Impact of Leadership Styles and Skills on Employees
Leadership Styles and Skills and How They Impact Employees
The 21st century has witnessed immense growth in business enterprises locally, internationally, and globally. As businesses increase, expand, and thrive, the need for proper management of resources, human and non-human, cannot be understated. The leadership or management of any organization is critical to the organization’s success on all fronts, be it productivity, sustainability, and profitability, among other core competencies. The leadership of an organization is tasked with providing guidance and direction while spearheading all operations to attain specific and core goals of the organization. Leaders are tasked with implementing plans and strategies whose aim is to meet the vision and mission statements of their respective organizations (Ciulla, 2020). They are required to be direction setters who lead by example and provide employees with the motivation and example they need to drive the productivity and profitability of their organizations. However, leadership, especially in the 21st century’s highly globalized world, comes with a myriad of challenges that leaders face every day (Pamfilie, Petcu & Draghici, 2012). Leaders must solve these challenges if they are to be great in their respective positions. Leadership has a direct impact on employee satisfaction (Voon et al., 2011). Therefore, when leaders face challenges, the effects of these challenges are bound to trickle down to the employees and may have detrimental effects on satisfaction, productivity, and turnover. Leaders should embrace leadership styles and skills that uphold ethical values, innovative thinking, and set strategies that aim to meet the mission and vision of the organization if they are to inspire their employees and tackle the challenges they face in the workplace.
Leaders come in different types and have different approaches to leadership. There are different leadership styles that are common in most organizations today. Different leaders use different styles or combinations of several styles to achieve the goals of an organization. The leadership style embraced by a leader depends on several factors such as the culture of the organization, the nature of the tasks, and the personal attributes of the leader among other factors. However, each leader aims to attain set goals, provide direction, and steer the organization to higher levels of growth and profitability. Depending on the aforementioned factors, different styles are more applicable to different settings. Therefore, the leader must determine the right style to apply to the settings in question to ensure that tasks are completed as envisaged.
One of the most common leadership styles, particularly in the developed world, is the democratic leadership style. In a democratic leadership style, also known as participative leadership style or shared leadership style, the employees together with the management or leadership are involved in the decision making process. Therefore, the leadership does not make decisions on its own then require employees to live up to them. On the contrary, both the leaders and the employees make decisions. The employees are actively involved in the decision making process and are consulted either as a whole or through their representatives whom they elect themselves.
The democratic leadership style is one of the most common and successful style embraced in most organizations due to its advantages. The style fosters good and warm relationships between employees and the leadership or management. As a result, employees are more comfortable with the operations of the organization and can provide their opinions which are considered and where possible adopted by the organization (Bhatti et al., 2012). Employee satisfaction is often high under democratic leadership compared to other styles (Bhatti et al., 2012). When employees are satisfied, they are likely to stay longer with the organization thereby decreasing employee turnover and consequently the costs of hiring new employees. Leaders who apply the democratic style are often more liked by their employees and tend to implement an open door policy in which employees, even those at the bottom of the hierarchy, can voice their opinions directly to the leader or manager (Fiaz, Su & Saqib, 2017). The style is highly successful in organizations that require employees to be innovative.
The second leadership style common in organizations is the autocratic style. Autocratic leaders are the opposite of democratic leaders. They issue directives without consulting anyone and expect that those directives will be met to the letter (Fiaz, Su & Saqib, 2017). These leaders often consider themselves the smartest in the organization. Therefore, they assume that their directives are the best for the organization. Most autocratic leaders offer rewards and punishments to those who obey their directives and those who underperform respectively (Fiaz, Su & Saqib, 2017). However, these leaders are often less liked by their employees and fail to inspire or motivate employees to follow their examples. They inspire fear and total obedience from their subjects. Autocratic leadership is often found in military or military like organizations in which commands and orders must be followed to the letter. The style can be characterized as “an exploitative-authoritative system where power and direction come from the top downwards, where threats and punishments are employed, and where communication is poor and team-work is non-existent” (Fiaz, Su & Saqib, 2017, p. 146). However, when applied to business enterprises, autocratic leadership styles can result in employee dissatisfaction and high turnovers because employees feel oppressed and are not part of the decision making process.
