Key Takeaways:
- Delegative leadership is also commonly known as laissez-faire leadership.
- With the delegative leadership style, a person empowers their team to practice autonomy.
- To be an effective delegative leader, a person needs specific skills, including communication, integrity and strategic thinking.
This picture may sound familiar: you are a leader in your organization. You are overloaded with work, possibly burnt out, and it feels impossible to complete your tasks. If this sounds like your situation, you may be neglecting to use a critical leadership skill – delegation.
Contrary to popular belief, leadership delegation is not a sign of weakness. Among the different leadership styles, delegative leadership is among the most important. The most successful leaders are those who understand when to delegate responsibilities to direct reports, who can complete projects successfully. Not only does delegation help leaders become more efficient, but it also provides individual contributors with opportunities to hone new skills.
Below, we will discuss what delegative leadership is and the skills necessary to implement this approach. In addition, we will also discuss the pros and cons, along with the steps you can take to become a delegative leader.
What Is Delegative Leadership/Laissez-Faire Leadership?
Delegative leadership, also known as laissez-faire leadership, is a leadership style that provides a team with independence. With this approach, a leader plays a more passive role and provides their team with opportunities to make choices and handle responsibilities autonomously. Leaders who use this approach typically guide and support their team as needed but are not involved in day-to-day operations. While this can help a team become more efficient, it requires a high level of trust on both sides for this approach to work.
What Are the Skills of a Delegative Leader?
Delegative leadership does not come naturally; it is an amalgamation of skills gained over time and with experience. To understand if this leadership style is a good fit for you and your team, learn more about the top attributes and skills of a delegative leader below.
- Integrity: It is incredibly important for a delegative leader to have integrity. Simply put, integrity means being honest and having high moral principles, including fairness, respect and equality. With integrity, it is easier to build trust, which is a foundational element of delegation for leaders and team members.
- Trust: It is a common misconception that trust simply occurs. However, it is a critical skill that we learn and hone with time. Trust is necessary for task delegation to be effective. Leaders can delegate responsibilities successfully only if they trust their team members to execute the work.
- Communication: Communication is also an essential skill for delegative leaders. Delegative leaders must be able to communicate their expectations effectively. In addition, it is important for a leader to foster open communication, so team members can freely express their ideas, ask questions and complete their work without constant supervision.
- Strategic Thinking: Delegative leaders need to be able to think strategically. They have to assess the strengths and weaknesses of their direct reports in terms of reaching organizational goals to properly allocate tasks.
What Are the Pros of Using a Delegative Leadership Style?
Like other forms of leadership, delegative leadership can be beneficial for leaders and their teams. However, it is important to note that this approach typically works best if your team members are experienced and can complete tasks with minimal supervision. Some of the top benefits of delegative leadership are listed below.
- Creativity: Delegative leadership fosters creativity because it empowers team members to think independently. Other leadership styles thrive on conformity and sticking to specific guidelines. In contrast, leadership delegation encourages team members to use their unique skills to get work done.
- Growth: Another benefit of a delegative leadership style is employee growth. Leaders who use this leadership method encourage their team members to challenge themselves and make their own decisions, which helps them gain confidence. When empowered to take ownership over their work, employees can better identify their strengths and weaknesses, which can foster growth, even if some trial and error is involved.
- Team satisfaction: Delegative leadership also strengthens team satisfaction. By giving team members the power to recognize their own talents and make decisions, they will likely feel more valued and trusted.
What Are the Cons of Using a Delegative Leadership Style?
Oftentimes, delegative leadership offers many advantages. However, it can also cause challenges. Ahead, we dive into the cons of delegative leadership.
- Inability to detect problems: A big part of delegating is being hands-off. However, that can cause concerns and issues to go unnoticed. If an employee fails to handle their assigned tasks, it could lead to problems the leader will not immediately recognize because they are not involved in daily oversight.
- Reduced productivity: Another potential negative of delegative leadership is reduced productivity. Employees must be capable of managing and delivering quality work without constant direction from their leader. If an employee cannot perform independently, their work quality and quantity may suffer, resulting in reduced productivity.
- Limited professional development: Since delegative leaders are commonly more hands-off, they may be less inclined to engage with their team to provide meaningful professional development guidance. Without advice and mentoring from their leader, team members might struggle to feel valued.
11 Steps to Become a Delegative Leader
Depending on your values, skills and team, delegative leadership could be a good fit for you. If you are interested in becoming a delegative leader, check out the 11 steps below that you can use as a guideline to help you get started.
1. Complete a Self-Assessment and Mindset Shift
To become a delegative leader, begin by assessing your leadership skills. Reflect on your current style of actions, and shift your mindset from a hands-on to a more hands-off approach. To be a delegative leader, you need to support your team members and trust your direct reports to work independently.
2. Know Your Team
Knowing your team’s strengths and dynamics is a critical step to becoming a delegative leader. Understanding your team will help you become a better delegator because you can more accurately match tasks to people’s strengths.
3. Establish Clear Communication
Clear communication is essential for delegative leadership. Since these leaders are not directly involved in day-to-day operations, they must meet regularly with their teams to stay informed and aligned at all stages of projects. For example, a delegative leader should meet with their direct reports at the start of a project to discuss progress on assigned tasks and address questions they may have. Open communication is vital at all stages of a project to ensure the team feels comfortable asking questions to avoid problems.
4. Choose the Right People
It is critical to assign tasks to your direct reports based on each of their unique strengths and bandwidth. This action sets them up for success, helps the team become more efficient and ensures that your direct reports are working on projects where they can be successful. Ultimately, this will help lead to better outcomes for all involved.
5. Provide Resources and Training
While you may be less involved in the daily work of your team as a delegative leader, it is critical to provide your team with the training and resources needed for success. This step may include equipping team members with appropriate tools or making time to discuss the background of a project. It is also important to remember that this leadership style is hands-off but not negligent. As a leader, you should be able to recognize when your team needs help or guidance.
6. Set Clear Boundaries and Expectations
Setting clear boundaries and expectations is another essential step for you to take to become an effective delegative leader. To do this, create an open dialogue between you and your colleagues to establish limits and goals. Doing this can help you and your team find a mutual understanding, which can help boost team engagement.
7. Monitor Progress
It was mentioned that it is important to clearly communicate and be open for direct reports to communicate with you. But, it is also important to facilitate communication and monitor progress. Since you may have less involvement in a task as a delegative leader, it is paramount for you to check in with the key stakeholders of a project every once in a while to monitor progress. When you schedule time with your team to monitor the status of a project, be sure not to stifle the team’s work or seem overbearing.
8. Empower Decision-Making
As a delegative leader, you must be comfortable with team members practicing autonomy and making their own decisions. To foster a positive and collaborative work environment, encourage your team members to make independent decisions that align with project objectives and organizational standards. If your team members feel they have agency in their work, you can save time, promote innovation and build trust.
9. Share Feedback and Recognize Quality
As you monitor the progress of your team’s work, you should continue to provide thoughtful feedback and recognition. By providing feedback, you can help your team grow and improve. It is also essential that you recognize your team members for their work and show that you appreciate and value their efforts.
10. Learn From Experience
With any leadership style, improving and growing as you gain more experience is crucial to your continued success. Evaluating what you did well as a leader and what you need to improve will help to ensure you learn from both your mistakes and your accomplishments.
11. Commit to Continuous Improvement
Once you reflect on your previous experiences, establish your areas for continuous improvement, and create a plan for further growth. By committing to continuous improvement, you lead by example. When your team sees that you are committed to learning and changing, they will feel inspired to do the same.
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