Teamwork is great but it’s not always easy. Along with the many lending hands, many factors come into play. Your rapport and bond with your teammates decide how efficient your team will be. One of the components that develop team relationships is the practice of participative leadership. Not sure of what it is and how to go about it? This article will take you through! let us know What is Participative Leadership?
What is participative leadership?
You may have heard of democracy and how people are collectively included in the decision-making process. Participative leadership goes in line with this. One can say that it is a term that involves the entire team’s effort in deciding the plan of action. It involves a group approach toward problems rather than having a single head. As the name suggests, it refers to the participation of the team members in important decisions.
Why is it necessary?
Rather than following the one-way system from up to down for communicating instructions, it is better to opt for a participative approach. One can find many reasons as to why this is not only beneficial but also necessary:
- Address issues
Coordinating with a team is not easy. Multiple issues need to be addressed to provide clarity and ensure effective working. When participative leadership is added as a method of working, it allows more interaction and regulation among members. This brings in two-way communication that can be used to address issues. When team members haven’t to take direct orders and can freely give their inputs as well as explain their struggles, chalking out strategies becomes more effective.
- Collective activity
Needless to say, involving members in the decision-making process increases the collective activity. Members understand each others’ comfort levels and ways of working. They can therefore adjust with each other to coordinate and cooperate. Members find more meaning in their team than as individual employees.
- To avoid misunderstandings and competition
If a team starts competing within itself, attaining the goal is out of the question. Often, receiving orders from up despite being a team on the same level creates competition. This in turn can lead to disputes and affect team coordination. When each person can contribute to the decisions made, it encourages collaboration.
- Promote efforts and morale
Not only does the team reputation increase but also that of each member. Within the group itself, members appreciate and respect each other. Moreover, having the joint task of deciding gives the individual a feeling of potential. With this encouragement, the efforts of each member are enhanced to increase productivity.
- Efficient functioning
Putting down the opinions of all members and then drafting a plan makes the tasks easier too. Team members can resonate and relate to the goal. Understanding what each member has to do and how to connect it to the main goal takes place when members can share their ideas and objectives.
Characteristics
Here’s what it takes to exercise participative leadership in your team:
- Communication
One can say this is the key to any work-related activity. There is an essential need for effective communication without which the team will fall into a chaotic pit. To initiate participative leadership, one needs to communicate with members. Remember that communication has to be two-way here so that there is an exchange of information and not orders. Good group communication will ensure that members can put forth their ideas.
- Broad-mindedness
Each member has his own opinion. That being said, they are also encouraged to listen and consider the opinions of others. That’s what participative leadership is. If you’re going to welcome thoughts but be stuck up on your idea alone or if you’re biased, it doesn’t count for participation. Similarly, if you put down the inputs of others, you may as well be ordering them around. Being open to every idea and then pulling out what’s best for the team and company is the right way to go.
- Cooperation
Every team needs cooperation no matter the task assigned. The goal is to find the best strategy that will yield the most productive results. To do that, members need to practice participative leadership in a way that they put together all the distinct ideas and formulate one plan of action. If there is no cooperation, effective leadership changes to a disorganized argument. No matter which idea you go with, coordination will make all the difference. Moreover, while giving inputs, the members must consider the capabilities of the rest of the team and not just their own. Working that utilizes the full potential of the team to achieve maximum success is the ideal decision to make.
- Approachable
If your attitude gives a presumption that you’re not interested in other ideas, no one will interact. While participation is a factor of participative leadership, approachability is as important. Your teammates need to know that they can rely on you to be as receptive and open as possible to any creative and new thoughts they may have. Participative leadership cannot be executed to its fullest if the members are not approachable in the first place.
- Encouraging
Encouraging comes as another core factor. Working together is what makes a team. This means that you fill in for the incapacity of others and vice versa for complete efficiency, participative leadership can be carried out only when members support and encourage each other. Pushing them to grow out of their comfort zone, helping them build on their confidence to share and other circumstances add to team skills and increase participation.
Here are the pros and cons that come along with participative leadership:
Pros
- Individual and group growth
There is no doubt that participative leadership enhances communication which thereby enhances team skills. With better coordination and collective efforts, the team is likely to grow to its fullest potential. Moreover, each member gains confidence and learns from the various opinions put forward. Think about when you suggested something in your school group, not only did it make you feel productive but also served as a strong idea for your group and activity. By participating in decision-making, they develop a sense of importance and understand their value in the organization.
- Increase in development of strategies
With more opinions to consider, new ideas and inputs are brought to the front. It increases your layout in terms of quality and quantity. Moreover, adding bits from various members to a plan builds on the overall potential of the plan itself. It leads to a more innovative strategy that can prove beneficial for your team’s task. With more options in sight, achieving the goal is all the more convenient.
- Openness to perspectives
When a set of different views come in from various teammates, one learns to look at the problem or task from a different angle. This in turn allows them to devise several unique and distinct approaches to solve the same. While experimenting with different ideas, members also tend to become more open-minded and learn about various perspectives. This works to build on their decision-making and creative skills.
- Higher convincing potential
The more the merrier is a common phrase we’ve heard. One can apply that in participative leadership as well. Commonly, when you have an idea and you approach a superior or co-worker, there aren’t many chances of approval. However, when your idea is backed by support from other members, the convincing power increases. This support is received through the sharing of ideas among members. With participation, not only do the chances of approval for your idea increase but your idea can be further molded with the inputs of others and make it stand out.