Another leadership style common in organizations is the transformational style. Transformational leaders set their goals on transforming an organization from what it is to an entirely different entity (Nanjundeswaraswamy & Swamy, 2014). They are often responsible for changing the organizational culture or traditional ways of doing things and ushering in new techniques, strategies, and approaches. These leaders often employ coaching to enable their followers to understand and achieve their vision and goals (Nanjundeswaraswamy & Swamy, 2014). Transformational leaders can be very effective and can inspire employees to get out of their comfort zones and do more to attain set objectives (Nanjundeswaraswamy & Swamy, 2014). However, they can also destroy the culture of the organization to the benefit or detriment of the organization depending on how successful they become.
Laissez-Faire leaders are less involved in the actions of employees and tend to embrace a hands-off approach. They allow employees to do their jobs with minimal supervision or interference (Chaudhry& Javed, 2012). Laissez-Faire leaders often trust employees to control themselves and to do what is best for the company with minimal supervision. Therefore, employees have the freedom to make some decisions such as when to report to work and what to do at work (Chaudhry& Javed, 2012). The style may not work in large corporations as it can create an environment in which laziness can thrive since some employees may leave all tasks to other employees. Furthermore, opportunities for growth may be limited since employees do not have targets to meet and may thus lack the motivation to improve their skills (Chaudhry& Javed, 2012). In addition, the organization may fail to capitalize on opportunities of growth because there are no targets or long term and short-term goals and objectives to be met.
Coaching is another leadership style common in organizations. Leaders who embrace the coaching leadership style can identify the strengths and weaknesses of each of their employees or followers and work towards improving individual employees to become the best in their fields (Berg & Karlsen, 2016). Like sports coaches, these leaders mentor individual followers or employees to improve their strengths and weaknesses and understand that each employee is a member of the team and a weak member makes the team weaker while strong members make the team stronger (Berg & Karlsen, 2016). Therefore, these leaders emphasize on the importance of teamwork and encourage employees to support one another because they are stronger as a team. These leaders are often a source of motivation and their employees tend to look up to them for support, direction, and guidance (Berg & Karlsen, 2016). Coaches can be highly successful in the right settings.
Another common leadership style is visionary and strategic leadership. Visionary and strategic leaders possess the ability to envision the future of the organization and set goals that can make their visions a reality. They inspire and motivate employees to achieve this vision by taking strategic decisions that set the organization towards the vision. These leaders also anticipate challenges and offer solutions that promote a stable environment in which the vision can be achieved (Ndalamba, Caldwell & Anderson, 2018). Even during periods of change, visionary leaders will inspire employees to come up with new ideas and strategies to weather the storms of change and uncertainty (Ndalamba, Caldwell & Anderson, 2018).
Transactional leadership style is also very common in organizations. Transactional leaders seek to “gain legitimacy through the use of rewards, praises and promises that would satisfy followers’ immediate needs” (Voon et al., 2011, p. 25). These leaders appeal to the interests of employees or followers by setting both short-term and long-term targets and rewarding employees or followers who meet these targets (Voon et al., 2011).
The leadership style adopted by a leader has a major impact on employee satisfaction, motivation, productivity, and turnover. While different organizations will embrace different styles of leadership, some styles are more productive than others are. Employees rely upon their leaders to provide directions and guidance to steer the organization to higher levels of growth. However, when leaders embrace leadership styles that affect the relationship between themselves and their employees, growth rates may decline significantly. The effects of leadership styles on productivity and growth cannot be understated. A leadership style that alienates employees from the leadership often makes it difficult for them to be more productive and committed to the success of the organization. When employees are less committed, they tend to be less productive and less satisfied with their jobs. Lack of employee satisfaction affects employee motivation and can result in reduced productivity satisfaction (Voon et al., 2011). Consequently, a decline in productivity affects the long-term objectives of the organization and jeopardizes the ability of the organization to meet its core objectives.
