As a business owner hiring several people, you need to up your game as a leader, and being a leader in the workplace requires more than initiative and planning. It takes knowing your employees, understanding them, and knowing how you can leverage their strengths and skills while making your work environment dynamic.
Although many businesses still practice a more autocratic approach to work, it’s been proven time and again that this kind of environment tends to be restrictive and counterproductive for most employees.
Enter Laissez-Faire Leadership or Delegative Leadership. Emerging in the ’60s, it’s a leadership style that allows employees to make decisions and take actions for which they are responsible. With the emergence of remote working and outsourcing, more business owners and leaders are using the delegative leadership style more often and have seen varying ranges of success. This article will discuss how you can make a Delegative Leadership Style run smoothly in your team.
What Is Delegation?
Delegation is the act of assigning responsibility or a task to an employee.
Managers often delegate work to their constituents so they can focus on different initiatives. We have explained previously that the Delegative Leadership style allows employees to take action and make decisions for the tasks given to them. The leader merely assigns them what needs to be done at a given project.
Effective Delegation: How to Make Delegative Leadership Style Work for Your Team
First off, the key is to start out slow, building up your delegating skills and your employees’ ability to take on the responsibility.
1. Ensure that your team is ready for the tasks at hand
As the team leader or manager, it’s important that you know what your teammates’ strengths and weaknesses at work are, so you can better delegate tasks to them according to these facts. Be able to trust that everyone in your team can take on the responsibility and make sound decisions for the benefit of the project and the business.
2. Set Deadlines
Make sure your team knows exactly when each component of their project is due. As their leader, setting up point A and point B helps your team members work towards a target. This can motivate everyone to work on the project efficiently and creatively.
3. Explain Everything Right Away
You don’t just assign a task and expect people to work on them without explaining and giving them instructions. You have to let your team know exactly what you want from them.
You must explain everything you want out of the project they are about to work on as best as you can. Giving them a blueprint or a framework will give your team a jump-off point, and from there, they can release their creativity into the project.
4. Keep Yourself Open
Even though delegative leadership allows your team to work and make decisions on their own, you’re still their leader, a part of the team. Make sure that your team members know that by reminding them that they’re able to come to you for questions, and concerns, or just to bounce ideas off of you.
It’s imperative that you keep not on your doors but your mind open for suggestions and ideas from your teammates. Listen to what they’re saying and really consider these ideas.
5. Set Up Project Check-Ins
Implementing a delegative leadership style in the workplace may give everyone a lot of space to be problem solvers and good leaders on their own, as their manager, make sure to check in on your team members about the project from time to time.
Having your team report their progress with their tasks and the project will give you a picture of your team’s individual performance and how the project is moving forward as a whole. Check-ins also give your team some space to ask questions or even ask for help in case they’re finding certain tasks challenging.
6. If Something is Going Wrong, Take Action
If something isn’t right, whether it’s unfinished work or errors, step in right away. After all, you’re still the leader of your team. The best way to approach any challenges in a project is by putting together a constructive plan to resolve the roadblocks that got in the way.
Is Delegative Leadership Style for You and Your Team?
If as a business owner or manager you’ve already been practicing this leadership style, and it works, then good for you! Is your team responding well to the delegative leadership style? If yes, then you can trust them to work on bigger tasks and bigger projects. They might even ask to take on more responsibility or come up with new and exciting ideas for you and your business.
If you’ve started off a little wonky trying to implement this style but still believe in the leadership style, don’t be discouraged, and keep going! Try to delegate smaller things at the beginning and progress from there. Remember that in delegating tasks, making clear and deciding which things to prioritize is key.
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