Leadership is a lifestyle. If you want to have an amazing culture in your organization or team, then you need to choose what kind of leader you want to be.
There are hundreds of books and articles explaining the different types of leadership. Though you can find more than 12 leadership styles, below are the 3 main types of leadership:
- Autocratic leadership, also known as an authoritarian type of leadership, is when the leader uses his or her power to control the team and makes all the decisions without asking for feedback from subordinates.
- Laissez-faire leadership is the opposite of an autocratic leadership style, as the main difference is that these type of leaders let their group members make the decisions. Laissez-faire leadership requires trained and professional subordinates who can make decisions by themselves.
- Democratic leadership or participative leadership style encourages the group to freely share ideas and participate in the decision-making process. Here the leader makes the final decision, which is based on the group’s feedback.
It has been found that the most effective leadership style is a democratic one, as it makes the group engaged and appreciated. Democracy in leadership is the key to creativity and productivity. These kind of leaders inspire and encourage their team to express themselves and grow.
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So, what can make you a great democratic leader? We have found four tools, which will help you to become the best leader for your team:
1. Seek feedback
Always ask for feedback from your team. It will help you to realize many downsides and maintain better operations in the future. Moreover, this will help you to enhance credibility in your group and detect future conflicts. In general, feedback collection is a wonderful way to have a healthy atmosphere in every organization.
One of the most creative ways you can get feedback from your team and make it an enjoyable process is to use a real-time polling tool. Swift Polling is a perfect digital tool for collecting feedback and visualizing the results in real time. You can make both multiple choice and open-ended questions. They can answer by text voting or online from the Swift Polling website.
2. Encourage freedom of expression
What comes next is the encouragement of free expression. Yes, this is a little bit like the first point. However, this is a crucial factor in becoming a democratic leader. You need to create a safe atmosphere in your group, so no one is afraid of expressing their ideas and speaking up.
Here again, a great solution would be to use Swift Polling’s text to vote feature. You can collect open-ended answers on issues that build trust between you and your group or department.
3. Implement team-building activities
Without proper team-building activities, you and your team will lack of communication in the future, which, unfortunately, will lead to failed processes and projects. Team building will help you to learn about each person. Team members will enjoy the activities and will become more satisfied from their work. Here you can find a lot of fun and entertaining team-building ideas. These will help your group to bond and reach better results together.
4. Help your team to meet deadlines
Don’t just set deadlines and require them to be met, but help the team achieve them. How this can be done? It’s easy. Involve your team in the deadline establishment process. Get feedback on how much time it takes from them to finish required work. Then, set a deadline while giving an explanation of why the work is important and what is the value of doing it. The next vital thing is to show your team the negative consequences if they don’t keep the deadline. Finally, be an example: Keep your own deadlines, this will motivate them the most. Jira can help you to track and set deadlines for your team. It’s easy to use and has several useful features such as project tracking and flexible workflow.
So, what are you waiting for? Start your journey as a great leader now!