Styles Of Leadership

Leadership Styles

Introduction

In the long run there is no one leadership style that suits any particular organisation. Market circumstances change, internal circumstances change, external pressures change, or alternatively there may be a period of stability. These factors mean that as the business adapts to these different circumstances then the type of leader that is best suited to the business will also alter. The type of management required to force through restructuring or rebranding of an organisation, will be very different from the management who most effectively oversee a period of stability.

The management styles we examine below may then be broadly suited to a particular business form or structure, but there will be times when the style is easily transferable to organisations that have previously been run in quite different ways.

Leadership Styles

The role of leadership in management is largely determined by the organisational culture of the company. It has been argued that managers' beliefs, values and assumptions are of critical importance to the overall style of leadership that they adopt.

There are several different leadership styles that can be identified within each of the following Management techniques. Each technique has its own set of good and not-so-good characteristics, and each uses leadership in a different way.

The Autocrat
The Laissez-Faire Manager
The Democrat
References

The Autocrat

The autocratic leader dominates team-members, using unilateralism to achieve a singular objective. This approach to leadership generally results in passive resistance from team-members and requires continual pressure and direction from the leader in order to get things done. Generally, an authoritarian approach is not a good way to get the best performance from a team.

There are, however, some instances where an autocratic style of leadership may not be inappropriate. Some situations may call for urgent action, and in these cases an autocratic style of leadership may be best. In addition, most people are familiar with autocratic leadership and therefore have less trouble adopting that style. Furthermore, in some situations, sub-ordinates may actually prefer an autocratic style.

The Laissez-Faire Manager

The Laissez-Faire manager exercises little control over his group, leaving them to sort out their roles and tackle their work, without participating in this process himself. In general, this approach leaves the team floundering with little direction or motivation.

Again, there are situations where the Laissez-Faire approach can be effective. The Laissez-Faire technique is usually only appropriate when leading a team of highly motivated and skilled people, who have produced excellent work in the past. Once a leader has established that his team is confident, capable and motivated, it is often best to step back and let them get on with the task, since interfering can generate resentment and detract from their effectiveness. By handing over ownership, a leader can empower his group to achieve their goals.

The Democrat

The democratic leader makes decisions by consulting his team, whilst still maintaining control of the group. The democratic leader allows his team to decide how the task will be tackled and who will perform which task.

The democratic leader can be seen in two lights:

A good democratic leader encourages participation and delegates wisely, but never loses sight of the fact that he bears the crucial responsibility of leadership. He values group discussion and input from his team and can be seen as drawing from a pool of his team members' strong points in order to obtain the best performance from his team. He motivates his team by empowering them to direct themselves, and guides them with a loose reign.

However, the democrat can also be seen as being so unsure of himself and his relationship with his sub-ordinates that everything is a matter for group discussion and decision. Clearly, this type of "leader" is not really leading at all.

Teams

Preferred working styles

According to McCann and Margerison, there are essentially four sliding scales which indicate how people prefer to work. They are:

  • How people prefer to relate to others
    INTROVERTED <===> EXTROVERTED
    Some people will have an extroverted approach, talking things through with others and enjoying a wide variety of different asks; others will prefer to think things over and won't have a high need to discuss things with others.
  • How people prefer to gather and use information
    PRACTICAL <===> CREATIVE
    Practical people prefer tried and tested ideas, paying attention to the facts and details; creative people will be less constrained by tradition, will be future-oriented, won't mind ambiguous situations and will enjoy looking at possibilities.
  • How people prefer to make decisions
    ANALYTICAL <===> BELIEFS
    Analytical people will gather the information and then set up objective decision-criteria, trying to find the solution which maximises the pay-off; others will be more constrained by their beliefs, principles and values.
  • How people prefer to organize themselves and others
    STRUCTURED <===> FLEXIBLE
    Some like a structured environment, where everything is neat and tidy and decisions are made quickly; others prefer to be more flexible and make sure that all possible information has been gathered before decisions are reached - they'll tend to put off 'concluding' until they have gathered all the information they can.
The Wheel

The Wheel provides a visual representation of the key differences between people. Generally people show a preference for one of the key positions on the Wheel and two related 'backup' rôles. For example, they might see themselves as a 'creator-innovator' with related backup rôles as 'thruster-organizer and 'concluder-producer'.

You can see fairly easily how the positions on the Wheel relate to the working styles outlined above. For example, the 'explorer-promoter' is the result of an interaction between the extrovert and creative dimensions, giving people a preference for selling ideas and generally being entrepreneurial.

Distribution of roles

McCann's and Margerison's work has produced the following data on a population of 3730 managers from the UK, the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South-east Asia:

Team role / Proportion (%)
Creator-innovator / 9.2
Explorer-promoter / 8.7
Assessor-developer / 17.5
Thruster-organizer / 26.5
Concluder-producer / 26.7
Controller-inspector / 7.5
Upholder-maintainer / 1.7
Reporter-adviser / 2.1

71% of the sample falls on the right of the Wheel since they have a common preference for organizing. However, as McCann points out, these people do not always have a natural capacity for listening and their general weakness in communication is responsible for failing to achieve a truly high performance. Further, a company which fails to listen to the creators and innovators can find itself in trouble in the long run.

Finally, it's well worth taking a look through the characteristics of the people on the Wheel, if you haven't done so already. See if you can recognize yourself and people you know.

BEING a manager

Drucker - The management process

Peter Drucker, 1940s/50s US business advisor, created the idea of management by objectives:

Setting objectives

Organising the work

Motivating employees and communicating information

Job measurement

yardsticks of performance

observe targets reached

Developing people

Drucker argues:

Every manager performs these

Bad manager will perform them badly

Basic management function

Economic performance

Business manager justifies role through this

Handy: Being a manager

Charles Handy argues that defining management is too broad.

What is involved in being a manager?

Manager as general practitioner

Business health

Identification of the symptoms

cause of trouble

e.g. poor motivation - poor wages

Introduction of a rewards system

Managerial dilemmas

The dilemma of different cultures

Behaviour varies in different positions and areas

The trust - control delegation dilemma

Greater trust leads to less management control

The commando leaders dilemma

Project work outside the firms bureaucratic structure

Managers as people

development of professional skills

Mintzberg - Managerial roles

Henry Mintzberg suggests:

Managers carry out functions

Also fulfil three roles

Interpersonal roles

Figurehead role

Leader role

Liaison role

Information roles

Act as channels of information

Decision making roles

Access to information for decision making

Mintzberg’s conclusions

Systematic planning is a myth

Planning is done on a day-to-day basis

No routine duties is a myth

Some duties done as ceremonial tasks

Management prefer verbal communication

Qualities of leadership

Positive self image

Get to the core of problem

Specialise in areas

Creative and innovative

Sense and respond to change

Factors affecting leadership styles

The task

Company tradition

Type of labour force

Group size

Leaders personality

Group personality

Time