Employees who are less satisfied with their jobs are more likely to leave for more satisfying jobs. Therefore, leaders whose leadership styles increase the likelihood of employees quitting for better jobs increase employee turnover. High employee turnover can jeopardize the future of an organization, particularly if important, skilled, and experienced employees quit or are courted by competitors (Terera & Ngirande, 2014). For instance, in technology oriented firms where experience and skills are critical, poor leadership styles can drive away employees who possess a competitive advantage in terms of their skills and expertise. When these employees leave for competitor firms, they carry with them their skills and expertise to the benefit of the firms they move to. As a result, these firms grow at the expense of the firms the employees worked for previously. In highly competitive industries, it is critical that employees be maintained in the long run to ensure stability in growth and profitability.
Poor leadership styles also pose challenges to the ability of the organization to remain sustainable in the long term. Other than higher employee turnovers, poor leaders also discourage innovation and creativity. Innovation and creativity are key factors in determining the sustainability of an organization (Dunne et al., 2016). Organizations that support innovative and creative cultures tend to be leaders in their industries as they encourage employees to find new and better ways of doing things that beat those of competitors. In today’s highly competitive and globalized economy, innovativeness and creativity can provide substantial sources of competitive advantage that set a company apart from its competitors (Dunne et al., 2016). Companies that have embraced innovation are often sources of cutting edge technologies that drive industries and set trends. For instance, Apple has been at the forefront of supporting innovative cultures that have driven the company’s sales forward and made it a key player in the global electronics industry. However, leaders must embrace innovative and creative cultures if they expect to rip the benefits. Leaders who fail to encourage employees to be creative and innovative through poor leadership styles that fail to inspire innovation and creativity fail to rip these benefits. However, leadership styles that support innovation and creativity are more likely to provide leaders with opportunities to be industry leaders and support higher levels of growth and competitiveness both in the short run and long run, thereby guaranteeing sustainable growth into the future.
Other than leadership styles, leaders must also possess the right skills set that supports, motivates, and encourages employees to meet the objectives of the organization. Some of the skills that employees must possess include reliability, consistency, dependability, innovative thinking and creativity, good communication skills, integrity, empathy, respect, transparency, vision, and responsibility among others. The skills of a leader significantly determine the relationships between the leader and the followers or employees. Poor leadership skills strain the relationship between the leadership and the employees and make it difficult for employees and employers or leaders to engage in beneficial activities that support the vision and mission of an organization. Leaders with proper leadership skills are revered by their followers and are often a source of motivation and support (Pamfilie, Petcu & Draghici, 2012). Consequently, properly motivated employees tend to be more creative, innovative, resilient, productive and responsible. These factors support the growth of organizations and improve their competitiveness and productivity.
Successful leaders and organizations must have a code of ethics or ethical values that guide the conduct of and relationships between members (Ciulla, 2020). A code of ethics ensures that business transactions are done with utmost integrity and assigns individual roles and responsibilities as well as setting desirable behavior patterns required of all members of the organization (Ciulla, 2020). Organizations establish codes of ethical behavior to regulate how people conduct themselves. Without ethical principles and values, organizations are bound to experience chaotic and undesirable behavior that affects productivity and discourages integrity (Palazzo, 2007). Ethical principles guide both the behavior of employees and employers while also setting specific business ethics that must be followed (Ciulla, 2020). Different organizations may have different ethical values. However, certain aspects such as codes of conduct are similar in most organizations. Codes of conduct provide direction on how employees should relate with each other and with the leadership. These codes provide clear information on aspects of employee conduct such as how to address senior persons such as management as well as colleagues. Furthermore, these codes of conduct also shed light on how employers should treat their employees.
Leaders who embrace and respect ethical values foster good and respectable relationships between themselves and their followers or employees (Palazzo, 2007). Ethical leaders operate within a code of conduct that guides how they relate with employees and other members of the organization. An ethical leader is the embodiment of values such as integrity, honesty, transparency, and accountability (Palazzo, 2007). These leaders set the stage for the practice of these values throughout the organization. When a leader is ethical, he or she influences followers or employees to act ethically (Palazzo, 2007). Organizations that have well laid out ethical principles tend to encourage values such as responsibility, hard work, respect, and accountability among employees. However, leaders must lead by example in ensuring that these codes of ethics are adhered to (Palazzo, 2007). When employees are treated well and there is harmony within an organization, the result is a peaceful working environment that allows employees to attain higher levels of productivity compared to what they would achieve in a chaotic work environment.
