Who is laissez faire leader

The dam was constructed under the guidance of Herbert Hoover, who was the Secretary of Commerce under President Calvin Coolidge in the s.

After a decade, the project was completed under the direction of President Franklin D Roosevelt. He was rarely associated with laissez-faire leadership, but without giving the authority and decision-making to the workers, the project would have been a failure. Even though the laissez-faire leadership style is not widely accepted, we have seen many successful leaders who followed this style.

Steve Jobs and Warren Buffett, for instance- companies achieved many accolades worldwide by hiring the best people, trusting them, and showing high-level organizational growth by practicing the laissez-faire approach of leadership. This article is written by Gautam Gayan. He works as a Content Marketer at Vantage Circle.

Apart from being a passionate content creator for HR services and employee engagement, Gautam is a theatre enthusiast, an avid reader and an asipring poet. For any related queries, contact editor vantagecircle. To automate, simplify and streamline all types of recognition and rewards into one easy-to-manage system.

We safeguard your personal information in accordance with our Privacy Policy. Book Your Seat. Bookmarks You haven't yet saved any bookmarks. Last Updated on 07 August What is Laissez Faire Leadership? Hands-off approach Leaders who follow laissez-faire give their employees every tool they require to solve the problems by themselves.

Training and support Leaders delegate huge responsibilities in the hands of their workers. Employees take decisions Leaders who follow laissez-faire know the importance of hiring the right people because they will work towards decision-making and figure out how they want to work. Accepting mistakes In a laissez-faire leadership environment, it is acceptable for employees to make mistakes in the innovation process.

Personal Growth and Motivation Because leaders are hands-off in their approach, employees can be embrace personal growth and stay highly motivated. Learning and Development It facilitates learning and development opportunities. Freedom Freedom of decision-making encourages innovation amongst employees.

Faster Decision-Making It helps in faster decision-making because there is no micromanagement. Some possible disadvantages of the laissez-faire style include:. If team members are unfamiliar with the process or tasks, leaders are better off taking a more hands-on approach. They can switch back to a more delegative approach as team members gain more experience.

If you have a more laissez-faire approach to leadership, there are areas and situations where you might tend to do better. For example, a delegative leader might excel in a product design field. Because team members are well-trained and highly creative, they likely need little in the way of direct management. Instead, an effective leader can provide minimal oversight and guidance and still produce high-quality results. Even in situations where a laissez-faire leadership style may be helpful, such as in a creative field or with self-managed teams, it may pay to utilize a variety of leadership approaches at different phases of the work process.

Laissez-faire leadership may be most effective during the early phases when a product or idea is being brainstormed or created. Once the design is in place and ready for production, however, it may be best to switch to a style that involves more direction and oversight. Generally, this leadership style is not suitable for:. To make laissez-faire leadership more effective, you can try:. Often dismissed as a style that leads to poor group outcomes, laissez-faire leadership can be effective in a variety of situations.

If you tend to be more of a laissez-faire leader, you may find it helpful to think about the sort of situations this style might excel. In settings where the group needs more oversight or direction, you may find that you need to consciously focus on adopting a more authoritarian or democratic approach. Ever wonder what your personality type means? Sign up to find out more in our Healthy Mind newsletter. Anbazhagan S, Kotur BR.

Worker productivity, leadership style relationship. A review of leadership theories, principles and styles and their relevance to educational management. Al-Malki M, Juan W. Impact of laissez-faire leadership on role ambiguity and role conflict: Implications for job performance. Int J Innov Econ Dev. Laissez-faire leadership takes a hands-off approach to leadership and gives others the freedom to make decisions. While leaders still provide their teams with the resources and tools they need to succeed, they remain largely uninvolved in the day-to-day work.

Laissez-faire leadership is very distinctive. Below are a few of the most common characteristics of this leadership style:. Unfortunately, laissez-faire leadership tends to have a reputation for producing underwhelming outcomes. However, we believe there can be benefits to this leadership style if approached in the right way. Below we outlined all the pros and cons of laissez-faire leadership to give you a better sense for how this leadership style can be utilized:.

To make sure this leadership style is approached in a thoughtful way, we shared recommendations to help you avoid the most common pitfalls faced by laissez-faire leaders:. A laissez-faire approach to leadership is only possible if you have a highly motivated, independent, and skilled team.

It should come as no surprise that the first example of how you can show yourself to be a laissez faire leader is to listen to your employees. A laissez faire leader is someone who is able to sit back and trust their employees to use their skills and experience to determine their own structures and processes. Listening and learning from them is, therefore, a key aspect of being a great laissez faire leader. Well, while this kind of style leaves it to the team to discover the best way of working for them, the laissez faire leader is always on hand to provide support and assistance in any way.

Can you rearrange the team structure so that we work better together? A laissez faire leader would, first, listen to the team member and then suggest that the team gets together to determine the best way to move forward. They simply provided support for the team to do that themselves. They listened to the concern but ultimately left it up to their employees and their own experiences and abilities to figure it out themselves. This is the essence of laissez faire leadership.

Now, we understand how a laissez faire leader listens to their teams, we need to look at how exactly a laissez faire leader is able to give their teams the autonomy to work for themselves.