Choose your leadership style (2/2): Directive leadership is sometimes best

People who are promoted from team member to team leader need not always be charismatic. A leading role is often offered to someone with no previous investment in the development of their leadership skills. Such leaders, however, need to be aware of the fact that sometimes autocratic leadership is appropriate.

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The previous article defined the basic distinction between directive and more participatory leadership. So when should team leaders pick which leadership approach?

For a long time, people perceived leadership as an unconscious personality trait. However, an article on the INSEAD business school website claims that this is not the case.

Can leadership style depend on deadlines? Yes

Leaders may switch from one style to another as the needs of the project or team change.

For example, in the case of a lengthy deadline, team members might not be motivated enough to work hard. More directive leadership is then useful. With a short deadline, it is possible to use more participatory leadership since everyone is suddenly more oriented on getting things done.

A change of leadership styles may be unavoidable if you need to combat free riding. If someone refuses to put in the effort, the leader can schedule daily meetings where people report on what they have finished.

Leading a big team

As the nature of the work evolves, nowadays it is often hard to see clearly the individual effort of people in different roles: specific contributions to the end product are not so evident since, very often, the final outcome is a blend of everyone’s endeavours.

When a team leader is head of a whole lab and not just a small team, it is necessary to set defined objectives for everyone in the lab. A directive style is required when there are many people involved. But you need to remain respectful of others. Never shout and don’t criticise errors in an unpleasant, harsh way.

-jk-

Article source INSEAD Knowledge - INSEAD Business School knowledge portal
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Choose your leadership style (2/2): Directive leadership is sometimes best