Leadership Styles

Chapter - 5 Leadership Styles 12 Oct 2008

Style The method, manner, technique, way of doing things ……..it is an offshoot / extension of Behavior,Attitude of an individualin a given environment / situation / circumstances.

Leadership Style It is the manner and approach of providing direction, implementing plans, and motivating people. There are normally three main styles of leadership : • Authoritarian or autocratic(Authoratative) • Participative or democratic(Democratic) • Delegative or Free Reign(Delegative) “A good leaderuses all three styles, depending on what forces are involved between the followers, the leader, and the situation”.

Classical Leadership Styles • Autocratic Leadership style – Usually Task Oriented, retain most of the Authority, Confidently make decisions, assume group members will comply – not concerned about group members attitude. Assertive and always telling members what to do, how to do –easily discard non complaint's…… B e l i e v e – YOU HAVE TO BE TOUGH OR YOU CAN NOT GET THE JOB DONE. • Participative Leadership Style– Share Decision making with the group …. have three sub types …CONSULTATIVE, CONSENSUS & DEMOCRATIVE. The difference being in degree of participation and the sharing of the outcome of the decisions. It is in accordance with the modern thrust of managing people. Disadvantage being lack of confidentiality and time consuming. • Free Rein Leadership Style – A synonym for French word laisse faire meaning ( No Interference ) Group Members given a task and told to independently decide how to perform it best.. Requires well experienced and motivated teams – promotes self sufficiency and freedom of action but has chance of members acting indifferently / showing signs of lack of involvement

Ancillary Styles of Leadership Source: Daniel Goleman, “Leadership That Gets Results,” Harvard Business Review, March–April 2000, pp. 82–83.

Ancillary Styles of Leadership (cont’d) Source: Daniel Goleman, “Leadership That Gets Results,” Harvard Business Review, March–April 2000, pp. 82–83.

Ancillary Styles of Leadership (cont’d)

Typical Forces that Influence the Choice of Style • How much time is available. • Are relationships based on respect and trust or on disrespect? • Who has the information - you, your employees, or both? • How well your employees are trained and how well you know the task. • Internal conflicts. • Stress levels. • Type of task. Is it structured, unstructured, complicated, or simple? • Nature and contents of Laws or established Initiating Structure.

Specifics of Forces Affecting Selection of Appropriate Style Forces in the Manager Level of Confidence in Team Members, Level of Emotional Security and Natural Inclination towards sharing Decision Making Forces in the Subordinates Competence Level of Team Members, Identity with Organizational Goals, Tolerance Level of Ambiguity, Decision Making Ability Forces in the Situation Values & Traditions of the Organization, Degree of Exposure, networking, Knowledge, Problem Handling Capacity. The Pressure of Time Nature of Decision making , typical requirement of time and time constraints / availability.

Leadership Continuum Boss Centeredvs Employee CenteredContinuum Autocratic StyleParticipative StyleFree Rein Leader hasGroup Member has Max AuthorityMax Authority

Continuum of Leadership Behavior Boss – Centered Leadership Subordinates–Centered Leadership Use of Authority Area of Freedom by the Manager for Subordinates

Which Style ? ? • The 9.9 (team management style) research shows that profitability may not be same on a comparative basis • Effective leaders score highly on style showing concern for both people and production but their leadership style is varying and dependant on the situation. • Principles of Human behavior must be the guiding factor when guaging situations to decide individual leadership style • Eventually all leader rely on using a combo of dominant style and a back up style whilst being conscious of the need to always adapt to the situation

Characteristics of Entrepreneurial Leadership Style • Mostly personality characteristic and circumstance biased style with bias of task oriented inspiration • Pursue opportunity and strong achievement centered relations along with sensible risk taking ability • High Degree enthusiasm and creativity • Actions are quick and cued by the degree of opportunity available • Perpetual Hurry & impatience to avail opportunity • Vision biased towards search for opportunity and identifying related problems along with possible solutions • Dislike working within a main stream or in bureaucratic manner with rules dictating management of people • Prefer dealing with external customers and focus energy on products and services and customers rather then rules and regulation.

Gender Differences in Leadership • Women possess traits (cooperative, caring sensitive nature) which make them more suited to relation oriented leadership. • Women more inclined towards participative type management. • Women enjoy and edge over men in encouraging group members for decision making. • Women are better listeners and rely heavily on inter personal skills. • Women believe more in transformational style of leader ship whereas men believe in command and control style. • Women lose out to men on risk taking, quick decision making and display of sense of humor.

Where Female Leaders Do Better: A Scorecard

Participative Autocratic Free Rein Selecting the Best Leadership Style THEME “The most effective leaders appear to exhibit a degree of versatility and flexibility that enables them to adapt their behavior to the changing and contradictory demands made on them, thereby selecting any one of the following styles as the best for that situation.”

Leadership Styles