- The benefit of the company
Needless to say, the company benefits through participative leadership. Why? Because effective communication yields better results and that is going to grant success and growth to the company. Additionally, the rapport among employees also increases which establishes better relationships. This is fruitful for the reputation of the company too.
Cons
- Time-consuming
This method of working can extend the process by large. With many opinions to consider, many edits, and transformed drafts of ideas, it becomes time-consuming. The longer it takes to make a decision, the longer it will take to achieve the goal. The more the ideas, the more time will be required to carefully choose the right plan. Moreover, communicating with the members takes its time too. It’s not easy to get instant responses and come to a conclusion.
- Requires collective sanction
Another tough challenge is getting the approval of all members on one decision. While it is not possible to get instant approval, there is also the problem of a clash of ideas that comes in. Often, members are not ready to work on a particular idea. The team then cannot go ahead till they have convinced the rest of the members. This can be troublesome as compared to having co-workers comply with your plans.
- Creates frustration
It is also said that too many cooks spoil the broth. While many inputs and ideas may be suggested, it is only one that can be acted upon. Teammates get eager to get their idea selected and in the midst of that, there is confusion with regards to choosing the right process. Having to categorize and alter different inputs and having to do that too as a team is indeed a heavy task. It gets frustrating to keep up with other morals of the time, quality, and so on while exercising participative leadership.
- Not all are considered
If your team has 20 people, all 20 may not get a chance to suggest their views due to various reasons. On the other hand, there would be a few who may be too timid to speak up or may not participate as effectively. It becomes difficult to get all the members to equally contribute to the decision-making process. The biggest drawback here is that newly hired members or those with lower capacities may not be able to use up their entire potential on projects due to a lack of skills and knowledge.
- Possibility of conflicts
This is a partial challenge but a very terrible one. Having to collectively choose an idea from the rest can result in negative feelings among teammates. Even if you consider adding bits of ideas to frame a whole new concept, all the opinions may not be considered. Employees may feel left out or get demotivated. While it is understood that the whole idea of participative leadership is to share the responsibility, many may look for the approval of their methods. When this doesn’t happen, members tend to get discouraged and conflicts are likely to develop.
Examples
Putting all the characteristics in practice, let’s look at a few examples of how to use effective participative leadership in common careers:
- Designing
When it comes to designing, one approach of participative leadership one can use is inviting creative opinions. Being a highly experimental and innovative field the best way to practice participation would be to inculcate ideas for themes from the members rather than just put one topic for them to work on.
- Media
Media is a highly social field and requires communication at all levels. The best way to practice participative leadership would be to allow the opinions of colleagues. Secondly, to enhance participation, the team can choose how to go about in the distribution process to expand the reach rather than following one path.
- Politics
A political leader cannot control every aspect of his career. There is a need to get in touch with others to understand the people to make an effective leader. In this case, participative leadership is not only good but also necessary. Interacting with members of the party and getting their perspective on how to build policies for the benefit of the people invites much flexibility and comfort for the people which is part of the goal of politics.
- Hospitality
Hospitality is a vast field and there are ample opportunities to practice participative leadership. One of the highly recommended ones would be to expand the platform for different ideas on guest service. From simple things like deciding on the menu to the method of greeting and other services, involve your members from the respective teams to add their inputs and try something different.
- Business
In business, strategizing is the main component for efficiency. Allow members to come up with strategies and brainstorm on these before you can adopt a method to go about. Members know their customers and how the brand and product works with different groups. Allowing these diverse ideas to blend will result in vibrant and unique strategies to suit every client!
- Performing arts
If the director simply demands from his team, the result will be poor and restricted. Most performing artists communicate with each other and share opinions on performances. They don’t go by a rule or order, they share their ideas as a team to create something out of the box. Another instance to consider is singers. The team or band works together giving a variety of inputs before they can come up with a masterpiece.
- Other fields
Almost everywhere you look, you will find participative leadership as an effective practice in many careers. Doctors, artists, HR departments, all consult and communicate to get a collective decision of how to come up with a plan or conclusion. Right from professional careers to those of non-profit groups, all consider participative leadership. This method is the right way for exceptional working and to yield outstanding results!
Conclusion
With all the information in place, you’re all set to practice participative leadership within your team! Keep in mind the Dos and Don’ts and remember that the goal of participation is to increase productivity and success for your company!
FAQs
- How often is it ideal to engage in participative leadership?
Participative leadership is a careful method that is far from risks and sudden actions. Therefore, it is advised to use this style when the team is smaller, time constraints are not as much, and when the goal is not pressurizing. Additionally, this style is recommended for goals which are more to do with collaboration than profit whose focus is on reach, creativity, and other factors.
- Is it advisable to choose participative leadership over a single leader?
Considering the pros and cons, it is ideally better to include participative leadership as a strategy. The reason is that the outcome for your product and company will be more creative and unique as compared to that under the restricted orders of a single leader. However, remember the limits of this method to avoid a clash.
- Does participative leadership only work during the decision-making process?
Of course not! Participative leadership begins from the planning, the ideas, the decisions as well as the execution and improvisation. This style is adopted to take the burden and responsibility of a single person’s shoulder and handle it together. Just like you approach your supervisor for any and everything, this method calls for reaching out to your teammates for any discussion about the goal.
