Participative Leadership And Empowering Teams

Leaders have a “the ability to influence a group toward the achievement of a vision or set of goals” (Robbins & Judge, 2007, p. 402). In the past leaders have been described by certain traits or characteristics. These traits can help an organization identify potential candidates who may be strong leaders. Later behavior approaches of leaders were identified that could be taught. In short, leaders could be made. Situations have an impact on which leader behaviors will be most effect at any given time. Several contingency theories have been formulated over the years to identify how situations influence leadership behavior. Each style has strengths and

There are a number of factors that will influence the style of leadership a leader may choose, such as:

A leadership philosophy helps to define and let others know what you expect, what things you value, and how you act as a leader. Different styles of leadership are needed for different situations. Every leader needs to know when and how to display a particular approach of leadership within a group. Leadership strategies define every leader’s personal leadership style. Three leadership styles of a counselor are the following: authoritarian style leaders, democratic style leaders, and laissez-faire style leaders.

This research focuses on four leadership styles that have been used within the organization. These styles play apart in the success of objectives and tasks being accomplished.

Six styles of leadership are going to be examined in this paper; transactional, transformational, servant, charismatic, contingency, and strategic.

In participative leadership, the leader of a group usually makes the final decisions, but only after consulting other team members for their input. Team members are inspired and motivated by this type of leadership which helps the leader’s decisions to be more widely accepted and adopted by the members (Reilly, 2011). In 1978, James Burns wrote a book about leadership styles in which he described the participative leader style as a type of

Other forms of leadership styles that are known to exist derive from the Leadership Style Inventory (LSI) developed by Rowe, Reardon, and Bennis (1995). The inventory identifies four basic styles; commanding, logical, inspirational and supportive. The differences in style used by leaders are based on the following two questions: How adaptive are leaders when dealing with the issues they face? How do leaders communicate with, persuade, and energize employees in the process of change?

All three style of leaderships are very crucial to change the individuals and the social systems within the organization. A perfect leader is one who carries all three styles. The style of an organization's leadership is reflected equally on the nature of that organization and its relations with the

According to J. Seyfarth, there are four types of leadership styles: directive, supportive, participative, and achievement-oriented leadership (Seyfarth, 1996). These styles vary from one another, but all may be visible within a school environment. During a recent interview with an elementary school principal, Amy Zilbar, she described her dominate leadership style as supportive (personal communication, April 25, 2013).

There are certain essential elements that constitute the definition of leadership. It may refer to the totality of an organization’s top direction-giving functionaries, or the actions applied in providing direction that enables the organization or team to move forward towards a goal. In reality, there are very diverse definitions of leadership depending on

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.

The key strengths of participative leadership style are increased productivity and job satisfaction. When employees are afforded an opportunity to be involved in the organization’s decision making process, they are likely to develop a strong sense of commitment to the organization as well as increase their performance. Job satisfaction is another key strength of this leadership style. Most employees display high levels of job satisfaction when they notice their suggestions and/or recommendations are taken seriously and in some instances implemented within the organization. Additionally, this

Organizations depend on the management and leadership skills of individuals in order to be successful. Leaders do not have to be managers but are equally important. Leaders are individuals who possess traits, behavior and abilities to influence others to accomplish tasks and other needed objectives for the company. Leadership is defined as “the ability of an individual to influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute toward the effectiveness and success of the organization. . . .” (House et al., 1999, pg. 184).

Leadership theories are attempts to answer some of the question people have about leadership. These theories range from simple “armchair philosophies” about the personal characteristics and effect relationship between leaders and followers and situations.