Participative Leadership
As you have already noticed in my previous posts, I’m a participative leader according to leadership styles quiz. Lewin’s study found that the most effective leadership style is participative one also known as democratic leadership. Besides it is the most common form of leadership practiced in the corporate world and political scene.
They say that being participative might make leaders seem weak or indecisive. I totally disagree with this statement. Today many people have an advanced education, so employees are intelligent and highly skilled professionals. In participative leadership, the leader becomes a facilitator and encourages the team to produce solutions. So employees are involved in the decision making from the start and contribute their ideas and suggestions. Michael Watkins explained it as consult-and-decide method, in which the leader consults his subordinates and seeks their opinion and has the final say.
In addition, much of today’s work has a high knowledge component that requires people to think and solve problems. Management has often been described as getting work done through others. In this way, employees feel valued, and knowledge, creativity and experience are maximized for sake of the entire organization.
References:
http://davidferrers.com/participative-leadership/
http://businessmanagement.suite101.com/article.cfm/what_is_participative_leadership
