Democratic Leadership
Participative leadership is one of the most effective styles and creates higher productivity, better contributions from group members, and increased group morale. The democratic leadership style consists of the leader sharing the decision-making abilities with group members by promoting the interests of the group members. Learn more about this leadership style and situations when it is effective.
What is Democratic Leadership Style?
A democratic leader understands that there is no organization without its people. He looks at his and others' positions in terms of responsibilities rather than status and often consults in decision-making. The democratic style encompasses the notion that everyone, by virtue of their human status, should play a part in the group's decisions. Democratic leadership invites the participation of staff members and others, not only in decision-making but also in shaping the organization's vision.
While a democratic leader solicits, values, and takes into account others' opinions, however, the ultimate responsibility for decision-making still lies reserved with the leader. Final decisions about what to do with the ideas from team members still remain in the hands of the leader. Such a leader believes that although the organization's success depends on collaboration and cooperation from all team members, accountability for the consequences of the decisions made still lies on the leader alone.
Some models of democratic leadership might put responsibility in the hands of a small group like a management team or executive committee.
Characteristics of Democratic Leadership:
- This style of leadership encompasses discussion, debate, and sharing of ideas and encouragement of people to feel good about their involvement. Democratic leadership can lead to better ideas and more creative solutions to problems because group members are encouraged to share their thoughts and ideas.
- It allows everyone to express opinions about how things should be done, and where the organization should go. By bringing in everyone's ideas, it enriches the organization's possibilities
- The democratic style of leadership still requires guidance and control by a specific leader.
- The democratic style demands the leader to make decisions on who should be called upon within the group and who is given the right to participate in, make, and vote on decisions.
Situations where Effective:
- Democratic leadership works best in situations where group members are skilled and eager to share their knowledge.
- Encourages friendships and good relationships throughout the organization
- Helps people feel valued when their opinions are solicited, and even more so if those opinions are incorporated into a final decision or policy
- Allow the team to provide input before making a decision, although the degree of input can vary from leader to leader.
- Encourage creativity and level of engagement and commitment
- Leads to higher job satisfaction and productivity
- Effective when quality is more important than efficiency or productivity
- Effective for creative groups like advertising and design as they need innovative ideas to create new concepts and designs
- Effective in a consulting environment when the focus is to explore the processes and possibilities in-depth to fix problems or processes
- Effective in the service industry to foster new ideas meeting changing customer demands
Situations where Not Effective:
While democratic leadership is one of the most effective leadership styles, it does have some potential downsides. Some such situations are given below:
- Where the roles are unclear or time is of the essence, democratic leadership can lead to communication failures and uncompleted projects.
- It is a time-intensive process and while using this style one should factor in the time for people to contribute, time to develop a plan, and then vote on the best course of action. Hence losses quick and clear decision-making that comes with the elimination of consultation.
- This style is important when team agreement matters, but it can be difficult to manage when there are lots of different perspectives and ideas.
Related Links
You May Also Like
-
Authoritarian Leadership Style
Although generally considered as a traditional, outdated, and non-preferred style of leadership, the autocratic style still can be used effectively in certain situations. It is a leadership style characterized by individual absolute control over a group. If you work for an autocratic leader, your job is usually to do what you're told. Learn more about this style and situations where this could be an effective style to use and when to avoid this type of approach. Analyze the characteristics of this style to evaluate if your followers consider you an authoritarian leader!
-
A good leadership style is something that every effective leader must have in order to succeed, but identifying what that entails or does not entails might be difficult to understand. Most of the research on leadership focuses on the exemplary, best practices, and positive attributes of effective and successful leaders. This article talks about a new approach to learn leadership using lessons from bad leadership. That is the lessons to be learned by examining leaders who have not effectively exercised their power, authority, or influence.
-
Charisma is a certain quality of an individual personality, by virtue of which he is set apart from ordinary men. Charismatic Leader gathers followers, through dint of personality and charm. Understand the meaning and concept of Charismatic Leadership and the qualities of a charismatic leader. Gain an understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of using charismatic leadership. Finally, explore the difference between charismatic and transformational leadership.
-
Facilitative Leadership is all about involving the employees in the decision-making process at all levels enhancing their sense of ownership, responsibility, and motivation. Facilitative leadership style uses a number of indirect communication patterns to help the group reach consensus and build commitment for the decision taken. To be effective in modern organizations, managers need to become facilitative leaders, learn what it means to be a one.
-
Narrative leadership is interpreted as the leader who aspires to construct leadership by telling stories. Leadership is a task of persuasion, of winning people’s minds and hearts. Storytelling is thus inherently suited for the task of leadership. Learn about the narrative leadership style and how to use this style to inspire and motivate followers or to manage change.
-
Leadership has been defined in different ways by different sets of scholars. In very simple terms leadership can be defined as the skill of a person to influence an individual or a group for achievement of a goal in a given situation. One can use different dimensions and perspectives to define leadership. Through the evolution of leadership thought, leadership has been defined in various ways discussed here.
-
Participative leadership is one of the most effective styles and creates higher productivity, better contributions from group members, and increased group morale. The democratic leadership style consists of the leader sharing the decision-making abilities with group members by promoting the interests of the group members. Learn more about this leadership style and situations when it is effective.
-
Laissez-faire is a style of leadership that affords the group members a great deal of independence. Tasks are delegated to the group members and they are responsible to see the project through to fruition. Research has shown that this style of leadership leads to the lowest levels of productivity. This article explains this style and covers the implications of having a hands-off approach and the situations where this style could be effective.
-
Bureaucratic leadership relies on a clear chain of command and strict regulations. Bureaucratic leadership style is a very decent style for work involving serious safety risks, such as handling toxic substances, moving large objects. The focus is on compliance with rules and laid down procedures to make sure that the group is doing their job correctly and safely. Learn some advantages and disadvantages of this style and situations in which this style could prove to be effective.
-
Adaptive leadership is a style of leadership that emphasizes the importance of each and every person and role within the company. Adaptive leadership views the organization as an ever-changing, living organization, where employees can learn, adapt, and grow. Adaptive leaders mobilize people towards a common goal and also have the courage to experiment with new ideas and approaches. Adaptive leadership is the practice of mobilizing groups of people to tackle tough challenges and thrive. Learn how to adopt this style and how to become an adaptive leader!
