Democratic leadership
Democratic leadership, also known as participative leadership, is a style of leadership where the subjects governed or members of a particular team assume an increased participative role in the process of making decisions. Unlike other forms of leadership, democratic leadership has been proved to have a myriad of advantages. When compared to different leadership styles such as autocratic and liberal leadership styles, democratic leadership can apply effectively to any government, organization, private business or school. In democratic leadership, as the name suggests, each individual or subject being ruled is accorded the opportunity of participating in matters decision making. Leaders and their subjects or team members exchange ideas freely, and each member of the group is entitled to their own opinions.
Even though the process of democracy mostly focuses on creating equality and encouraging the free flow of ideas, the leader, in this case, remains to control the activities of the group that they lead and offers guidance for the team members and the subjects that they lead. Although group members or the subjects being ruled assume a more participative role in the process of making decisions, a democratic leader has the mandate of deciding who remains to be in the particular group and who gets the chance of contributing to the decision-making process. Unlike in a majority of other styles of leadership, creativity in this form of leadership is highly encouraged and rewarded thus team members strive to be more creative when it comes to making decisions that benefit the group.
Research indicates that an effective democratic leader ought to have traits of honesty, competence, fairness and intelligence for them to be in a better position of running their teams and subjects effectively. Robust democratic leaders inspire respect and trust amongst their subjects. The decisions that such leaders make are primarily based on the values and morals of such leaders. Unlike in any other forms of leadership, democratic leaders typically seek various opinions and do not engage in silencing voices that are not of the same idea as them. In the history of leadership, both in the United States and abroad, there have been several renowned democratic leaders that have impacted the lives of many of their followers. Some of the renowned democratic leaders include Abraham Lincoln, Ginni Rometty and George Washington. A leader like Ginni Rometty has left an indelible mark in IBM, where she has over the years utilized democratic leadership to lead and increase the performance of executives that were under her.
Democratic leaders have proved that every individual can be a boss, but not every person can be an able leader. Democratic leaders most often cut across other styles of leadership for them to lead their subjects in the best manner possible. Leadership requires collaboration between the leaders themselves and the subjects being ruled. Leaders such as Stalin that have in their reign ruled with an iron fist have had a considerable amount of problems in their retirement age owing to the actions and ills that they did to their subjects. On the other hand, democratic leaders such as Abraham Lincoln that brought change to their subjects have gone down in history as leaders to look up to. As such, I find the democratic style of leadership to be the most effective of all leadership style given that it advocates for inclusivity in the decision making process and the fact that the subjects being ruled or group members are given the autonomy they deserve in terms of self-rule.