Pros and Cons of Democratic leadership Leadership Style
Every leader has his/her own style of managing the subordinates based on the type of organization. A good leader not only strives to attain excellent business results, but also establish a culture where the subordinates are motivated through a common purpose. I have opted for a democratic style of leadership, which involves teamwork equal participation. Some of the advantages of democratic style of leadership are that it enables every individual to offer his/her opinion on how to undertake certain tasks. According to Murray (n.d), a democratic style of leadership draws on the teams’ knowledge and skills, in addition to creating a group commitment towards the desired goals.
Democratic leadership enables every team member to feel valued and encouraged to offer solutions, which could lead to surprising results. Consequently, members in the team feel free to express their intentions and needs, since they acknowledge contribution of each other (Dwyer, 2013). Democratic leaders allow employees to exercise their creativity, which in turns enhance job satisfaction, productivity, and innovation among employees. Employees are likely to remain in one organization for a long time because they are satisfied while the organization benefits by retaining its best talents.
However, a democratic form of leadership is quite poor when the organization has clearly defined goals. This form of leadership may create disagreements among teams and team members due to lack of consensus from multiple group leaders, who want their opinions to take center stage. Team members may lack the will to direct themselves, thus, a presence of an authoritative hand may be required to offer appropriate direction. In times of crisis, democratic leaders may not be able to address issues that necessitate quick decisions (Murray, n.d). Besides, democratic leaders are coerced to apologize if they choose to go with opinions of one team over the others.
How My Leadership Style Motivates Teamwork
Leaders play a major role in establishing effective teams that are productive. In a democratic style of leadership, leaders encourage teams to come up with ideas that can enhance their productivity. They create a framework that guides team activities and motivate teams to remain focused. In a situational leadership, leaders must adapt to their leadership styles according to the situation of their teams (DuBois, et al., 2015). Excellent leaders endeavor to understand what the teams need by encouraging each member to contribute on how to delivers services effectively. When employees feel that their contributions are valued and rewarded, they reciprocate through applying more effort in their work.
Strong teams are established through effective leadership. When leaders communicate effectively to the teams, they instill confidence, as well as a great sense of purpose to attain success in the organization. Leaders establish effective teams though acting as role models, in addition to “walk the talk” during the most difficult moments (DuBois, 2015). Democratic leaders encourage feedback mechanism, which allow employees to present customers’ issues to the management. Leaders define roles, set goals and assist employees to focus on the vision through informing them on the organizational culture.
Leaders can build strong teams through offering incentives. Incentives that are offered to groups enable individuals to contribute towards teamwork. In a democratic style of leadership, leaders allow team leaders to come up with the appropriate methods of awarding incentives to avoid bias and favoritism. Incentives may be in monetary forms or through promotions. According to Dwyer (2013), incentives can be introduced to transform employees’ behaviors or to award excellent performance. Therefore, incentives are vital in promoting good behavior and high productivity among team members.
Communication Impacts on Leadership
Communication is extremely essential in successful leadership. Business leaders should understand that effective communication is a learned behavior; hence, it does not come naturally. Leadership involves an interaction between leaders and their followers where leaders endeavor to encourage the followers to work towards a common goal (Dwyer, 2012). Effective communication requires leaders who engage their followers to regular trainings on communication. In most training, employees are taught on how to concentrate on listening, as active listening enable them to avoid interruptions during working hours.
Successful leadership is build on trust, and leaders can only establish trust through effective communication. Leaders utilize their communication skills to transmit appropriate behaviors among their followers. Communication assists in the development of organizational culture that guides on how employees should behave in the organization. According to Dwyer (2013), organizational culture is built by hiring employees who think, feel, and act in accordance with the directions of the top management. Thus, how the top leadership personnel communicate to the subordinates determines how effective or ineffective an organization can become. Culture is normally communicated through success stories, language, as well as rituals.
The aptitude to communicate vision to various teams can assist leaders in attaining the desired goals in a given period. When employees feel that the organization is leading towards the right direction through their leader’s vision, they are inspired to become part of the vision. Effective communication fosters the spirit of teamwork and collaboration, which necessitates employees to attain the goals set by the organization (DuBois, et al., 2015). Leaders who apply effective communication skills usually manage deliver their goals on time, and with minimum cost. Thus, leaders require excellent communication skills to ensure success in teamwork.
References
DuBois, M., Koch, J., Hanlon, J., Nyatuga, B., & Kerr, N. (2015). Leadership Styles of Effective Project Managers: Techniques and Traits to Lead High Performance Teams. Journal of Economic Development, Management, IT, Finance & Marketing, 7(1), 30-46.
Dwyer, J. (2013). Communication for Business and the Professions: Strategies and Skills. Melbourne: Pearson.
Murray, A. (n, d). Leadership Styles. The Wall Street Journal, Developing Leadership Styles. Retrieved on 7 Dec. 2015 from http://guides.wsj.com/management/developing-a-leadership-style/how-to-develop-a-leadership-style/?mod=WSJBlog