We all come from different walks of life — thus the reason for many conflicts in the workplace. But today, we’re going to tackle another repercussion of human variability as a whole — and it’s having different types of management styles in the workplace.
What is management style?
Management style refers to how a manager works to attain their goals. It includes the way a manager plans, organizes, decides, delegates, and manages the employees.
Due to human variability (in terms of culture, sex, principles, level of management, country of residence, and etc.), there are variations in types of management styles as well. To put it simply, management styles are affected by both internal and external factors.
Internal factors include the universal corporate and organizational culture of the company. This includes policies, priorities, skill levels, and employee engagement. In reverse, external factors include employment laws, competitors the economy, suppliers, and consumers.
While these factors are inevitable, an effective manager is flexible enough to adjust their management style in response to the workplace environment while keeping their focus on fulfilling their targets.
But what happens if you chose the wrong management style?
Sad to say, the opinion on managers’ worth seems to decline over the last few years. Many articles and news are claiming that managers are useless and unnecessary in today’s workforce.
The question is, why is there a drastic change in public opinion about managers? Why are so many managers viewed unfavorably?
According to Gallup, organizations choose the wrong manager 82% of the time. Imagine, this is one of the most important decisions a company must make. Yet, they fail in doing so 8 out of 10 times.
To add fuel to the fire, a four-year study by Leadership IQ found out that the reason for this failure is that the manager’s style is not cut out for their particular culture. This study alone concludes that if you cannot adapt to the needs of your position and organization, then you are bound to fail from the very start.
The wrong management style can lead to an unengaged team. And when your team is unengaged, this can result in:
- Poor quality of work
- A drastic increase in turnover
- Lower productivity
- More issues related to absenteeism and theft
- Decreased profitability
To avoid these complications and drawbacks, you need to know which types of management styles to adapt to. Sure, there is no one-size-fits-all management style. After all, they all have their own pros and cons. But to make it easier for you, we divided them into two categories. Specifically, we listed down the best types of management styles to adopt and the worst ones to avoid.
The 5 Best Types of Management Styles
1. Democratic
The general rule of democratic management is that the majority rules. This means managers don’t keep decision-making tasks to themselves. Instead, they let their employees participate too because they value diverse ideas, and they understand that people play a huge role in the team’s success.
Employees highly influence this type of manager. Thus, most employees love this type of management style. Democratic management style makes them feel valued, which forges a healthy and good relationship between the manager and the employee.
But be careful not to execute this poorly as this can lead to an inefficient team. Those managers who ponder too much even after consulting their team can slow down the progress. If you want your employees to feel valued, you need to make sure that they’re actually contributing to the decision-making — and not just because you wanted them to feel good.
Read: 18 Effective Tricks on How to Find Motivation at Work
2. Visionary
Visionary managers convince their team to work hard by highlighting their purpose and vision. After communicating their vision and strategy, they let their employees work on their own instead of micromanaging them. They make sure to check in on them just to make sure that everyone’s on the right track.
This is one of the types of best management styles that give employees a great sense of autonomy. That’s because humans tend to feel more satisfied and motivated when they have more control over the tasks assigned to them.
At the same time, visionary managers are known to be firm yet fair. While their visions can’t be easily waivered, they are still open to listening to their employee’s ideas. And if they are presented with a greater idea, they are willing to consider changing their plan.
But bear in mind that this type of management style is hard to pull off. It would only work if you are good at selling the purpose of your vision to your employees. If you don’t, you’ll have a hard time turning that vision into reality.
3. Coaching
What makes coaching one of the best management styles is how it strives to improve the long-term development of their employees. Their passion is to teach and watch their employees grow. Most of all, they do not feel downcasted when their employees experience short-term failures. For them, what matters is their employees’ ability to learn and develop.
Coaching managers like to motivate their employees by giving them a promotion and delegating bigger tasks. In this way, employees feel hungry for knowledge, which results in the stable development of the team’s performance.
Coach managers have two main focuses, which include uniting the team and overseeing every employee’s development. The best teams are the united teams. And when managers are concerned with their employees’ development, it can go a long way toward success.
But don’t overdo this, though. Doing this can lead to a relentless environment which can be toxic for the whole team’s relationship.
Read: The Complete Guide to Building a Collaborative Team
4. Collaborative
The collaborative management style is similar to that of a democratic management style, but it only differs in one remarkable way. With a collaborative approach, you don’t simply ask your employees for a yes-or-no answer. Instead, you’re actively requesting feedback from team members.
Collaborative managers create an open convention for ideas that are to be discussed substantially before they make any final decision. They make sure that their employees are held responsible for outcomes, which can lead to the rise of engagement and creativity.
If your company wants to stimulate innovation, employee engagement, and team collaboration, this style will work best for you. The collaborative management style helps employees feel trusted and valued by all levels of the management team. In this manner, they feel inspired to bestow their best output, find collaborative solutions, and participate in the whole process.
