Leadership is the cornerstone of success in any organization, guiding teams toward achieving their goals and navigating through challenges with resilience and clarity. Aspiring business professionals embarking on their journey through an Online MBA program understand the paramount importance of mastering leadership skills to thrive in today’s dynamic business landscape.

Business leaders are tasked to ensure the team meets the organizational goals. How they achieve this determines their leadership style. Each leader’s style is distinct. They may use a particular technique (e.g. Bill Gates-Authoritative; Sundar Pichai-communicative) or a combination of techniques (e.g. Elon Musk- Autocratic + communicative).

A Dozen of Styles
Experts have identified over a dozen leadership styles. But all these styles ultimately converge into two broad classifications viz. top-down (also dictator or authoritative) or bottom-up (also democratic, communicator). Though many modern managers are communicators (communicate with and listen to the team) both styles are in vogue, as they have their own good and bad. The nature of the organization (e.g. centralized decision suits defence establishments) or the outcome (e.g. communicative for product design) also determines the style to be adopted.

The Bad Boss?
In movies and fiction, autocratic leaders are villains. They neither give ears to suggestions nor tolerate dissents. It is also true many successful business leaders are authoritarians to a great extent. You may find Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison, Lorne Michaels and Elon Musk, all retain as much authority as they can. Centralized leadership is here to stay.

Where Commanding Does Work?
In dictating leadership, communication is always one way- the boss doles out instructions and the team implements them. This style is fruitful in certain circumstances:

• Team of Juniors: As they don’t have much input to contribute
• Strategic and Quick Decisions: E.g. Mergers/ acquisitions
• Confidential Decisions: E.g. Penetrating competitors’ markets
• Precise Decisions: E.g. Rocket science, military tasks

In centralized decision-making, the role and the tasks are precise. Hence there is no scope for ambiguity. Every member knows what to do and how to do it. According to a survey, the rule-followers who constitute one-fifth of the crowd favoured this style.

A Word of Caution
Excessive domineering makes one an oppressive leader. This cultivates resentment and contempt among the team members. They start feeling that they are worthless and their motivation level dips.

The Democracy Rocks
The modern managers are more of mentors than bosses- the first among-equals concept. They listen to and communicate with the team, value their opinions and also educate them wherever needed. This develops a desirable work culture. These managers come under the bottom-up or communicator category. The advantages of these styles are:

All’s Not Well

Communicative style too has some minuses.

• The foremost is the long decision-making process. Inviting and evaluating ideas from the team involves time. Hence it does not work well when the need is a quick decision (E.g. coping with a power failure on the shop floor)
• Sometimes, advantages turn disadvantages. For instance, if you are following a democratic style, every member of the team has to be taken into confidence. Even a single slip-up can lead to resentment and allegations.
• Involving more people in strategic decision-making (E.g. new product) can lead to breaches.

The Last word

Personality, experience, work situations and more influence the picking of the right leadership style. The success lies in the ability to adapt. If a particular style doesn’t suit your task, you should be able to change. Hence the saying,” Leadership is not one-size-fits-all”

Learners’ Opportunity    

ICFAI Online MBA moulds the managers of today and tomorrow. Students learn and practice managerial skills and improve them through peer learning and wide networking.  For more details, Contact Us

Discussion Question       

What Kind of Leader Do You Want to be? Why?

Key Words

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Source Article

• Michael Davis-Unmasking The Workplace Dictators- Forbes Technology Council- Jun 29, 2023, https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2023/06/29/unmasking-the-workplace-dictators-the-hidden-reign-of-the-because-i-said-so-leadership-style/?sh=6febe49acd96
• Villanova University- Autocratic Leadership Explained- May 5, 2022
  https://www1.villanova.edu/university/professional-studies/academics/professional-education/leadership-certificate.html
• mtdtraining.com- The 3 Key Differences Between a Communicator & Dictator-MTD Management Training, UK – https://www.mtdtraining.com/contact-2
• Team Asana- 11 leadership styles-Asana Inc., USA-https://asana.com/resources/leadership-styles