Democratic Leadership Style is about letting multiple people participate in the decision making process. It is also known as shared leadership or participative leadership in which group members take a more participative role in the decision making process. This type of leadership can be seen in a wide range of condition from schools to business to governments.
What is Democracy?
Democracy is rule by the people. The term Democracy is derived from the Greek word called dēmokratia which was known from dēmos “people” and kratos which means “rule” in the middle of the 5th century to denote the political systems to know how it works then existing in some Greek city states.
Democracy is a concept that everyone is aware of and in order to understand how democratic leadership works then you must comprehend the age old theory of democracy. Also see the whole article to understand what is Democracy and Democratic Leadership.
The Word Democracy means to ‘run by people’. It is mentioned even though it might be flawed it is yet the best method of governance. With all his words fit well while governing a workplace too. Democratic Leadership Style is about letting multiple people to participate in the decision making process. It is also known as shared leadership or participative leadership in which group members take a more participative role in the decision making process. This type of leadership can be seen in a wide range of condition from schools to business to governments.
What is Democratic Leadership Style?
Democratic leadership style is also known as participative leadership or shared leadership. It is a type of leadership style in which the group
members take a more participative role in the decision making process. This type of leadership can apply to any organization like business from private businesses to schools to government.
The assisting of decision making. Now finally all the democratic leaders also need to play the role of facilitator when it comes to decision making. This also means being able to guide groups through maintaining healthy relationships across teams , productive conversation and creating a space where a democratic approach is truly embraced.
The former leaders leave all the decisions for their employees to take but the Democratic leadership works by allowing their employees to participate with them in their company decisions. This article will focus on the democratic leadership or participative leadership and how it can benefit your organization.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Democratic Leadership Style 
These leadership styles allow for new ideas to be shared openly with their employees without any judgment. Leaders using this style are wanting a diverse set of creative ideas which absorb and include the perspectives other than their own. Instead of having one person make all the decisions they work as a team that everyone can have a say in what happens if they wish.
Most of the people would want to work in a shared leadership structure as it encourages a collaborative approach and a good democratic leadership means achieving success with mutual respect and collaborative efforts without losing anyone power of authority. There are some big advantages and disadvantages of democratic leadership to think about so here are the main key points of both the advantages and Disadvantages are as under .
Advantages Of Democratic Leadership Style
High Efficiency
Because of all the group members they are encouraged to share their thoughts there ideas so then the democratic leaders can lead to better ideas and more creative solutions to problems. Team members also feel more involved and committed to the projects which makes them pay more attention to the best results. Research on leadership styles has also shown that this system leads to have higher productivity among other group members.
Democratic Leadership Style is all about letting multiple people participate in the decision making process. It is also known as shared leadership or participative leadership in which group members take a more participative role in the decision making process. This type of leadership can be seen in a wide range of condition from schools to business to governments.
2. It Helps to Solve Problems
Leaders would not be brought in to their role if they did not know how to solve problems. If there is any kind of a difference. Therefore in being able to solve a problem and solving it with the best possible solution. Using democratic leadership style a leader can tap in to the creative resources around them and finding innovative new methods they may not have readily seen if making decisions on their own.
3. Motivating
When team members feels that their are opinions which are being heard and taken into consideration then they are usually more willing to work and do their best to produce positive results. On the other hand according to some studies employees under the supervision of a Democratic leader are more satisfied with their leaders to work and claim to feel happy with the tasks they have to perform.
4. Diverse Ideas
Democratic Leaders are always free to consult anyone and everyone. When inputs come from frontline employees and seniors then they have a better chance of making the correct decisions. This increases the likelihood that democratic leaders can make decisions that benefit there group members and as many people as possible.
5. Improves the Awareness about the organization vision
All the members of the organization are very much active and committed when there is democratic leadership. Also the democratic leaders tend to share the progress, mission, vision objective well with the members of the organization. So every member of the organization is well aware of the vision and what is happening in the organization. They know what their ideas are used for.
Disadvantages of a Democratic Leadership Style
1. It Can Create Negative Emotions.
The democratic leadership does ask for perspectives, opinions and experiences. It will also high light all the team members who have strong creative skills and those that do not. If one team member is consistently having their ideas implemented the the other team members can grow resentful of the leadership style.
It makes them sometimes to feel like their opinions are not valued which eventually causes them to stop participating in the process. Unless those negative emotions are managed and you have to wait until your idea succeed. This leadership style can often reduce productivity instead of enhancing it.
