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The Unique Patterns Of Democratic Leadership

21st October 2021


Creating a benchmarking effect in the history of industrialization along with being empathetic towards the employees from all tiers is definitely not a piece of cake for anyone. Having a participative management style does impact the decision-making processes to a great extent. One eminent leader has been doing this job with the utmost skill, he is none other than the great Ratan Tata.

The leadership style of Ratan Tata is totally democratic who encourages the active participation of all his employees. Being a truly transformational leader as well, he knows how to groom the rightly suited employee for a particular designation or a task. The master trainer program helps the trainers to understand the basic facts of such a leadership (and other styles, as well) and execute those accordingly.

Democratic or participative management is often the talk of the town because of its ample amount of advantages. Employees feel extremely comfortable while working under the supervision of a democrat rather than an autocratic leader.

We shall be discussing the pros and cons of this leadership style in detail.

Traits of Democratic leadership:

Just like I mentioned, participative management believes in the active participation of all the team members, and their opinions are strongly valued while taking a decision. Such a leader encourages the teammates to open up and propose an idea without any hesitation.

Research has shown, that a democratic leadership style has been an effective one where a team thinks uniformly and is aligned to one particular goal. Following are the traits of a participative management style:

Opinions: Every team member is given equal importance when it comes to deciding an important issue. The leader gives liberty to the teammates to speak up openly and put forward their ideas. Thus leaders get a clear view of the thought process of the other members. This method is also helpful in a brainstorming session.

Clear vision: One of the main tasks of a leader is to find out where his teammates excel and lack at. Once being diagnosed with the skills, he/she takes effective measures to let them think and come up with a result. A democratic leader boosts the team members to think creatively and find out a solution for a problem. He/she makes sure that the employees are having a clear vision of tackling the problem.

Active participation: If required a democratic leader gives personal training to his/her employees. He encourages everyone to take part in any discussion process. This kind of environment vibes with that of all the employees where they feel like their presence is important. They do not feel left out.

Communication: A clear path of communication is the key to achieve the goal. In the case of the participative style of management, communication is absolutely both ways. The employees can easily interact with the leader and vice versa. Half of the problems get solved when there is no cold shoulder between a leader and an employee.

Advantages of Participative style of management:

Employees are entitled to give their views and opinions on various matters. The democratic leaders involve them in every decision-making process. This move makes the employees feel that they are being highly valued and thus their morals are always high. They are enthusiastic enough to actively participate in any occasion, irrespective of their level of experience.

Since the communication between leaders and employees remain distinctly clear, there is no cope of misunderstanding. Given that, any tough scenario can be handled carefully and unitedly. This unanimous feature has often helped efficiently to thrive in many difficult situations.

The participative leaders are risk-takers and always come up with innovative campaigns that have blown the minds of people. They always encourage the employees to think out of the box. Consequently, the creativity level of the employees is enhanced and they become potential enough to find out a unique solution after judging the gravity of the scenario.

The employees never feel that they are unwanted. As a result, they often do not want to leave the organization. Therefore, the rate of retention is pretty less. Most importantly, employees remain loyal and are dedicated to the organization's success.

Demerits of Democratic management:

Not everyone is equally skilled. The problem arises, among a team, when one person is highly skilled and the rest are not that efficient even though their dedication and knowledge are top-notch. The former frequently tends to impose his/her ideas or decisions on others. It leads to a super cringe and chaotic moment.

Another factor that often leads to a topsy-turvy situation is the over-enthusiasm of employees. Due to their involvement, in any case, they take much time to come to a solution. Over here, if a leader supports one particular idea among the lot, the other feels a bit demotivated. They often misunderstood that their leader is slightly biased towards that particular person. Coming to a decision in a democratic management style is undoubtedly time-consuming.

This leads to conflict and the peaceful environment gets shaken owing to this chaos. Democratic leadership management style is sometimes at stake when the team members become too independent. They do not like the way the leaders involve everyone in the team to make a decision. They feel that the other team members are not qualified or skilled enough to put forward their ideologies.

Thus, the participative management style, if handled with care, is a fantastic one for organizations that believe in constant innovation, creativity, and do not hurry up to reach the destination. They are steady but not slow. Organizations like Twitter, Apple, etc., execute the powers of a democratic leadership style of management.

The master trainer program includes training programs like train the trainer where it guides the candidates to make decisions or follow a certain course of leadership when a sudden situation pops up. On successfully completing the course, candidates will be getting globally acknowledged certifications and their level of skills will increase to the next level.


Written By: Ashwini Chandra

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