Managers face unique challenges related to their work and team. Implementing an effective management style can help managers overcome these obstacles and meet organizational goals more quickly.
An effective management style depends on several elements, including workplace culture and individual personality traits. Learning more about different management styles will enable you to identify your own leadership strengths and weaknesses more readily.
- Authoritative
Authoritative management styles can be an excellent solution for certain teams and situations. Their high expectations can motivate team members to work harder, ultimately increasing productivity and quality.
To successfully implement this form of leadership, an in-depth knowledge of employees’ motivations and capabilities must be gained. Furthermore, decision-making should remain transparent so employees understand why each directive was issued.
Revolt can arise when this style is implemented inconsistently or without justification, for instance when used without appropriate justification or justification. For instance, when used inappropriately or consistently when the situation requires more collaborative leadership style approaches. Employees could lose trust in their leader. Authoritative leaders include no-nonsense managers who expect employees to comply with their instructions without question. Also referred to as pacesetting management styles it can be particularly helpful during emergency situations.
- Democratic
Democratic management styles encourage collaboration and two-way communication among team members. They allow team members to be part of the decision making process; however, any final decisions must be approved by their manager. While democratic management styles may work best when interim assignments require knowledge sharing among teammates to succeed quickly, their effectiveness may decrease when time constraints require quick decision-making.
Democratic management can be highly effective when implemented with a team of domain experts who possess extensive knowledge on the project at hand. Engaging them in decision-making processes will lead to improved results while giving employees more freedom in coming up with ideas and solutions without fear of being restricted by one perspective or another.
- Laissez-Faire
A laissez-faire management style gives employees considerable freedom in how they conduct themselves without much guidance or oversight from management. While this style can result in less accountability and lower productivity, it also supports employee autonomy and fosters creativity and innovation.
Consultative management styles allow managers to seek the opinions and input of team members before making decisions based on that input. Consultative approaches are useful in building trust among employees and managers as well as improving employee-manager relations and encouraging collaboration; however, this method may take up too much time and may not work well in interim assignments.
Managers must remain self-aware and understand their strengths, weaknesses and the management styles which best meet the needs of their teams. A healthy dose of self-awareness allows managers to react more swiftly when unexpected obstacles arise and increase business performance overall.
- Inspirational
Flexibility in managing is vitally important to successful teams and businesses, with great leaders having the ability to adjust their style to different circumstances without losing sight of what makes them special.
Under emergency and urgency conditions, an autocratic management style that supports quick decision-making may be essential; however, prolonged usage of such leadership style could stifle employee creativity and engagement.
Democratic management styles encourage employee involvement in decision-making processes while offering ample opportunities for feedback, praise, and coaching. A democratic leadership style works to establish trust and respect between managers and employees and is also suitable for interim assignments where staff may come and go over time.
- Dictatorship
Autocratic management involves strong, centralized control under one manager or leader and top-down decision-making. While autocratic leadership may be effective during emergencies, such as when quick actions must be taken quickly, overuse can alienate employees and discourage creativity in the workplace.
Pacesetting managers are driven to meet high goals and encourage their crews to excel beyond expectations. While this leadership style works best when used intermittently, overuse could cause burn out for highly motivated members of the team and could result in fatigue over time.
Avoiding managers often try to sidestep conflict in hopes it will resolve itself; while this strategy might work temporarily, over time they often result in distrust and decreased cooperation. Compromise managers seek a middle ground, encouraging both sides to make concessions to reach mutually acceptable solutions.