2. Wrong decisions
When this happens then the most important thing is to get everyone’ opinions heard. How ever this means that even people who do not know what they are talking about will be get noticed. In some cases the team members may not have the knowledge or expertise to help quality in the decision making process.
If the leader is not an expert or don’t know how to work out in wrong decisions in his field then they may validate ideas that are bad but at first glimpse and bounce back to seem perfectly valid. This idea can lead to a variety of problems in the medium and long term. To avoid this complication a person who wants to adopt a democratic style must know the context in which he/she works.
3. It Takes Time to Reach a Consensus
Even if the idea is delaying or is eliminated from the leadership style it still takes more time to reach a consensus with democratic leadership when compared to other styles. That is only because everyone is permitted the chance to voice an opinion or offer an idea.
Each idea is must be thoroughly discussed before it can be dismissed. For larger teams the discussions can lead to delays in productivity as everyone will attempts to find the best possible solution and get on to the same page.
4. A Lack of Expertise
Even if democratic leader can make a final decision from their employees and they might not have adequate experience to make the right decisions. The emphasis is on considering everyone view points. Regardless if they are the right people to make decisions. Doing so they might lead to misguided choices that do not solve the problem at all.
Democratic Leadership Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Creativity: Provides and encourages a climate of innovation and creativity only | Time Consuming: It can be time consuming and in crises or urgent situation it is to involve a lot of people in decision making |
| Collaboration : Facilities collaboration where multiple people combine skills and experience to reach best decision | Requires Expertise: Most suitable for highly skilled teams. it is difficult and it can lack of expertise. |
| Engagement: High level of participation engages to high level employee participation. | It requires participation: When high level of participation happens and there decisions are valuing then they will against you. |
4 Leadership Styles that You need To know
Leadership styles refer to a leaders behavior toward there group members. The behavior pattern is that the leader should reflects his role as a leader is described as style. They have to act different in the sense because there is a wide variety of these fellows ever since leadership was incepted. There are over ten different leadership styles but we have discussed four most important style and one style just does not suit a specific organization.
1. Autocratic Leadership
Autocratic leadership is the most important leadership style. It’s a management style where in one person controls all the decisions and takes very little inputs from other the group members. Autocratic leaders make choices or decisions only based on their own beliefs and do not involve others for their suggestion or advice.
2. Bureaucratic Leadership Style
Bureaucratic leadership relies on a clear chain of command and strict regulations. Also conformation by its followers. There can be confusion about the difference between bureaucratic leadership and autocratic leadership which can overlap sometimes in certain characteristics.
The main difference is that with the former focus is on the leader who is responsible for making all the key decisions himself. Bureaucratic leadership on the other hand relies more on the entire line of the group authority versus a single leader.
3. Situational Leadership
Situational Leadership is very flexible. It adapts and stick to the existing work environment and the needs of the organization. Situational Leadership is not based on a specific skill of the leader but instead of this he or she Change the style of management to suit the requirements of the organization.
One of the keys to Situational Leadership is the adaptability. Leaders must be able to move from one leadership style to another to meet the changing needs for the betterment of an organization and its employees. These leaders must have all the insight to understand when to change their management style and what leadership strategy fits each new paradigm.
4. Servant Leadership
Servant leadership is a leadership style which has philosophy where by an individual interacts with others either in a management or in a fellow employee capacity to achieve authority rather than power.
The system incorporate a decentralized organizational structure and Leaders who follow this style include customer facing employees in company decision making. These employees have a close relationship with the consumer and the leader that can make better decisions to retain those customers and acquire new ones.
Characteristics of Democratic Leadership Style
The Characters of Democratic leaders which can be seen in non profit business organizations or modern organizations and school boards etc. Researchers suggest that the good democratic leaders possess specific traits that include intelligence, honesty ,courage, creativity, competence and fairness. Strong democratic leaders inspire trust and respect among followers which is the most important thing to start any thing.
People and leaders often misunderstand autocrats as democratic leadership. So most people have misconceptions about applying this leadership style in their company culture. But in fact the democratic leader has to show quite a bit of skill to get the system to work appropriately and professionally. Some of the primary characteristics of democratic leadership include:
1. Intelligence
While all the leaders and leadership styles require the leader to be intelligent and competent. Other then that all democratic leadership is among the top styles that call for this trait.
