 |
| Image by 3 minutes Psychology - Youtube |
Laissez-faire is a French originated phrase which literary means "leave alone" or "let people do as they choose". This is a hands-off leadership style whereby team members are free to make decisions and solve problems on their own without leaders inputs. The laissez-faire leadership is effective to teams that can work independently without supervision.
What is laissez-faire leadership?
Laissez-faire is a type of leadership style that gives team members full control of their jobs. The team members have a power to make decision and solve problems on their own without or with little oversight from their leaders. The laissez-faire leaders provide their teams with guidance and resources required to accomplish a job and let team members perform the jobs without interfering them. However, leaders can be there to support their teams when they are needed. The laissez-faire style can work effectively to teams with an ability to work independently (without supervision). For instance when the team members are skilled, experienced and passionate to a job, the laissez-faire style can be good option to apply to this kind of a team.
- Laissez-faire leadership is an opposite of micromanagement leadership which overseas every tiny detail of work to ensure that required standards are met.
- Laissez-faire leadership is also known as delegative leadership style.
You can also read: 10 Management Styles For Effective Leadership (Pros, Cons, When to use them) And Factors Influencing Management Styles
Characteristics of laissez-faire leadership
There are various characteristics of laissez-faire leadership that distinguish it from other type of leadership style. Such of those characteristics include hands-off approach, high level of trust between leaders and their followers and autonomy.
Hands-off approach
Laissez-faire leadership follows hands-off approach. As a name suggest, hands-off approach is a style of leadership in which a leader leaves almost every thing to be done by their team members, including goals setting, decision-making and problems-solving. The laissez-faire is a hands-off leadership, whereby leaders do not involve themselves in direct supervision of their teams, instead they give their team members guidance and directions and let them perform the projects on their own. However this can work best to self-motivated, experienced and highly skilled teams.
High level of trust
Laissez-faire leadership style is characterized by high level of trust that is built between leaders and their followers. Leaders who apply this style of leadership put much trust to the teams they lead. They give their teams tasks to perform and believe everything will be done in a right way even if a leader is not around. It's very important for the leaders who use laissez-faire style to trust members who can work independently, otherwise the result could hinder the progress of a team.
Team members make decisions
While in most of other leadership styles leaders are involved in decision making, things are different in laissez-faire style. Laissez-faire style give team members the power to make decisions on their own without leader's inputs being involved. This often makes teams feel more trusted and their inputs have meaning to a group or organization. But can bring negative impacts if unskilled members are trusted and allowed to make decisions.
Provision of training and support
Since the team members work independently without oversight from their leaders. Training and support is highly required specially to employees with less skills and experience.
You can also read: Democratic Leadership Style: Meaning, Characteristics, Advantages And Disadvantages
Advantages of laissez-faire leadership
Laissez-faire leadership style can bring positive outcomes to a team when used effectively and in appropriate situations and settings. The following are some advantages of laissez-faire leadership.
1. Develops decision-making and problem-solving skills
Since laissez-faire leaders let their teams perform tasks on their own without interfering them, team members can develop their decision making and problem solving skills.
2. Encourage creativity and innovations
The laissez-faire leadership can also encourage creativity to teams. The freedom team members given by their leaders can help them come up with innovative ideas and new perspectives.
3. Builds confidence to team members
The team members become confident to handle various challenges they face in their jobs but also become confident to make decisions on their own. This confidence is developed into team members because their leaders show them trust.
4. Autonomy
This leadership style encourages freedom. Teams has full control of their jobs whereby they work independently without being interfered by their leaders.
5. Develops leadership skills to team members
Since leaders are hands-off, some roles of leaders like decision-making and problem-solving are done by team members. This can help members in a team develop their leadership skills.
You can also read: Autocratic Leadership Style: Meaning, Characteristics, Advantages And Disadvantages
Disadvantages of laissez-faire leadership
Though laissez-faire leadership has many advantages to teams, it also has some pitfalls if not applied effectively to a team. Below are disadvantages of laissez-faire leadership.
1. Can't work effectively with unmotivated and unskilled teams
Laissez-faire leadership style can only bring positive outcomes when applied to self-motivated and skilled teams. The unskilled and unmotivated teams can't cope with this style of leadership, since they need high supervision and inspiration.
2. Can lead to confusion about roles and responsibilities.
The team members may be confused of their roles and duties when this style not used appropriately. Some laissez-faire leaders may not or may provided little guidance which may lead to ambiguity and loss of direction to teams they lead.
When is laissez-faire leadership effective?
As the definition says, laissez-faire leadership is a leadership style that let teams perform jobs independently without supervision. Thus, this leadership style needs teams that can work independently, with huge ability to solve problems and make decisions on their own. The team members must be highly skilled and experienced to a job, furthermore, they must be highly motivated and passionate to a job. In addition, as a leissuz-faire leader you must offer clear direction and guidance to help employees understand what and how to do.
- Laissez-faire leadership can work effectively when the teams are highly motivated, experienced, skilled and passionate to a job.
How to know if Laissez-faire style suit your team.
Learn your team and check if your team members can work independently. Here you can look on their skills, experience, motivation and passion.
- Skills: Check if your team members are skilled enough. If not then it is good to train them and make sure they have enough skills before applying this leadership style.
- Experience: The team members with low level of experience needs high attention. Thus, laissez-faire leadership may not be a good option for inexperienced teams.
- Motivation: Laissez-faire leadership can work effectively when your team has high working morale. If your team is unmotivated, this style may not give good outcomes to a team. You can try to rewards your team to raise their working morale.
- Passion: You can also check your team member's passion. If they are passionate to a job then laissez-faire leadership can work effectively.
Tips to make laissez-faire leadership effective to a team.
- Provide your team with enough resources needed to perform a job as well as guidance and directions to avoid ambiguity.
- Frequently investigate the performance of your team and consistently give them feedbacks about their performance.
- Provide incentives and good working environment to boost their working morale.
- Check your group if is skilled enough to perform the work independently. If not skilled you can plan for training sessions.
You can also read: Five Functions Of Management By KOONTZ And O’DONNEL
References
.jpeg)
.jpeg)
.jpeg)
0 Comments