Influences of Management Styles in Business

Dictator? Ghost? Micromanager?  Best Friend?  Which management style are you most familiar with?  If you’re a manager, do you know which style you use?  Pros and cons exist for each – but whichever style you support, a direct impact – or influence – affects employees and their behaviors.  Research may vary in the number of manager styles…you’ll find anywhere from a couple to a dozen, but realistically, three (3) basic styles exist.

 First is the Persuasive manager.  Here we have the leader who basically believes that it’s “my way, or the highway”.  This leadership style may show a full-on dictatorial face or perhaps display a softer demeanor.  Either way, the premise of this style is to “tell” the employee what to do – with or without an explanation.  Outside of highly regulated industry, this style is pointed micromanagement and will leave the manager very, very tired because (s)he is doing the brain-processing.  While you’re definitely in control (and therefore responsible), the staff are little more than punch-in punch-out robots.

 Next is the Laissez-faire leader.  I like to call this one ‘the ghost'.  This management style is more of a hands-off approach…the kind that wants you to call them if there’s a fire…and then only if you can roast hot dogs from the heat.  Other than that, you won’t get much leadership.  If the staff are the long term, got-it-covered kind of group…no worries.  If employees need guidance, however, they have to ask…once the manager can be tracked down.

 Finally, we have the Democratic or Consultative manager.  This leadership style has more of a team-centric approach.  Although the ultimate decision lays with the leader, the tenant is that every member of the team has something to contribute and should be given the opportunity to offer input.  This management style usually affords the leader access to innovative ideas and better buy-in for decisions.

 So…which style is the best?  The answer is actually: all three.  A truly evolved leader is usually a situationist.  Different circumstances call for different managerial strengths and a “good” manager knows when to lead and when to support.  In all, the Consultative approach will afford the manager an opportunity to explore ideas and solutions they may have never even considered.  The leader learns; the employee gains confidence; the team flourishes and the company grows.  Zig Ziglar said it best, “you don’t build a business; you build people.  And then people build the business”.  If you’d like to explore more about your management style, a professional development workshop can help you identify, refine and learn how to optimize your style to best fit business strategies.