But just like the democratic management style, this type of management can be time-consuming. The “majority rules” concept may not always work best for every organization. For instance, when the upper management has to step in to change a decision that may not be the best fit for the organization, this can lead to resentment and mistrust.
5. Transformational
It’s safe to say that transformational managers are innovators. For them, change and growth is the best way to stay ahead of the curve. That’s why they tend to push their employees past their comfort bubble to make them realize the capability they never thought they have. In this manner, employees are motivated to keep the bar high, which can lead to better team performance.
When transformational managers constantly challenge and motivate their employees, employees feel more dedicated and happy. And when the managers are always right by their employees’ side, it inspires them more than ever to put greater efforts.
The transformational management style will work best for fast-paced companies and those anticipating a period of changes within their organization. Since managers are adapting to an agile approach, the team becomes more flexible and innovative when responding to both outside and inside forces.
Since teams led by transformational managers are innovative, they can adapt to dramatic industry changes. However, as a manager of people, you must know the limit of pushing your employees. Pushing them too far can cause them to burn out and spread themselves too thin.
Read: Here’s what you can do to have a successful orientation for a new employee.
The 4 Worst Types of Management Styles
1. Autocratic Management Style
Generally, the autocratic management style is considered to be the most top-down management approach. The approach here is simple: the upper management holds all the power without consulting and collaborating with their subordinates. With one-way communication (from bosses to employees), they expect immediate acceptance and execution from their employees without entertaining any question.
The reason why you should avoid this approach is that this is the most controlling of all the different management styles. Employees are treated as drones — they are micromanaged and monitored closely. Managers police their employees and assure that their every move is obedient.
And when an employee doesn’t follow orders, they discipline them by threatening their job or firing them. Worse, they might even go to the extent of publicly humiliating them in front of their peers.
The main weapons of an autocratic manager are fear, guilt, and shame. They won’t let their employees (who have another perspective than them) share possibly quantum leap ideas. For that reason, autocratic management usually can’t innovate, which leads to financial failure.
Another reason why an autocratic management style is problematic is that they don’t even sell their vision to their employees. Instead, they just force them to do it. Unfortunately, they’ll never understand that while coercion might work in the short-term, it won’t last in the long term.
Nobody likes controlling management, that’s why employees hate working under autocratic management. And if the employees don’t know their vision and purpose, there’s a higher chance of a high turnover rate.
The only good side of this type of management style is it makes fast decisions, especially when the organization experiences a crisis.
2. Transactional
Transactional managers prefer mutual concession. If you do something for them, they’ll do something for you — it’s a give-and-take situation. It may sound motivating for most of us. After all, transactional managers like to use incentives and rewards to incite their employees.
But from a closer point-of-view — and psychological perspective — financial rewards can wear off in the long term. Additionally, it can also diminish an employee’s intrinsic motivation to succeed in their career.
When employees get used to these extrinsic motivators, it can incite a self-concept loop. Instead of focusing on the actual focus, they will base their attitudes on their behavior at work.
Read: 6 Telltale Signs of Burnout at Work and How to Overcome It
3. Laissez-faire
Laissez-faire managers are completely hands-off. Sure, they monitor their team’s activities, but they don’t proactively help and check in with their subordinates.
The management might delegate and deliver work, but they take a step back when it comes to controlling the workflow and outcomes. They are only involved when the employee requests their assistance.
On the other hand, those who are led by laissez-faire managers do the decision-making with minimal intervention, if not on their own. They are left to control their decision-making and problem-solving
While this might sound like a nice perk, most of the time, the team barely has any vision. And without any guidance or visions, employees feel neglected.
There’s a higher chance that productivity may suffer in this case. The team might experience a lack of direction, focus, and uniformity. And when they feel that the management is not contributing anything, workplace conflict might arise.
4. Servant
Let us start by saying that servant managers are people-oriented — which is a good thing. They prioritize their employee’s well being over their tasks. They give their all when it comes to supporting their team. In return, this can foster a harmonious relationship between them and the employees.
On the downside, there’s no pressure to succeed in this type of management style. Since servant managers don’t prioritize performance, employees might feel complacent, which can lead to mediocre and even sub-par output.
At the same time, the servant managers might spend too much time on team bonding rather than actual work. This can be frustrating for goal-oriented employees since they’re spending most of their time doing trust falls.
Read: 7 Easy Steps to Delegate Tasks Effectively
In conclusion to these types of management styles…
Management is considered to be one of the hardest jobs in all industries. For that reason, you might encounter at least one terrible boss. Worse, if you’re a manager, you might be doing a terrible job in managing your team. But, hopefully, this article helped you find the management style that suits your company culture. Make sure that you adapt to the best types of management styles — and as much as possible, avoid the worst ones.
Pingback: Get to know the top 7 benefits of workplace diversity. - SprintHR
Pingback: 26 Characteristics of a Great Leader That Will Define Your Victory - SprintHR