Most effective Leadership & Management styles & approaches

“Which personal style should managers adopt to ensure success? What is the most effective approach to managing the work of subordinates? These questions have been extensively researched and debated over the last century, and while the general consensus has moved away from ‘command and control’ to management and leadership towards more consultative and participative approaches, there is no single ideal, as the best approach may vary according to circumstances and individual characteristics” (CMI 2013).

“Leadership and Management equal in status, but at opposite ends of a continuum”

Ray Moorcroft

 

Leadership and management are necessarily connected and interchangeable things, and must go hand in hand. Both leadership and management deal with people. They are different from each other in their styles to motivate teams and people to reach objectives. “Management is more usually viewed as getting things done through other people in order to achieve stated organisational objectives” (Mullins 2010). In this blog, we will consider effective leadership and management styles, and give some recommendations how to use knowledge of leadership skills to produce better results.

The process of management means, “Coordinating the activities of people and guiding their efforts towards the goals and objectives of the organization”, while leadership is “relationship through which one person influences the behaviour or actions of other people” (Mullins 2010). Leaders determine the goals and direction of the organisation, motivate and lead employees to achieve them. On the other hand managers maintain organisation standards, directing teams to reach set tasks.

A manager must encourage subordinates in their aspirations to work willingly, to be high morale and involved into cooperation in order to reach the best results in organisation. For these purposes, a manager must behave according to leadership style, i.e. the “way in which the functions of leadership are carried out, the way in which the manager typically behaves towards members of the group” (Mullins 2010). Zaleznik determined differences between leadership and management regarding to “goals, conceptions of work, relations with others, self-perception and development” (Mullins 2010).

Managers	Leaders
Adopt impersonal or passive attitudes towards goals.	Adopt a more personal and active attitude towards goals.
Need the necessity to coordinate and balance.	Creates excitement in work and develops choices.
Maintain a low level of emotional involvement.	Have empathy with other people and give attention to what events and actions mean.
Conservators and regulators of the existing order of affairs.	Work in, but do not belong to, the organisation.

 Figure 1 : Differences between leadership and management according to Zaleznik (1977) Source: Mullins (2010)

Leadership styles

 K. Lewin (1939) determined three major styles of leadership towards subordinate staff, such as autocratic, democratic and laissez-faire.

Figure 2: K. Lewin Leadership styles

Autocratic leaders do not consult any of their team members while making decisions. This style cannot be appropriate in the organisation, because it can demoralize the team and lead to staff turnover (Lewin 1939).

Democratic leaders usually include members of the team in the process of decision making. On one hand this style encourages creativity, high engaging in projects and reaching objectives. It increases productivity and job satisfaction. On the other hand, it is not appropriate in quick decision-making (Lewin 1939).

Laissez-faire leaders can give a lot of freedom to the team members in their activity, supporting with resources. In case, if the team members do not have enough knowledge and professional skills, this leadership style can prevent the productivity and development of organisation (Lewin 1939).

 A typical representative of the autocratic leadership style was Andrew Rosenthal, who presided the New York Times in 1970s. His autocratic leadership style increased the efficiency of the company in newspaper industry. To reach these results the company managed due to regular autocratic control in publishing newspaper.

Howell Raines, the executive editor of the New York Times at the period from 2001 to 2003, is another representative of the autocratic leadership style. Initially, his autocratic authority allowed the company winning a Pulitzers Prize in a year. However, his desire to reach goals at any cost made him sarcastic to journalists and arrogant. His autocratic leadership style led a decline in quality and information quantity, creating discord among the staff (Kellerman 2004).

Path-Goal Theory

This theory includes four different types of leadership (EPSI 2012), such as supportive leadership, directive leadership, participative leadership and achievement-oriented leadership.

Figure 3: Model of Path-Goal Theory of Leadership

Supportive leadership focuses on relationships and pays much attention to the best interests of the team members. Directive leadership deals with setting tasks relating to goals and expectations. Participative leadership focuses on mutual participation and consulting with your team members before making decisions. Achievement-oriented leadership means setting of the challenging purposes for the team members, maintaining high standards for each team member.

