Most Effective Leadership & Management Style & Approaches

Blog 3

“Which personal style should managers adopt to ensure success? What is the most effective approach to managing the work of subordinates? These questions have been extensively research and debated over the last century, and while the general consensus has moved away from ‘command and control’ to management and leadership towards more consultative and participative approaches, there is no single ideal, as the best approach may vary according to circumstances and individual characteristics” (CMI 2013)

Introduction

In this blog I will be covering topics such as, on going debate of leadership versus management, and find different types of ways for managers in determining which kind of style is best for them, by illustrating conclusions from the following questions:

• “What is the best efficient method to managing the work of subordinates?”
• “What is the best efficient leadership style to managing the work of subordinates?”
• “Which personal style should managers adopt to ensure success?”

According to Gandhi, “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others”. Which means a leader is an individual who devote themselves for the welfare of others (Dhiman, 2015). Different authors define leaders in different ways for example according to Peter Northouse “Leadership is a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal” and according to Todd Sorensen et al “Leadership is successfully creating positive change for the common good” (Summerfield, 2014). By this we can say that leaders are individuals, building relationship, motivating others and influencing others to do work in order to achieve a common goal. It is very important for manager to be a good leader in accordance to achieve high productive in today’s world of business.

Similarities and differences between different types of leadership

In order to understand the difference between types of leadership, political leaders are good examples, as they reflect different values, concept and view point on same problems. For example, in UK government the current Prime Minister David Cameron belong to Conservative party (Gov.uk, 2016) and the opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn belong to Labour party (UK Parliament, 2016), both of them having different approach and political behaviors. Like politics it is same in the world of business, different business leaders have different approach and business strategy. For example, Richard Branson chairman of virgin group is one of the successful leader, believe in reputational branding instead of traditional product or service branding (Niphadkar, 2014). Whereas according to Mark Zuckerberg leadership style there is nothing such as failure according to him if you fail at first you should start over again (Tan, 2013).  As from this examples it is evident both the leaders are successful in their respective field and different leaders use different style and approach.

According to Mullins (2013: 375) “Leadership style is the way in which the functions of leadership are carried out, the way in which the manager typically behaves towards members of the group.” To understand leadership style in much better way we can use Goleman’s leadership style model.

(Agilevietnam.files.wordpress.com, 2016)

Goleman has listed 6 distinctive leadership styles and all of them are different factors of emotional intelligence. The factors are authoritative, affiliation, democratic, pacesetting, coaching and coercive. According to Goleman effective leaders change among this conclusive styles to match the style needed in the situations where they are necessary (Goleman, 2016).

There are many different styles of leadership such as “autocratic” where the team is in complete command and control of the leader, “bureaucratic” where policies and processes are strictly enforced by leaders, “democratic” where leader make the final decision but every one can give their suggestion in decision making or “laissez faire” where the team is completely trusted by the leader (Johannsen, 2014). In relation with Goleman, the above styles may differ between businesses. A democratic style is used in every country for voting as every individual is given right to vote and choose their leader.

Leadership style is a key factor in management, as the style used by manager directly effects the team members completing and functioning for the given task, as well as leader is accountable to motivate the team to reach organizational goals (Cunningham, 2015). It is very important for managers of leaders to demonstrate few of this habits:

• Invention – leaders should be good inventors
• Reframing – leaders should have ability to create new perspective for challenges
• Attraction and orchestration – leaders should have ability to persuade
• Influence – leaders should be influential
• De-risking – leaders should know how to utilize even the smallest opportunities (Forbes.com, 2012)

What is the Most Effective Leadership Style to Manage the Work of Subordinates?

Successful managers have the ability to influence their subordinates to achieve high productivity. Yukl discovered that most research categorized five different kinds of leader power, depending upon the power taxonomy recommended by French and Raven in their studies of Social Power, which are:

• Reward power – is formal power to assign resources and rewards
• Coercive power – is grounded on authority over penalty
• Legitimate power – followers agree to obey with the rules and directions from leaders in gain for the benefits of membership
• Expert power – is a basis of power if others are dependent on the mediator for instruction
• Referent power – derived from the desire of others to place an agent towards whom they have (uthscsa.edu, 1999)

Conclusion

In conclusion I would like to say that the successful leadership style depends on an individual capability of using the right power at the right time. Also it depends on the subordinates as they are the one, adjusting and adapting the style in a given situation. To understand leadership style in much better way I would suggest you to watch this video.

References

1. Agilevietnam.files.wordpress.com. (2016). [online] Available at: https://agilevietnam.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/six_leadership_styles.png [Accessed 25 Mar. 2016].
2. Cunningham, J. (2015). Project Management Leadership Style: A Team Member Perspective. International Journal of Global Business, [online] 8(2), pp.27 – 54. Available at: http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=7a09e100-9881-4ff7-9547-8d3fb358d754%40sessionmgr115&vid=1&hid=116 [Accessed 25 Mar. 2016].
3. Dhiman, S. (2015). Lead Effectively : 7 exemplary Gandhian values. [online] Web.a.ebscohost.com. Available at: http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=84d27a56-0f0e-44de-a66c-26e540c28294%40sessionmgr4003&vid=1&hid=4112 [Accessed 22 Mar. 2016].
4. Forbes.com. (2012). The Six Surprising Habits of Today’s Highly Effective Leaders. [online] Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/haydnshaughnessy/2012/02/29/the-six-surprising-habits-of-highly-effective-leaders/2/#28a4fc29f451 [Accessed 25 Mar. 2016].
5. Goleman, D. (2016). The New Leaders – Transforming the art of leadership into the science of results. [online] http://vedpuriswar.org. Available at: http://vedpuriswar.org/Book_Review/Leadership_Managerial_Effectiveness/The%20New%20Leaders.pdf [Accessed 25 Mar. 2016].
6. Gov.uk. (2016). Prime Minister – GOV.UK. [online] Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/ministers/prime-minister [Accessed 25 Mar. 2016].
7. Johannsen, M. (2014). Types of Leadership Styles. [online] Legacee. Available at: https://www.legacee.com/types-of-leadership-styles/ [Accessed 25 Mar. 2016].
8. Mullins, L. (2013). Management & Organisation Behaviour. 10th ed. London: Pearson Education Limited.
9. Niphadkar, D. (2014). Richard Branson’s style of Leadership. [online] https://www.linkedin.com. Available at: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140615050729-230514046-richard-branson-s-style-of-leadership [Accessed 25 Mar. 2016].
10. Summerfield, M. (2014). Leadership: A simple definition. REFLECTIONS, [online] 71, pp.251 – 253. Available at: http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=de8be738-8f96-47e7-9dba-5989d4991e8f%40sessionmgr120&vid=1&hid=116 [Accessed 25 Mar. 2016].
11. Tan, T. (2013). Mark Zuckerberg Leadership Style. [Blog] Is Mark Zuckberg and effective leader or not?. Available at: http://markzuckerberg1.blogspot.co.uk/ [Accessed 25 Mar. 2016].
12. UK Parliament. (2016). Government and Opposition roles. [online] Available at: http://www.parliament.uk/about/mps-and-lords/principal/government-opposition/ [Accessed 25 Mar. 2016].
13. uthscsa.edu. (1999). Leadership As A Function Of Power. [online] Available at: http://uthscsa.edu/gme/documents/LspasaFunctionofPower.pdf [Accessed 25 Mar. 2016].