Ethical values such as honesty and integrity are critical to business operations, particularly in organizations where honesty and integrity are key to successful business operations. For instance, accounting firms must have a strong emphasis on values of honesty and integrity if they are to be successful. If these values are not practiced, employees might take advantage of clients to con them or engage in unethical behavior such as theft and forgery that might expose the organization to lawsuits or even closure where huge discrepancies exist. Therefore, leaders must be responsible for nurturing ethical values in their organizations by punishing and addressing unethical behavior and leading by example. If unethical behavior is allowed to spread its roots in an organization, an organization becomes chaotic and ungovernable. Employers or leaders who do not practice ethical principles tend to mistreat employees or followers and can frustrate them to the point of avoiding them or quitting their jobs entirely. An employee who knows that the leader is unethical will prefer not to interact with the leader due to fear of being treated unethically. As a result, the communication between employer and employee may be damaged, thereby affecting the sharing of information and ideas that may have contributed to innovation and creativity. Furthermore, mistreated employees with skills, experience, and expertise might also choose to quit their jobs thus increasing turnover and threatening the long-term sustainability of the organization (Terera & Ngirande, 2014).
Leaders must also embrace an innovative thinking and culture if they are to steer their organizations through challenges and towards higher levels of growth. However, being innovative poses challenges to leaders, as it requires one to think outside the box and increases risks in the event of failed innovative ideas. Being innovative requires that leaders be able to understand current and future challenges in their industries and develop products or offer solutions to these problems through the creation of new products, enhancement of existing products to meet new needs, new ideas, and imagination of what the future could look like (Oke, Munshi & Walumbwa, 2009). In today’s highly competitive world largely driven by highly dynamic technological innovations, innovation has never been more important. Leaders are tasked with ensuring that their organizations embrace an innovative culture that can spur the organization’s growth into the future.
Innovative leaders are usually open to ideas from all members of their organization, from the lowest to the highest, and seek to implement a culture of innovation throughout the organization’s value chain. Today, for instance, the smartphone market continues to witness immense innovative cultures that continually produce better, more powerful, and more elegant devices for a huge global and local consumer market. Leading smartphone manufacturers such as Huawei, Samsung, and Apple have had to adopt innovative cultures to remain relevant to consumers and beat competitors in the highly saturated industry. Without innovation, we would not have the very powerful smartphones we have at our disposal. Innovation supports growth both in revenue and customer base for organizations. However, for employees to be innovative, leaders must set examples that encourage and reward innovative ideas. Therefore, leaders have a big role to play in creating and supporting an innovative culture.
Organizations that lack innovative cultures face several challenges. First, they are unable to anticipate future industry conditions and trends. Therefore, they cannot plan and might become obsolete with changes in their industry. For instance, companies that fail to anticipate changes in consumer needs might end up trailing companies that effectively anticipate and respond to changes. As a result, these companies may go out of business or become uncompetitive. As competition increases globally, companies are continually seeking a competitive advantage that will keep them afloat. Innovation and creativity provides opportunities for companies to acquire and build a competitive advantage through new and better products or better and cheaper ways of doing things (Anderson, Potočnik & Zhou, 2014; Agbor, 2008). Innovation throughout the value chain can significantly reduce costs and increase profits. Furthermore, organizations without an innovative culture may fail to attract innovative employees, particularly millennials who are interested in creating new products, ideas, and new approaches to doing things. The current generation is highly interested in innovation and creativity. As a result, leaders who inspire innovation also tend to attract followers who embrace innovation. Therefore, highly innovative organizations tend to have a low employee turnover because they are more likely to attract employees or to motivate them to stay.
