Best Leadership Styles in 2020 for Indian Organisations

                Best Leadership Styles in 2020 for Indian Organisation

“You are a real Leader”– the corporate chairman’s opening statement during the appraisal meeting of S Kumar in April 2015. Kumar had taken over the Division in February 2014 from the Manufacturing Director. The handover process in February 2015 was completed within thirty minutes of the joining time of Kumar. The director had introduced Kumar to the senior managers reporting to him, emptied his desk of his papers, and handed over the chair in the cabin to take over. And since then, not a single input was provided by anyone else in the organization about the organization, its processes, Vision & Mission. Goals and Objectives were the inputs given during the initial induction by Manufacturing Director.

 

Kumar recalls the day of the interview with the Board of Directors held in December 2013. Kumar had no experience of the products, and services being offered by the division. Kumar was earlier the Business Head in another engineering organization with very limited exposure to the proposed business. The prospect organization, it seems required very high engineering knowledge. “You are not an Expert Engineer” was the remark made by the Chairman during the interview, “but we shall offer you an opportunity since your background is attractive “. 

 

In his earlier assignment as Business Head, he had achieved continuous overall growth in the satisfaction levels of all the stakeholders- the shareholder regarding top-line & bottom-line growth, employees concerning Employee Engagement scores as well as the societal responsibilities by providing leadership for all such actions.

 

“What Leadership Style do I have??” Kumar pondered after this appraisal meeting. The division had surpassed all their previous records, and had much more than the target set by the company for the division. “How did I apply this Leadership style?” He went through different Leadership Styles as defined by the bigwigs of Leadership Management. Leadership Styles were different in both the organizations, Kumar probed further and realized that he had applied all the traits of a good Leadership Styles as defined by experts namely: - 

1.      Transformational Leadership – Transformational leadership inspires the whole organization to start thinking differently, believes in Effective & Continuous Communication, Empowering people to start thinking and taking decisions. He makes people start seeing their growth as aligned to the overall organizational Goal. He sets stretched but achievable Goals for himself and all employees and achieves them with a collaborative approach. He, therefore, can transform the organization as a whole both for current and future situations. He makes himself dispensable at the risk of more enthusiastic colleagues as competitors, but this style can normally not be easily replicated.

Overall, one of the best Leadership Styles

2.      Democratic Leadership - In this style, the leader allows some of the employees for the required growth potential, limit overall growth. The organization becomes dependent on him for the future. He allows the participation of all employees in analysis processes but takes final decisions himself based on inputs received from colleagues. This style generates higher company benefits from his individualist approach by few close employees but results in slower decision-making since decision-making is limited to very few employees including the Leader.

Good, during the normal period, however, under crisis, needing immediate resolution, it fails as decision-making is limited to few.

3.      Laissez-faire Leadership- Primarily a “decide yourselves” style where employees are self-motivated and are all experts in their own functions. The leader allows each to perform the way they want to achieve results without any intervention. This style is most suitable for organizations involved in creative jobs.

Successful with very limited types of Organizations.

4.      Transactional Leadership- What, Who, When, and How are all clearly defined in this style of Leadership by the top Leader with the Chain of Command specifically elaborated with a reward attached with each output. Very limited scope for employee growth and therefore organization growth when the organization grows large.

Not sustainable over a long period.

5. Autocratic Leadership — Autocratic Leadership demands decision-making & control by the supreme leader irrespective of the intended positive and better inputs by the subordinate. A master-slave relationship develops between the leaders and all other employees. Most of the employees remain un-engaged in such situations. Most of the Owners managed organizations suffer from this Style of Leadership, which is only concerned about personal likes and dislikes.

Overall, not a sustainable Leadership Styles and limits growth.

 

5.      Bureaucratic Leadership - Bureaucratic leadership models are best suited for highly regulated or administrative environments, where adherence to the principles and outlined hierarchy are important. In this leadership style, the leaders set a strict set of rules, regulations, and policies which they follow precisely, and they expect their teams to follow the line.

Can be successful in a government or government                                   organization

                                      Who is the Most Successful Leader?

Almost all successful leader has most often used a mixture of various skills and styles by being Creative, Motivator, Collaborative, and co-creating Organizational Vision. Such skills and styles are to be used in various combinations to be effective depending upon the organization he is handling and the people it has!!

And Kumar realized that he had used the most successful Leadership Style i.e. Transformational Leadership.