The No. 1 leadership style – and how to get more managers to embrace it

Managers need to take charge. But how they do that makes the difference between great leadership and poor management.

They need a leadership style that helps employees engage and thrive. And the world of professional golf has shown us the style that does not work in recent years.

Poor leadership style on world stage

For instance, and most recently, PGA’s Commissioner Jay Monahan was blasted as a hypocrite and dictator by employees — professional golfers — for a behind-the-scenes deal to merge the golf association with LIV Golf. LIV Golf was a startup that wooed away top PGA players, and the two organizations had been at odds.

Years prior at the Ryder Cup, professional golfer Phil Mickelson ripped his Ryder Cup team captain Tom Watson for his leadership the year after they lost. Whether you agree with Mickelson or not, he highlighted the type of management that often leads to failure – and alluded to one that almost always has positive results.

Only one making decisions

In the first case, golfers claimed they were left in the dark. In the second case, Mickelson said team members weren’t in on decisions they should’ve been.

Both sparked controversy in the golf community, but more importantly, put management styles under the microscope. The styles include:

• authoritarian leadership
• laissez-faire leadership, and
• participatory leadership.

One of these almost always works best for managers and their teams.

Style breakdown

Authoritarian leaders take a top-down approach. They expect employees to do what they say and don’t give anyone much say in what goes on.

There’s no room for dissension. It’s the kind of leadership the golfers criticized.

On the other end of the spectrum is laissez-faire leadership. These leaders offer little or no direction to employees, delegating just about everything and allowing team members to make decisions – whether or not they’re qualified to do so.

Somewhere in the middle are the participatory leaders – those who get their employees involved and then stay involved themselves.

Finding the ideal

To be effective, managers need to find the zone between being a dictator and being too hands-off.

“When a leader invites people into the process to have a voice, it tends to spawn creativity and better performance,” said Dr. Gio Valiante, a performance psychologist and author of Fearless Golf, in a Golf Channel interview.

“Everyone who’s involved gets a voice,” Valiante said. “It’s collective.”

Participatory leadership is particularly effective because senior team members can bring “institutional memory” – knowing what’s worked in the past – to the table.

New employees can bring a fresh perspective. The participatory leader can align that knowledge, skills and perspective into team success.

Becoming participatory

Here’s how leaders can learn and embrace participatory leadership with their teams:

• Open the channels. Give employees more ways to start and participate in conversations with you. For instance, create a chat room (or get help from IT to do it) where you throw out problems and ideas and get feedback. Don’t just wait for meetings to introduce and talk through ideas. Most importantly, respond to and act on feedback.
• Relay information. Plan a regular meeting to share information from the top and gather information from the ground level. Letting employees know what’s important in the company helps them do their jobs better and builds engagement. Taking their concerns and observations encourages them to open up. Follow up on what’s gathered by sending it up the chain of command.
• Pay attention. Take time every day to ask at least one question – and have a conversation – about employees’ lives. Showing an interest in them and what’s important to them builds engagement. What’s more, people who have good relationships at work are more loyal to their organizations and do better work.