3 Main Styles of Leadership in the Business.

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What is leadership and style of leadership?

Leadership is an art of motivating and leading a group of employees in achieving a common goal. Whereas, Leadership style refers to different approaches which a leader uses to motivate and lead the employees towards organizational goals.

There are 3 widely used leadership styles in the business as proposed by American psychologist Kurt Lewin. All these leadership styles have their own advantages and drawbacks.

1. Autocratic (Authoritative)
2. Democratic (Participative)
3. Laissez-faire (Delegative)

Autocratic Style of Leadership (Authoritarian)

This style of leadership is where all the crucial decision-making power remains in the hands of the leaders. leaders gives direction to the employees. They do not have any participation in the decision-making process whatsoever, these employees just carry out what is being told to them by the leader. Workers are closely supervised by the leader.

Advantages of Autocratic Style of Leadership.

1. Reduce wastage of time

This style of leadership saves time as employees are just the followers therefore, it does not consume time in taking the ideas and thoughts of employees into consideration. This style of leadership helps leaders take decisions as quickly as possible.

2. Prevents possible conflicts.

Enabling many employees to make decisions and carry out the task as they like to do might create a chaotic situation in the business. It is not necessary all the workers in the same organisation have a similar mindset. Thus, when an organisation will be decentralized and focus on delegation then it might be possible different employees will look to carry out operations as they would like to do which can clash with the approach of other employees.

Eventually, the business might lose its smoothness and fluency in organization. Therefore, the autocratic leadership style helps to solve these problems and as there would be only one approach followed by all the employees working under a leader thus, there would be very low chances of such conflicts in the autocratic style of leadership.

3. Helpful when workers are unskilled or inexperience

Unskilled or inexperienced employees usually do not have enough level of understanding which could enable them to take effective decisions. Therefore, an authoritative style of leadership reduces the level of responsibility on the employees and they can work on their tasks efficiently without taking the stress of other critical work.

Drawbacks of autocratic style of leadership.

1. Reduce Productivity and motivation among employees.

Leaders with an autocratic style of leadership often become extensively tough on their employees. Employees are supervised all the time and sometimes every small action of the employees is taken into account or they are required to carry out every task as per the mindset of the leader including very small things. So, it significantly reduces the workers’ freedom and becomes a massive demotivator for them. Employees might lose their productivity due to a low level of dedication and motivation towards work.

2. It destroys the creativity level.

As in this style of leadership, employees don’t have a say in the crucial matters of the business such as decision making, organizing resources, planning, and so forth. Therefore, all the creative and innovative ideas from the employees are not welcomed by the leader. Sometimes workers might share immensely effective and efficient ideas which could be better than ideas implemented by their leader. Hence, leaders and the business can lose outstandingly innovative ideas from their workers which could proved to be fruitful for them.

3. It creates a sense of insignificance and inferiority among employees.

The authoritative style of leadership subtly conveys a message of insignificance to the employees that they are unimportant to the business and the leader. It makes employees feel that they do not possess any worth whatsoever in the eyes of their leader and this is why they are closely monitored by the leaders. These factors develop distrust between the workers and the leader thus, the performance of the workers and the business as a whole decline.

Democratic Style of Leadership (Participative)

The democratic style of leadership is when workers are allowed to participate in the decision-making process. Workers are encouraged to share their opinions, thoughts, and ideas in the decision-making process, however, the final say remains in the hands of the leader.

Advantages of Democratic style of leadership

1. Motivates Employees

Democratic style of leadership offers workers a more active role in the business therefore, it might have a positive impact on their motivation because some workers are motivated by getting opportunities to express their ideas in the business. According to Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, Esteem needs are satisfied by recognition, respect and freedom. When employees have the freedom to share what they think, it increases their self-esteem level and gives them a sense of recognition. Eventually, democratic style of leadership plays an invaluable role in stimulating workers’ motivation.

2. It brings many creative ideas

This style of leadership undoubtedly increases the level of creativity in the business. As workers are allowed to participate in the decision-making, the leader gets many new viewpoints that could help the leader to take an effective decision. Maybe, it helps the leader to broaden his/her perspective and take decisions keeping in mind many possibilities shared by the employees.

