Your leadership style could be failing you when managing your employees. Some styles will work great in certain situations, and fail in others. Read on to find which style to use.

First, what kind of leader are you? Do you let your employees work on their own, without giving too much direction and involve them in decision-making? Do you make all the decisions for them and watch over their progress closely during the day? Or do you just rely on the company’s policies to govern your department?

All of these are leadership styles that supervisors at all levels employ when managing their employees. Which style is best? All of them; that is, each style works best in different situations. Here are examples of when each leadership style can apply to your experiences as a supervisor, from www.managementhelp.org.

• Laissez Faire Leadership: This leadership style means that you’re a “hands off” boss. You let your employees go along their day-to-day activities without too much interference. This style is appropriate when the workflow is slow or normal, or familiar (not new) jobs are running. It is not the best style to use if your department is running under a demanding schedule; you’ll need to be out there to assist your employees in getting the job done.
• Autocratic Leadership: You’re an autocratic leader if you do all the decision making yourself in the department. You give your workers direct supervision and track their progress closely. This style works best when you’ve got a brand new or complicated job running through or if your department is overloaded with work. You will need to choose which jobs to start first and delegate which employees will run them. This style is not good for when work is slow; you don’t need to be on top of your team when there isn’t much going on.
• Democratic Leadership: This is a participative style of leadership in which you allow your employees to be part of the decision-making process, rather than you being in charge of everything. This style works best when you want to get suggestions and ideas from your employees, like how to fix a quality issue with some parts. It isn’t the best style for times when you alone need to be the decision maker, like when you need to reprimand your employees.
• Bureaucratic Leadership: In some cases, you might not rely on either your own judgment or your employees’ judgment, but instead just stick to the rules of your company to guide you. You might use this leadership style when you need to reprimand an employee for a serious offense, such as theft or sexual harassment. In this case, you should stick to your company’s policies when deciding their punishment.

You might find that you predominately use one of these styles over the others, which is usually the case with most leaders. But being a good leader means that you can adjust your style to adapt to each situation you encounter.

Filed under: Management Minute