I feel like with many great leaders, one specific style alone does not represent how a great leader leads. Jan is a combination of multiple styles each tailored to the situation, task, or individual. Jan operates with a perfect mixture of Democratic and Laissez-faire styles, Situational Leadership, and Transformational Leadership. Below I will briefly describe each leadership style to offer a better understanding for what each has to offer and how it relates to Jan’s style.
Democratic Leadership Democratic Leadership is by far one of the broadest styles of leadership having more than 29 actual definitions of democratic styles (Bass, 1990). This is because the term democratic is ambiguous and an inconsistent belief among individuals. What one individual considers democratic, one other may not. The simplistic definition we will associate with Jan’s leadership style comes from Dr. JK White and is defined as “When group participation, discussion, and group decisions encouraged by the leader” (White & Lippitt, 1960)
As a democratic leader Jan will facilitate and drive the conversation amongst team members allowing each of us equal voice in how to work towards the end result. The combination of group conversation and collaborating towards the best result allow Jan to offer the final decision with a well thought out group support decision. The democratic leadership style is great for many situations but when a decision is needed rapidly this might not be the best approach.
The theory of leaders can be autocratic, a person who doesn’t consider the person undertaking the task only getting the results. A democratic leader takes opinions of the staff and understands how they believe the best results can be achieved, whereas Laissez-faire style leaves the experienced staff to implement the work processes.
The democratic style which allows the team to develop options and decide actions may be appropriate for a well trained team who perform at a high level. Leadership functions may be shared with the team and individuals have a greater say in decision making and the implementation of actions and procedures. Advantages of this style may include securing team commitment to decisions and their implementation, which can be an aide to the development of the team and individuals, and increased morale. Disadvantages; in situations where team roles are unclear it can lead to communication failures. And there is the possible
A democratic leader generally accept any opinion and voices which means that the team would feel free to voice their opinions and ideas without them being dismissed straight away. The positive side to this style is that the team/workforce can be highly motivated, skilled and experienced members can be used in decision making which makes them feel more committed and could less resistant to managerial changes it also help with communication between the workforce and the managers. The negative side to this style is that individuals can dominate participation or make disruptive contributions it can also be very time consuming for the leader because of the two communication it can also result in actions that are the most effective and also people may view this style as incompetent to handle the job responsibilities.
An advantage of the democratic style involves a considerable job satisfaction of subordinates, through augmenting their responsibilities which results in more interesting and diverse work (Ribbins, 1997). Bush (2008) agrees; when responsibility is shared the self-confidence of group members is enhanced, as they have a key role in planning and decision-making. The democratic leadership style provides high quality expert knowledge and skills are identified and implemented towards achieving targets (Dimmock and Walker, 2005). Grace (1995) supports this, and claims that goals are more likely to be reached since; they have been established by group consensus.
According to Huber a leader is "a process of influence by which the leader influences others toward goal achievement" (2014). With that being said, the role of key leader is null and void without the allegiance of a team. As part of this week’s module we were to complete an assessment to determine the category in which our leadership style mimicked. Furthermore, results determined that the leadership style I possess democratic. Moreover, the democratic style of leadership is primarily
“White lies are okay when you have to give someone bad news” David Dobberpuhl, “I refuse to work with someone who is not truthful” Lucas Lentsch. This is just one example of where these two leaders disagreed with what is acceptable for leadership, but there are many more examples of where they agreed with what is good for a leader. Ph.D. David Dobberpuhl is a professor of Chemistry at Creighton University, along with this he is also the Chemistry Department Chair, finishing his first term, soon to start another three year term. I choose to interview Dr. Dobberpuhl (Dobbs) because he was very accommodating in a time of loss for me and he has always seemed to care about me, he has even given me some advice though, he may not know it. Lucas Lentsch is the current Secretary of Agriculture in South Dakota, he has held this office for the past three years. I decided to interview Lucas because is a family friend and a much respected person in my home state. Both men have a position of power within their organization, and I wanted to see if there was any major similarities or differences in two people who fall under the democratic style of leadership The democratic leadership style involves getting input and insight from different individuals to come to the best solution, because of this property of this style, it is not surprising that two different people would have differences and similarities in their approaches with this style. This paper will have two main points on how their
A1. Leadership Style Upon conducting research, it is clear that the definition of “leadership” is not agreed upon. It is fluid, based upon many perceptions, situations, and surroundings. According to Robinson (2010), adopting a specific style of leadership is rather futile as it is, “contingent on the personal traits of the leader, the people being led, and the nature of the activity.” Tools are available to help guide potential leaders in determining a preferred style of leadership. For example, utilizing the “Leadership Self-Assessment
Democratic leadership style is the leadership style I would implement. I would implement this leadership style because I feel that everyone’s opinions and views on the discussion is important. If you get a consensus of group members you get a greater view to make a greater judgment on how to build guidelines. Also getting input from all group members gets people involved and permits them to get their input for decisions that will
I felt that Ms. Janine management style is more likely to be leading autocrat as she makes decisions alone based on here own ideas and judgments and manages to conveys the decision to staff and they have to work within the scope of that decision.
In a democratic leadership style, the decision making process and overall responsibility among team members is shared. Decisions are made by the leader consulting each member of the team; therefore the outcome becomes a group effort. In the democratic leadership style, tasks are delegated to employees effectively, where the implementation is mostly in their hands. As opposed to the authoritarian leadership style, the democratic leader welcomes feedback from every team member. Team members are also encouraged to function as a
Leadership has many definitions, is multifaceted, and involves numerous aspects, such as identifying goals, providing support, inspiring and motivating people to act, and promoting the values of a group or organization (Giltinane, 2013). Some of the characteristics an effective leader possesses are honesty, creativity, emotional stability, energy, flexibility, conceptual skills, perseverance, and knowledge (Huber, 2014). Based on the Leadership Style Survey, my leadership style is determined to be participative, also referred to as democratic. This approach places emphasis on people, relationships, and teamwork. The leader shares responsibility by involving workers in group discussions and decision making, is able to recognize strengths and encourage workers
Leadership can be defined as the ability to lead a group of people successfully in an organization. Hall, et al (2008) have mentioned that an effective leader has to be visionary, motivating and responsible in order to successfully run a business organization. In business the two key leadership styles, which are widely used in today’s corporate world are autocratic leadership and democratic leadership (Johnson, n.d.). Autocratic leadership may be explained as “a leadership style where the manager sets objectives, allocates tasks and insists on obedience” (Hall, et al 2008 p.g 401). Conversely, democratic leadership encourages “participation in decision making” (Hall, et al 2008 p.g 402). Whilst many people would consider autocratic
Each of these leadership styles has its own benefits (advantages) & disadvantages and they are as follows:
In terms of leadership styles a wide variety exists for one to employ (Boykins, 2013). There isn’t firm consensus as to which styles prove to be the most effective. Different situations call for different approaches. In the article, Empirical Study of Leadership Styles, it discusses several leadership styles that I can relate to.
On the contrary, democratic leaders involve team members in the process of decision-making. In terms of Laissez-Faire leadership style, Mullins stated that leaders observe members of the group are working on their own.