The current global covid-19 crisis has highlighted the very need for innovation in organizations. Innovative organizations have found a way to continue their operations while those that lack innovative cultures have closed down. Innovative leaders have found a way to steer their organizations towards growth by taking advantage of the current crisis. For instance, innovative organizations have embraced settings that allow their employees to effectively work from home and continue operations. Other organizations have altered their operations to ensure that they meet the guidelines set by their respective governments while continuing operations. All of these actions are largely inspired by innovative cultures and practices. For instance, innovative companies have supported government efforts to reduce infections and flatten curves through the development of contact tracing applications. Innovation is critical to the survival of most businesses, particularly small and medium ones (Dunne et al., 2016). Companies that fail to innovate to reflect current market conditions become a let down to their employees and other stakeholders. For instance, some employees have felt a biting lack of support from their employers during the ongoing global pandemic with some being fired or sent on compulsory non-paid leave.
Successful companies or organizations have both short and long-term goals and objectives that seek to fulfil their visions and missions. A mission statement details what a company does and why it does it (Babnik et al., 2014). The statement further shows the reason for an organization’s existence to its stakeholders, be it the owners, customers, or the public (Babnik et al., 2014). As such, mission statements must be designed to reflect the real reasons for the existence of an organization as well as what it hopes to achieve in the long term (Rajasekar, 2013). Organizations, therefore, are required to live up to their missions if they are to be truly great. Leaders of organizations must ensure that all the efforts they put both in the short term and the long term reflect and help to achieve the missions of their organizations. Mission statements provide direction and guidance to both management and employees on what really matters and help to maintain focus on these long-term development goals (John et al., 2008). Organizations that are known to stick to their missions and work towards achieving them are more likely to perform better with studies showing that there is a positive relationship between mission statements and performance (Rajasekar, 2013). In a highly dynamic global market, companies must maintain relative stability to prevent against shocks that can be detrimental to their operations (Pamfilie, Petcu & Draghici, 2012).
The importance of mission statements cannot be understated because they are like a compass that steers the organization. Therefore, when companies lose sight of their missions or behave in a manner to suggest that they are deviating from their missions, employees and other stakeholders may be let down (John et al., 2008). A company might start out with a clear mission but lose focus of it over time if the leadership fails to remind itself of the company’s reasons for existence. When employees and investors feel like a company is not living up to its mission statement, they might consider quitting or pulling out their investments in favor of more stable companies that are dedicated to achieving their missions. As such, the company may lose key investors and employees, thereby threatening its long-term sustainability and survival. Leaders, therefore, must ensure that they remain focused on the missions of the organizations they lead and be at the forefront in working towards the realization of these missions. As part of their leadership skills, leaders must embrace consistency and focus on what really matters for the success of their organizations.
In the globalized world we currently live in, astound leadership in organizations and corporates is becoming more and more important to the long-term success of local, international, and global organizations. Great leaders inspire change and growth in their organizations and are tasked with taking them to higher and unprecedented levels of growth. However, to become truly great in achieving these goals, leaders must possess a set of skills that is best suited for their organizational culture and values. Leaders must be innovative, have ethical values, and focus on the missions of their organizations if they are to achieve their short and long-term goals and objectives. Leaders with ethical values inspire employees to act ethically and morally while also providing a harmonious environment for employees to carry out their tasks. Furthermore, leaders should be innovative enough to anticipate, understand, and respond to changes in market conditions within their industries. They must also support and develop a culture of innovation within their organizations so that employees are encouraged and rewarded for their innovative ideas. A culture of innovation can help secure a company’s future through the development of new products or the implementation of new ideas that result in a competitive advantage (Dunne et al., 2016). In addition, leaders must ensure that they apply the right mix of leadership styles that are best suited for their organizations. Having the right leadership style can inspire confidence in employees, thereby increasing their satisfaction with their jobs satisfaction (Voon et al., 2011). Satisfied employees are more likely to be more productive and innovative and are less likely to quit their jobs thereby reducing employee turnover (Terera & Ngirande, 2014). On the other hand, poor leadership styles can severe the relationship between employees and their leaders, hinder communication, and jeopardize innovative ideas. As a result, leaders with poor leadership styles can jeopardize the growth of their organizations, increase employee turnover, and suppress innovation. Leaders therefore, must be cautious when designing their styles of leadership and developing skills to ensure that they benefit rather than destroy their organizations.
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