Introduction
According to Mind Tools, my leadership style is democratic, also known as participative. This type of leadership is often recognized as the most beneficial for enhancing participation, allowing each team member to engage in the decision-making and problem-solving processes. However, as the leader of several medical clinics and a student instructor, I should also be able to account for the disadvantages of this approach, consistently improving my skills to address the arising complications properly. Furthermore, it will be essential to establish specific goals and pathways for achieving them, ensuring the advancement of my competencies in such areas. In this paper, I will discuss the spheres requiring my attention, suggesting how to advance my knowledge to ensure effective leadership and successful group collaboration.
Identifying Areas of Improvement
While democratic leadership is well-known for its focus on empowerment and collective decision-making, there are particular limitations connected to this method. For instance, a crucial disadvantage is an impossibility of adhering to the opinions of the minority. Over the course of democratic meetings, unpopular propositions are often left unrecognized; even if they are highly valuable for the organization’s outputs (Dike & Madubueze, 2019). In the long term, the individuals whose ideas are undermined can lose their motivation due to being constantly forced to follow the decisions of the majority.
Another area for improvement is the optimization of the decision-making process, another limitation attributed to the democratic style of leadership. Considering that the discussions should lead to a collectively approved selection, additional time is required to address all available opportunities and reach a consensus (Rahbi et al., 2017). In this regard, the group’s leader is expected to mediate the complications, ensuring that the decision-making procedure is effective and less time-consuming.
Finally, to properly collaborate and make weighted decisions, the team members must be highly trained and qualified to perform such tasks. If the leader does not continuously assess the employees’ teamwork abilities and fails to properly prepare them for the meetings, disruptions are bound to occur (Rahbi et al., 2017). Such obstacles can lead to further decreases in the workers’ and corporations’ outputs, suggesting that a successful leader should address these problems.
Achieving the Goals in Democratic Leadership
Given the highlighted issues connected to the democratic leadership style, it is necessary for me to improve my competencies. First of all, I must be able to encourage interest in minority opinions during the decision-making process. An advantageous method is to draw the team’s attention to the propositions that are unnoticed or overlooked, which can be done by the leader throughout the discussions (Okechukwu, 2021). As such, I will research the techniques that allow focusing the group’s attention on particular notions and facilitate inclusion.
As for the optimization of time consumption during decision-making, a frequently implemented strategy is for the leader to guide the team members during the discussion. For instance, the executive can mitigate the arising conflicts or influence the workers if the debated topic is non-essential (Hilton et al., 2021). However, changing the direction of a group discussion can be extremely strenuous and demands the knowledge of effective methods and collective psychology (Rahbi et al., 2017). In this regard, I intend to study the mentioned themes, and attending courses that will improve my theoretical and practical competencies.
Lastly, advancing the team members’ capabilities can be performed through consistent assessments and the encouragement of learning opportunities. As such, I plan to complete regular performance evaluations that analyze how each worker performs during team meetings (Nobakht et al., 2017). After that, I will encourage employees who lack particular capabilities to participate in educational activities, facilitating better collaboration and team performance in the future (Chukwusa, 2019). In addition, I intend to note the changes in the workers’ skills, ensuring that the team members’ growth is consistent.
Conclusion
To conclude, it is evident that the primary improvement areas for me are the inclusion of minority opinions, optimization of the decision-making processes, and the improvement of the workers’ collaboration competencies. As the democratic leadership style demands that the majority of the team members agree with the suggested resolution created as a result of group discussions, the aforementioned difficulties should be mediated by the leader. Firstly, to make unpopular ideas heard, I must research the techniques that shed light on all available possibilities and promote the inclusion of suggestions introduced by a minority of the workers. After that, by correcting the course of the conversation, I can optimize the team’s decision-making. Conflicts and disagreements are highly common during collaborative meetings, meaning that team activities might be considerably hindered. Studying effective methods to influence debates and the basics of collective psychology will help me to improve my skills in this area, thus advancing the growth and organizational performance. Finally, I will introduce individual performance measurements to examine the employees’ capabilities in making group decisions and specify whether each team member is effective. Simultaneously, I will promote skill improvement courses to foster the employees’ motivation to enhance their personal capacities in team working.
References
Chukwusa, J. (2019). Perceived democratic leadership style of university librarians and library staff work attitude. Library Philosophy and Practice, 1.
Dike, E. E., & Madubueze, M. H. C. (2019). Democratic leadership style and organizational performance: An appraisal. International Journal of Development Strategies in Humanities, Management, and Social Sciences, 9(3), 129–138.
Hilton, S. K., Arkorful, H., & Martins, A. (2021). Democratic leadership and organizational performance: The moderating effect of contingent reward.Management Research Review, 44(7), 1042–1058. Web.
Nobakht, M., Ebrahimi, M., Babaee, M., & Davar, S. (2017). Identifying a productive leadership model to increase employees’ job motivation.International Review, 3–4, 57–63. Web.
Okechukwu, A. (2021). Democratic leadership styles and industrial relations atmosphere of some selected oil servicing firms in Port Harcourt. International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development, 5(6), 1217–1228.
Rahbi, D. A., Khalid, K., & Khan, M. (2017). The effects of leadership styles on team motivation. Academy of Strategic Management Journal, 16(2).