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3 Mangement Styles – Which One Are You?
(This is a contributed post)
Throughout our working lives we will come into contact with people who are fantastic managers and inspirational leaders and those who are quite frankly, appalling! When put into the position of taking on a managerial role, a little knowledge and understanding of the different styles of management will go along way in getting the best from your staff and will create a productive working environment.
As a managerial role can be demanding of your time, it is worth looking at strategies that will enable you to streamline your working day. You could outsource some of your managerial tasks, delegate or install Contract Lifecycle Management Software, which will enable you to streamline contract processing. You will then have more time to focus on staff management in order to increase productivity.
There are a number of recognised management styles and you are likely to feel more comfortable adopting one style rather than another due to your individual personality. There are no wrong or right styles and you need to be flexible and switch styles according to situations presented.
Here are some of the recognised management styles.
Autocratic
This management style is often the most common, but least effective. A decision is made from the “top” and employees are expected to carry out the tasks to reach the decision with no questions asked. This style is quite military and doesn’t allow for any creativity. Praise is not a regular feature and staff morale can be quite low if they are working under a manager with this style. This style of management does have it’s uses, when a quick turn around or deadline is needed.
Visionary
A visionary manager will attempt to get the best from their staff. The manager will create a clear vision of a particular goal and will allow their team to be creative and innovative in reaching the goal. The manager will step in occasions to check how things are going and reiterate the vision in order for staff to stay on task, but will tell them how to do it. This management style can get the very best from fully trained experienced staff, but could demotivate new inexperienced staff, who may feel out of their depth. There is also the risk that staff may become a little complacent and do as little as possible to achieve the vision.
Democratic
A democratic manager recognises the skills of every individual within a team and builds on them to reach a goal. Every employee has a voice and the democratic manger will listen to them. This style of management builds morale and commitment within a team as everyone will perceive their role as important to the end result. Reward and praise for work well done is used regularly, further increasing motivation. The downside of the democratic style of management is that progress is slow, due to the long consultation process. Demands on a democratic manager are also high as close supervision is necessary.
There are other management styles too, and this is just a small snapshot. It is important to be little flexible depending on the situations that arise.