Indra Nooyi, the CEO and chairman of PepsiCo, is a good example of the participative leadership style. She is able to attract and endear herself to employees, because she is always interested in employees’ personal lives. Indra Nooyi has also the capacity of company’s vision in future.

Best leadership style

CMI 2013 says that “there is no single ideal, as the best approach may vary according to circumstances and individual characteristics”. I fully agree with this statement. Modern leadership can be associated “not with command and control but with the concept of teamwork, getting along with other people, inspiration and creating a vision with which others can identify” (Mullins 2016). There is a diversity of leadership styles with different skills and traits. However, there is not any leadership style to be appropriate in all situations. Internal and external factors may also influence on the leadership style, as well as personalities, environment, interaction with people, and culture. To my mind, leaders and managers in their work with subordinates should adopt different leadership styles.

 I consider transformational leadership as one of the best leadership styles in business. According to Burns (1978), it is a process of high motivation and adherence among followers. This leadership style creates trust, loyalty, justice, as well as gives the opportunities for leader to appeal to followers’ values and ideals.

How would you like to be led?

As a member of a team, I would like to be led by transformational leaders, as I have already mentioned, to my mind this style is one of the best leadership styles. A transformation leader is a leader:

• Who sets clear aims and objectives.
• Encourages other members of a team.
• Has high expectations.
• Provides support of team members and other people.
• Inspires people to reach for the unbelievable.
• Gets people to go ahead, despite their self-interest.

One of the good examples of transformational leader was Steve Jobs, Apple founder, who successfully transformed business processes to   high-speed microprocessors. Nelson Mandela is another example of transformational leadership, who canceled apartheid and enforced change in South Africa.

Recommendations how to use knowledge of leadership skills to produce better results

 

 “One of the keys to Apple is Apple’s an incredibly collaborative company.” Steve Jobs

Leaders can be taught and learned. A successful leader should have the capability to inspire, and to increase leadership skills. It is a person of integrity and needs to trust and to be trustworthy and willing to follow. It is necessary for leader to believe in yourself and organization, and to have an open leadership culture and charisma. I believe that the best leader needs to combine different leadership styles and skills, as Steve Jobs did.

Apple between 1970s and 1980s was a prosperous company, before failing in 1990s. After that, Apple became a successful company again and survived. This happened, because Steve Jobs became a participative leader. Initially Jobs began as a charismatic and laissez-faire leader, and Apple raised at that time. When he began an autocratic leader the company requested his resignation. He returned after 10 years later, and his activity combined different leadership styles, including participative, charismatic, laissez-faire, transformational, supportive and achievement-oriented (Brennan 2013).

Dearlove (2001) argues that “It is one thing for a leader to propound a grand vision, but this is redundant unless the vision is managed so it becomes real achievement”. Management and leadership are complementary connected with each other, and it is impossible to extricate one from the other. In business, a manager plans and coordinates, while a leader motivates and inspires. Therefore “Leadership, is doing the right things; management is doing things right” (Drucker 2011).

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References

Brenna, C. (2013) The Bite in the Apple: A Memoir of My Life with Steve Jobs P. 23

Dearlove, D. (2001) Reinventing Leadership’, in Crainer, S. and Dearlove, D. (eds) Financial Times Handbook of Management, second edition, Financial Times Prentice Hall p. 538.

 EPSI, (2012) Leadership in Organizations: Concepts and Theories [online] available from < http://www.epsi-inc.com/leadership-organizations-concepts-theories-2/> [26 February 2016]

Peter, F. (2011) 22 Quotes on Management Published in: Affaires, Education Mullins, L. (2010) Management and organizational behavior 9^TH ad Pearson p.148

Kellerman, B.  (2004) Bad leadership: what it is how it happens, why it matters. Harvard Business Press.

Moorcroft, R. (2005) To Lead or to Manage? That Is the Question’, Manager, The British Journal of Administrative Management, November, p. 4.

Lewin, R. & White, R. (1939). Patterns of aggressive behavior in experimentally created social climates_. Journal of Social Psychology, 10, 271-301.

Zaleznik, A. (1977) Managers and Leaders: Are They Different?’ Harvard Business, pp. 67–78.