C2 Leadership Style
Unit 9: Teambuilding in Business. Resources for BTEC Business Studies
Leaders inspire their team to want to perform to a high standard. Ways in which leaders inspire are to create a clear vision for the team and ensure that the purpose of tasks are fully understood and valued by the team. Inspirational leaders lead by example and demonstrate an investment into the team goals and work hard to achieve them.
https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/leadership-style-quiz.htm
Autocratic Leadership
Autocratic leadership is a style where the leader makes all of the decisions for the team. They take on little or no input of ideas or opinions from the team before making a decision. Tasks for individuals are decided by the leader and distributed amongst the team. Autocratic is appropriate when the consequences of error are high, time is limited or the decision maker is more highly skilled than the team. An example might be in the kitchen of a restaurant, a chef may be more autocratic because it is necessary to make decisions quickly to get food out to customers in a timely manner. Another example might be in a pharmaceutical company where any changes to the way in which drugs are produced could be dangerous.
Benefits of autocratic leadership include decisions being made quickly, consistency in tasks and output and clarity on what is expected.
Drawbacks include reduced morale due to staff not feeling that their opinions are valued, innovation may be limited due to the lack of input of ideas and there is a lot of pressure on the leader to devise solutions
Democratic Leadership
Democratic or participative leadership is a style where the leader involves the team in the decision-making process. Opinions and ideas are valued and regularly shared through discussion before a decision is made. Democratic or participative leadership is appropriate when a team has skilled workers who are keen to share their ideas, regular changes need to be made due to a changing environment and creative solutions are needed. A democratic leader should be skilled in communicating with staff and drawing out ideas and using them to inform their final decisions. An example of democratic leadership is at Google where new products are being constantly developed. Collaboration on ideas is strongly encouraged to foster creativity and bring new and innovative products to market.
Benefits of democratic leadership include improved morale as employees feel more valued, better productivity as staff feel more committed to goals that they were part of setting and improved innovation as a result of more ideas being input.
Drawbacks include decisions taking longer than with autocratic leadership, more dominant personalities can dominate discussions and people may become demotivated if ideas of their colleagues are chosen over theirs.
Paternalistic Leadership
Paternalistic leadership is a style that is similar to autocratic where there decision making is centralised. However, a paternalistic leader treats employees as if they are part of a large family. Paternalistic leaders show compassion for their employees, encourage loyalty to the company and encourage good relationships between employees to promote a good atmosphere. They may take an interest in the personal lives of employees and provide benefits that support that such as family medical insurance and staff social events.
Benefits of paternalistic leadership include increased loyalty as employees feel that their personal needs are understood, this can be useful in a crisis where extra support from staff is needed and can be reflected in lower absenteeism as employees do not want to let the leader or the organisation down
Drawbacks are similar to those of autocratic leadership as the decision making power is still held by the leader. This includes reduced morale due to staff not feeling that their opinions are valued, innovation may be limited due to the lack of input of ideas and there is a lot of pressure on the leader to devise solutions. In addition, there may be competition between staff to please the leader.
Laissez-Faire Leadership
Laissez-faire leadership is a style where leaders leave the majority of decisions to workers. They may give some guidance and discuss work with employees but they are generally confident in the abilities of their team members and trust them to solve problems with little input. Laissez-faire leadership is most appropriate with teams of skilled employees who enjoy having freedom in their work, situations where the subordinates may have higher skill level than the leader in their specific roles and creative industries. The role of the leader may be to offer support and guide individuals in setting their goals rather than deciding their goals for them. An example of a situation where laissez-faire leadership is effective is in an advertising agency where designers are highly skilled and knowledgeable and having freedom in their work fosters creativity.
Benefits of laissez-faire leadership include employees being highly motivated due to having autonomy over their work, decision making lies with those with those with the relevant skills and knowledge and increased creativity and innovation.
Drawbacks include employees feeling overwhelmed by decision making responsibility and lack of guidance, slow progress due to the lack of clear goals and timelines and poor decisions being made where employees lack the knowledge needed to make decisions.
