So, I have a question for you.
Would say that you're a more autocratic leader or a democratic leader?
Better yet. What do you think the people around you would say
about your leadership style?
Because that's what ends up mattering in the end. How people follow you.
So we're going to look at each of these styles.
And we'll look a little bit at the Laissez-faire style in this video.
Let's unpack it.
Hello again friends. Alex Lyon here.
And this channel, Communication Coach, is here to help rising leaders like you
increase your personal impact so you can
lead the people around you to higher and higher levels of excellence.
And a big part of that is your leadership style.
How you come across. How people perceive you.
We're going to look at two of the main leadership styles today.
The first is the autocratic leadership style.
This is a little bit old school.
It's the typical boss-centered approach to leadership.
Where the boss has a centralized approach to making decisions.
He or she tells people what to do and expects them to follow.
Typically, there's a high power distance between the boss and the other people.
In other words, there's not a lot of intermingling, talking, and socializing.
There's a clear separation in rank.
This leadership style can work and it is an appropriate, legitimate style of leadership.
However, there are some strengths and some weaknesses.
I would say the biggest strength is that when you're there and
things need to be done and you're in control, things will generally get done.
When you're telling people what to do and you're watching them
They will often follow through.
On the downside, as soon as you leave the room
when you're normally very autocratic and authoritarian, you leave the room
people will tend to stop working as hard because you're not there to
watch them really closely.
In my experience, new leaders tend to default
to this autocratic style of leadership.
So they get nervous. They have a new level of responsibility.
And in that moment of anxiety they snap into that autocratic approach.
This is not necessarily one that I personally use
Let's talk about the second one.
That's the democratic style of leadership.
This is the one that I pefer.
This democratic style has a two-heads-are-better-than-one philosophy.
In other words, you're thinking more about the group. It's not boss centered.
A democratic leader will tend to talk to his/her people quite a bit.
Gather feedback about decisions and
See where people stand on an issue.
It does not mean, however, that the democratic leader
completely hands over power and responsibility.
The democratic leader still may make all the decisions but
he or she does so with input from everybody.
And then when the projects are delegated and the decisions are handed out
people can see themselves in those decisions
they feel a little bit of ownership.
And the other benefit here is that when the
democratic leader leaves the room,
people will generally continue to work really hard.
They might not even notice that the democratic leader isn't there.
Because they already feel that they are part of those decisions
and they have ownership over those projects.
The third style of leadership, which is not really one we're going to focus on,
is the Laissez-Faire style of leadership
And a lot of times people think this means the lazy leader.
But, just means hands off.
That's French for "Let Do" [like "hands off" in English]
And sometimes this leadership is perfectly fine.
For example, if you have really highly motivated, highly educated experts
and you've hired all the right people,
you shouldn't have to watch them very carefully.
For example, if you're running a hospital and you've hired all the right surgeons,
I hope you that don't have to go in there to your surgeons and say
Okay. Do a great surgery today.
You can do it. Come on. Get fired up.
Hopefully, your surgeons are already up to speed and excited
about doing a good job and you don't have to-
So you can take a hands off approach with some people
in terms of your leadership approach.
So those are the two main styles, autocratic and democratic.
Then we talked a little about laissez-faire
Question of the day.
What's your style of leadership?
Better yet. What do you think the people around you think about your style of leadership?
I would love to hear your comments in that section below.
So thanks. God bless.
And I will see you in the next video.