Because the democratic leader is like a conductor of an orchestra he or she needs to have the competency to keep all the parts together and moving in the best way possible. Although the decisions might not be in the hands of the leader because they work as a team , the leader needs to ensure the group is competent enough to make the decisions.
2. Honesty
Democratic leaders need to be honest to their members of the group. The open communication and discussion led leadership frame work to work properly. If the leadership is not communicating to the members then it will not work if the leader cannot be honest with the subordinates.
The leader must be able to lay out the situation to ensure the decisions which are made on real information and the leader has to stay honest about his or her own opinion as well.
3. Fairness
Since people will be open to speak about their mind and decisions are mainly done through majority vote then the leader has to be able to show fairness. There will be a situation where certain ideas are dealt in a favorable manner while other people ideas are not fully appreciated as well.
The democratic leaders and there framework must be fair and consistent with the leader bearing the brunt of this responsibility. As a leader you need to be able to distance yourself from the situation emotionally and to think rationally to succeed in the decision making process.
Fairness in this context also means transparency and honesty to your work. If you allow subordinates to understand your own thinking process and decisions then only you will show them your decisions are based on rationality and not unfair feelings you might have towards different employees.
Democratic Leadership Style Examples
There will be certain scenarios that offers a great place to practice democratic leadership. We all look at three of them here. When you want creativity and innovation. As an organization then Google is known for its democratic way of operating.
Employees play an important role in making company decisions through extensive discussions and brain storming. Google of course is also known for its creativity and innovation you can take help if you want. If you are in a situation that calls for creative ideas and solutions and time is not a determining the idea then a participative leadership style can be extremely effective.
When you have a thousand of work force. A recent Gall up study reported that today’s millennial workers want to work with managers who will invest in their own growth and development also value them as people. If your workforce largely consists of thousands then democratic style of leadership is likely to keep your employees more engaged.
When you are leading the experts. There may be situations when you are leading a team of domain experts. They have deep knowledge about their field and often more than the team leader. It is important to allow them the freedom to brainstorm ideas and come up with the best solutions. In such cases taking a democratic approach is likely to get you better results.
You now know when to implement a democratic leadership style. The democratic leader should not be the one to hold on to all the responsibility. Instead of that their role is to distribute the responsibility and maximize the involvement of others in an effort to achieve the specified such objectives.
How To Improve My Democratic Leadership Style
People who use a democratic style of leadership rely on the input from subordinates to make company decisions. Because employees are one of the active participants in the decision making process of a democratic leader.
It is sometimes referred to as participative leadership. Democratic leaders style might not offer strong direction to self governing teams. The key here is finding your weaknesses and choosing almost appropriate ways to become a more well rounded leader.
1. Communicate
Democratic leaders communicate with there employees let participate in decision-making and are very attuned to their needs. The problem is that you cannot always count on the team to know what’s best for your company. Try to communicate and see what there ideas are. Improve your leadership style by taking some control back from the group in an area that will help the company grow.
2. Deadlines
It is important to work as a team. Successful democratic leadership style complete their work before any deadline. To overcome this problem and improve your leadership style a good first step is to make yourself more available. Schedule a team meeting with each department once a week. The most important thing is to Schedule one on one meetings with new employees and struggling employees.
3. Organize Structure
It is important to organize the structure before starting anything. Also create a vision for your business. First look at where your business will be, establish a financial and growth plan for the next several quarters or year. Then next map out a set of goals that would give all employees a role in helping you fulfill the plan.
Devote your time to learning the strengths and weaknesses of employees and re assign them if needed to tasks that are better matched to their strengths.
How To Apply Democratic Leadership
Decide if it is the right fit for the situation at hand. As people have seen a democratic leadership style is not a panacea and there will be times when it is not the most effective approach. As a leader make sure you are deploying this style when it can actually add value to the leadership style.
Ask yourself questions such as What is the goal? How much time do I have? What is the most important outcome I am looking for from using this approach? If your answers indicate that a democratic approach is what will get you the best results and then go for it.
1. Invest in training
You can also look at structuring the conversation in different phases as well. For example the phase one can be setting some ground rules and establishing psychological safety. Phase two could be brain storming ideas. Phase three could be narrowing down the options and phase four could be making the final decision and plan for ■■■■■■■■■ the decision. Having a structure in place will clarify what employees can expect and how the process will proceed.
2. Find opportunities to improve
Make sure people commit to the ■■■■■■■■■. At the end of the process some team members may be more engaged than the others. Especially if their ideas were taken in to account. How ever you may still need the whole team for effective ■■■■■■■■■ of the decision or plan. Make sure you have a way to get everyone on board with the plan, commit to their deliverables and stay accountable.
