he will do so without being asked to.

The autocratic style works well if there is a leader who is quite simply the best at what he does. If he knows better than everyone else, if he feels empowered to take bold decisions, if he has faith in his own ability and knowledge and will not shirk away from making a shrewd call on things, an autocratic leadership will work well. If not, it can be disastrous.

The Laissez Faire Leadership Style

The exact opposite of the autocrat is the laissez faire style. Here the leader is least concerned with the management part of his job. He trusts his subordinates to do the job fairly well by themselves without having to brandish a stick at them. He only focuses on the intellectual part of his work. He works on giving direction to the efforts of his peers and his subordinates. He comes up with ideas and tries to implement them. A laissez faire leader also encourages his subordinates to come up to him and give suggestions, which he feels will work in favor of the business.

This is one of those styles which will work only if you have an intelligent and committed workforce. You can empower your subordinates to take their own decisions only if they are intelligent enough to, right? The laissez faire leadership style would bomb, spectacularly, if the workforce isn't loyal or committed enough to do the work right themselves.

Participative Leadership

The third and last of the leadership styles is a mix of the two. While the first two seem extreme in their implementation, the participative leader is a good balance between the two. He believe his role is to encourage the participation of his team members in making the decision. The communication in this style is decidedly two way. The leader tells the subordinate what to do and the subordinate in turn tells the leader his own experience and if any changes are required in order to make it a more effective leadership.

So these were some of the common leadership styles that you get to see in management. As you can see, it is largely dependent on two factors. So which one would you choose?