What is Participative Leadership?
In our Management Training we often get asked what is the best way to increase employee engagement. One such way is adapting a participative leadership style.
The participative leadership style is an approach to leading that prioritises collaboration and encourages team members to work together to solve problems. The team supersedes any individual contributor — including the leader. Everyone gets a vote and is able to have their voices heard.
Participative leaders also urge employees to take accountability for their individual contributions instead of pointing fingers at and assigning blame to others.
Types of Participative Leadership
There are a few different participative leadership styles that someone might fall under. The following are the most well-known ones:
Consensus
Consensus leadership requires unanimous agreement. The group leader is the facilitator only and doesn’t get any special decision-making power.
When teams use this approach, groups will typically change any goals as many times as it takes for everyone to agree.
Consensus leadership encourages team members to compromise and openly express their views. However, it can also be time-consuming and cause frustration for some employees.
Collective
Collective leadership involves a leader coordinating and facilitating the decision-making process. However, the leader still does not have any additional decision-making power.
Collective leadership doesn’t require a unanimous consensus, but the majority of team members must agree on the decision. It’s helpful for larger teams and organisations, which may struggle to get everyone to agree.
Democratic
Democratic leadership takes everyone’s views and suggestions into account. However, the leader gets the final say in the group’s decision.
When leaders take a democratic approach, they often allow all team members to vote on the decision. They generally go with the option that gets the most votes. Still, there’s also an implicit understanding that the leader can override the group’s decision if they have a different opinion.
Autocratic
Autocratic leadership gives the leader the most authority and the team members the least authority. With this approach, the leader gathers input from team members, but they also get the final say.
Leaders may vary in the amount of information they seek from team members, too. Some are more committed to evaluating everyone’s thoughts and opinions before making a decision, whereas others only consult a few people before announcing their chosen solution.
How Does Participative Leadership Work?
Every leader’s approach to participative leadership will look a bit different depending on their personal preferences, their team members, and the type of work they do. However, the following principles typically apply across the board:
The Leader Listens to Team Members
In all styles of participative leadership, the leader actively seeks employee feedback and equally listens to team members. They value their employees’ ideas and trust them to offer suggestions that are in everyone’s best interests.
The Leader Encourages Accountability
Participative leadership encourages all team members to take responsibility for their decisions. Because everyone contributes and must agree on the best solution, it’s harder for team members to blame one person if something goes wrong.
Everyone Makes Decisions Together
Participative leaders don’t make decisions alone. Even in democratic and autocratic leadership, where leaders have more power, they still seek counsel from their team members and work with them to come to a final conclusion.
Advantages of Participative Leadership
Like every leadership style, participative leadership has benefits and drawbacks. It’s crucial to consider participative leadership advantages and disadvantages before deciding if this is the correct type of leadership for you and your team.
Here are some of the most significant advantages of participative leadership:
Encourages Collaboration
Participative leadership is one of the best approaches for employers that want their team members to work together. Because everyone must offer input and, in many cases, vote on the best solution, there’s no way around communicating with one another, sharing ideas, and compromising.
Promotes Team and Company Unity
Similarly, participative leadership can lead to a greater sense of team and company unity.
What happens when leaders practice participative leadership correctly and their team members feel encouraged to speak their minds? In short, it’s easier for everyone to get to know one another, trust one another, and remember that they’re all on the same team and working toward the same goals.
Increases Employee Retention
If employees feel that they’re part of a strong, united, and collaborative team, there’s a good chance they’ll want to stay with the company long-term.
Increasing employee retention rates can help companies save money, increase productivity, and bolster their reputation. It also attracts more qualified candidates in the future since most people want to work for employers with high retention rates and a positive company culture.
Improves Morale
Increased team unity and employee retention can also lead to better morale among the team (and potentially throughout the entire company). When employees are happy, they’re more engaged in their work and committed to doing quality work that moves the company closer to its goals.
Increases Policy Adoption and Adherence
Say a group of employees vote on implementing a new rule or policy at the company. If everyone gets a say and gets to vote for this rule to go into effect, they’ll be more likely to adhere to it after the fact.
Promotes Creativity
Participative leadership can also contribute to a more creative and innovative work environment.
Because team members know they’ll be heard if they share an idea or make a suggestion, they’ll be more inclined to do so and won’t worry about being shamed or criticised for speaking up. These feelings, in turn, encourage people to think outside the box and come up with new solutions.
Disadvantages of Participative Leadership
Participative leadership comes with plenty of pros. However, there are also some downsides to keep in mind, including the following:
Can Be Time-Consuming
One of the most commonly cited concerns about participative leadership is that it can be more time-consuming than other approaches. Naturally, if all team members provide input and vote on a solution, it will take longer to reach a decision than if one person decides for everyone.
Can Be Difficult for Large Groups
Because of the time-consuming nature of participative leadership, it can be difficult for large groups or entire companies (particularly large companies) to implement it.
It’s not realistic, in most cases, for hundreds of people to share feedback and vote on a particular problem. A different type of leadership will likely be more practical and effective in these situations.
May Contribute to Information Leaks
Another potential challenge of participative leadership in large companies is that it can contribute to information leaks.
When a greater number of people are aware of an issue and have been asked to give feedback on solving a problem, it’s easier for details about the situation to get leaked to people who aren’t supposed to know about it.
Not Immune to Social Pressure
Ideally, when participative leadership is used, all employees feel empowered to share their opinions. However, in practice, this type of leadership is not immune to the effects of social pressure.
Some team members may still feel pressured to vote the same as their colleagues, even if they don’t necessarily agree. When people constantly feel this way, it counteracts many of the positive effects of participative leadership.
How to Implement Participative Leadership
Do you think participative leadership could work well for your team?
Implementing change as a manager doesn’t have to be difficult – especially if you understand the types of change you could face in the workplace. These tips can help you implement a participative leadership style correctly and set everyone up to see the best results:
Initiating group discussions
The first step to implementing participative leadership among your employees is to encourage open discussions.
Bring your team together and explain the objectives of the gathering. Let everyone know that they’re welcome and encouraged to provide feedback and share their views.
Providing information
The more information team members have to work with, the easier it is for them to come to a consensus about how to solve a particular problem.
When groups are gathered to make decisions, the leader should set the scene and explain the current situation in detail. They must also provide essential data to ensure employees can make informed decisions.
Sharing of ideas and insights
After everyone has received relevant information, it’s time to invite team members to share their thoughts and offer potential solutions.
For this stage to be effective, employees must feel safe to speak up and share their thoughts.
If only a couple of people are talking, that’s not encouraging collaboration and contributing to a more united team. It also leaves room for blame and shifting responsibility later on.
Processing the presented information
Once everyone has been able to share, it’s time for the group to evaluate and organise the ideas that have been expressed and summarise them effectively. Doing so makes it easier for employees to understand their options.
Evaluating the ideas presented
Next, team members will weigh the value of different ideas presented. They’ll consider the pros and cons of each potential solution and, if needed, seek additional information to determine whether or not it’s the right approach.
Agreeing on a decision
After the evaluation stage, employees can vote on a final decision.
Depending on the type of participative leadership the employer uses, this stage may require everyone to agree (consensus leadership) or a majority to agree (collective leadership).
If they practice democratic or autocratic leadership, the employer can also weigh everyone’s input and make a final decision on their own.
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