Leadership Styles

Leadership? style is the way a person leads others and the way they perform and impact ? others; either in a positive or negative way. The leadership styles are: autocratic ,democratic , and laissez-faire leaders. Autocratic leaders have a way of being more strict. They are very directing and like to control all activities that surround them without participating themselves. They could care less about how others are feeling as long as things are done their way and done “right”. (Think about the father on the Sound Of Music). Democratic leadership is someone who shares their thoughts, decision making, and abilities with the members of their group. They promote the common interests of the group members ? by practicing equality for all. When there is a goal to be reached the leader asks for opinions and ideas from others, and chooses the best plan that will make things work for the good of all.

Laissez-faire leadership is where the rights and power to make choices are fully for the members of the group. This is like a club where the members feel free to make suggestions and plans without someone telling them what to do or controlling them or their opinions . “Many leaders inspire- they don’t demand they ask. (These) leaders have their followers’ trust and respect. There are different leaders for every situation and instead of always doing things right, they will do what is right”. Leaders walk in front instead of behind the group. The way they lead is also a part of their personality. Leaders throughout history used to be picked because of their  size, strength, skill,agility ,knowledge and because they were male. They were seen as the providers. The male went out and hunted for food because he was seen as the one who had the strength, agility, skill, and the knowledge to do so, but over the years it has definitely changed and now we can just go to Walmart for some pork chops. It has definitely changed because in some homes, women are definitely the ones who are providing now and its not just
the male the one doing all the providing.

Each of these styles has some good points and some bad ones. I totally agree on how Autocratic is more controlling and very strict. A lot of people right off the bat see it as the bad way of leading, but I believe that without that type of leadership in our lives people would be out doing far worse things than they already are. I think we kind of all need a bit of strictness and control in our lives so we learn from it.

In class we had a discussion on how parents want to be more of a democratic leader but when kids start acting out and behaving badly parents have to lay down the law and be more autocratic to teach their children what is right and what is wrong. The same is true in society as a whole. In school, we have rules we all have to follow so we can have a safe environment. In countries there are laws that have people to enforce them to keep the people safe. Autocratic leadership has a big weakness. there are some leaders out there who took advantage of their “power” and began to use it by directing followers in the wrong direction and started using others for their own plan of destruction towards others. To be a leader, you have to know how to handle your challenges. Being a leader is a huge responsibility because you have to set things up in order for them to go as you and your members have planned it to be a democratic leadership.

There are great leaders and horrible leaders. Like in the theory X and Y part of the theory Y is that the follower accepts ownership of the work and enjoys the benefits that come with them and is there to experience what it is to work . X followers don’t like their work and hate being there and are only working there because they get paid thats the only reason they stick around. I personally believe that I am all three. It depends what I’m doing and what im trying to prove. For example if I’m in charge of my little cousins that are being disrespectful and hurting each other then I’ll probably go all autocratic on them. This is because you can’t really lead in a laissez-faire way when someone is throwing blocks at their little brother. There are times where you have to be “controlling” to get people to stop.

I can be democratic too. For example, I’m in charge of making my friends birthday and I’m going to ask my friends what my friend might like her party to be like. I’m going to get ideas on what she might like, but I’m going to listen to each and everyone to see which idea is the best and make that idea (goal) happen.

I think I have a democratic way of leading because I believe that if there is a leader then everything will be somewhat more organized. I want people to tell me their ideas and opinions so I can make a better decision and have everyone involved so they can benefit from it. I like to share my thoughts, decisions, and my abilities with my followers so we can find a common interests and succeed from it by including everyone in an equal way.