Look around and you are likely to see democratic leadership in action every where. If this is a leadership style that this appeals to you. We encourage you to take our recommendations to start putting it to practice.
Summary Democratic Leadership is about letting multiple people participate in the decision making process. It is also known as shared leadership or participative leadership in which group members take a more participative role in the decision making process. This type of leadership can be seen in a wide range of condition from schools to business to governments. Democracy is a concept that everyone is aware of and in order to understand how democratic leadership works then you must comprehend the age old theory of democracy
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQS)
There are some questions which are related to Democratic Leadership are as follows :
1. What is a Democratic leadership example?
Democratic Leadership Examples plays an important role in making company decisions through extensive discussions and brain storming. Google of course is also known for its creativity and innovation you can take help if you want. If you are in a situation that calls for creative ideas and solutions and time is not a determining the idea then a participative leadership style can be extremely effective.
2. Why is democratic leadership the best?
Democratic Leadership is about letting multiple people participate in the decision making process. It helps in diverse ideas, motivates , high effectiency and helps in solving problem. It is also known as shared leadership or participative leadership in which group members take a more participative role in the decision making process. This type of leadership can be seen in a wide range of condition from schools to business to governments.
3. What businesses use democratic leadership?
Democratic Leadership is about letting multiple people participate in the decision making process. It is also known as shared leadership or participative leadership in which group members take a more participative role in the decision making process. This type of leadership can be seen in a wide range of condition from schools to business to governments.
4. Why is Democratic Leadership bad?
Democratic Leadership is bad for worng decisions When this happens then the most important thing is to get everyone’ opinions heard. How ever this means that even people who do not know what they are talking about will be get noticed. In some cases the team members may not have the knowledge or expertise to help quality in the decision making process.
5. What are disadvantages of democratic leadership?
It Can Create Negative Emotions.
The democratic leadership does ask for perspectives, opinions and experiences. It will also high light all the team members who have strong creative skills and those that do not.
If one team member is consistently having their ideas implemented the the other team members can grow resentful of the leadership style. It makes them sometimes to feel like their opinions are not valued which eventually causes them to stop participating in the process.
6. What is the impact of democratic leadership style?
Democratic leadership style results in high employees productivity and reduces the need for control and formal rules and procedures. It develops the competent people who are willing to give their best and tends to develop subordinates who think for them selves and seek responsibility of the work.
7. What are the traits of a democratic leader?
The Characters of Democratic leaders style can be seen in non profit business organizations or modern organizations and school boards etc. Researchers suggest that the good democratic leaders possess specific traits that include intelligence, honesty ,courage, creativity, competence and fairness. Strong democratic leaders inspire trust and respect among followers which is the most important thing to start any thing.
8. What is the best leadership style?
The best leadership styles allow for new ideas to be shared openly with their employees without any judgment. Leaders using this style are wanting a diverse set of creative ideas which absorb and include the perspectives other than their own. Instead of having one person make all the decisions they work as a team that everyone can have a say in what happens if they wish.
9. How do you develop democratic leadership?
All the members of the organization should be very much active and committed when there is democratic leadership. Also the democratic leaders tend to share the progress, mission, vision objective well with the members of the organization. So every member of the organization is well aware of the vision and what is happening in the organization. They know what their ideas are used for.
10. Who is an example of a democratic leader in sport?
Manchester United manager Van Gaal hails democratic leader Rooney. Democratic Leadership is about letting multiple people participate in the decision making process. It is also known as shared leadership or participative leadership in which group members take a more participative role in the decision making process.
Conclusion
Democratic Leadership is about letting multiple people participate in the decision making process. It is also known as shared leadership or participative leadership in which group members take a more participative role in the decision making process.
This type of leadership can be seen in a wide range of condition from schools to business to governments. This also means being able to guide groups through maintaining healthy relationships across teams , productive conversation and creating a space where a democratic approach is truly embraced.
Now that we have come to the end of this blog post we hope you now have a better understanding about Democratic Leadership and its advantages, disadvantages and characteristics.
Many of the advantages tap directly into the characteristics of democratic leadership which is built on the assumption that involving team members in the process of arriving at decisions is a healthy way for an organisation to operate.
If you are someone who practices or would like to apply this leadership style in your organization then this will help you in every ways possible.
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