3. It Increases commitment levels of the employees

The democratic style of leadership enables all the workers to participate in the business and to show their commitment towards it. If the workers would know that their opinions and thoughts have no value in the team or the business then they will not work at their optimum level. They will not put their best efforts and most importantly, they will not think about how to contribute to the business to achieve its goals. Therefore, the democratic style of leadership always stimulates workers to ensure their complete commitment.

Drawbacks of Democratic Style of Leadership.

1. It wastes time.

Democratic style of leadership is a time-consuming way of leadership because it requires too much time to consider all the opinions of different workers. When a leader has to make a decision quickly then, democratic style of leadership is not desirable as it can never help the leader in making quick decisions. Therefore, when immediate action is required then the autocratic style of leadership is the best way.

2. It does not ensure a reliable solution.

Democratic style of leadership does bring many opinions to the desk of the leader, however, it does not necessarily mean that there will be any reliable solution. This style of leadership might waste crucial time without drawing any conclusion for the leader and the business.

3. It burdens the employees

There are different mindsets of the employees, some of them want to share their thoughts and ideas in the decision making, and some do not want to. Decision-making requires thorough evaluation and analysis of different dimensions and aspects which could affect the results of the decision. Therefore, democratic style of leadership might become a cause of an additional burden on the employees.

Laissez-Faire (delegative)

In this style of leadership, employees are delegated to set their objectives and make decisions. They give feedback to the leader and management once the task is finished.

Advantages of Laissez-faire style of leadership

1. It develops trust among employees and leaders.

Trust is one of the key elements in effective leadership and laissez-fair style of leadership allows leaders to earn the trust of their team members. Employees feel that they are trusted by their leader that is why they are delegated to have authority over setting their objectives and planning their tasks. It helps to build a healthy relationship between the leader and team members which can boost the business performance and aid in effective communication.

2. It helps in quick decision making

In this style of leadership, there is no micromanagement, employees have the autonomy to make their own decisions. Therefore, employees would not have to ask leaders in every situation regarding what decision to take. This will save a significant amount of time, which would have been wasted if any other style of leadership was in use.

3. It provides a chance for personal growth.

Laissez-faire style of leadership opens doors to development opportunities for the employees. Employees have the best chance of learning and improving their skills in this style of leadership. Employees make their own decisions and are completely responsible for them consequently, it establishes critical thinking skills among employees and increases the responsibility level.

Drawbacks of the Laissez-fair style of leadership.

1. Absence of integration and connectivity among employees.

Since all the employees have the freedom to choose how they are going to carry out their tasks, there will be no unity of action among the employees because all of them will have different approaches. This will reduce the cohesiveness of the team. Leader might face trouble in bringing all the employees on a single page. Eventually, it can lead to an uncertain situation in which there will be little or no effective communication among employees.

2. Employees might get into comfort zone.

In this style of leadership, employees are on their own and the leader does not closely monitor the performance of the employees. They might not always have enough willingness and motivation towards their work and since the leader would not be monitoring the employees, they will get into the comfort zone which will massively devastate their productivity and performance.

3. Leaders might not motivate employees.

This style of leadership provides a chance for the leader to skip many of the leadership responsibilities. In this situation, leaders might not put their best efforts into the business to motivate the employees and enhance the overall performance of the business. Leaders might not guide their employees and might refuse to help them out. Employees are autonomous in decision making however, they might need guidance from the leader in complex situations.

Which style of leadership is the best one for the business.

There is no single style of leadership that is advantageous in every situation of the business. These all three leadership styles have their strength and weaknesses and they all three are beneficial in different situations. For example, the Autocratic style of leadership is desirable to opt in situations when quick decision making is required. Democratic style of leadership will be reasonable when the leader wants many different ideas. And, Laissez-faire style of leadership would be ideal when employees are highly motivated and skilled.

An effective leader is one who is skilled in all three styles of leadership and has the ability to switch between them according to the situation and the circumstances.