Liberal leadership it is a way of conducting the management of a company in a more collaborative way. In this model, there is less centralization of decisions and more participation of the team.
In all companies, there are one or more figures of leaders to guide each sector and translate the planning and execution of ideas into results. However, this vertical hierarchy, or vertical organization chart, may not be ideal, which has been widely discussed with the popularization of liberal leadership.
Through the concept, the leader emerges as a figure with more responsibilities, but who extends his power granted to:
- listen to subordinates more,
- discuss ideas,
- jointly promoting new solutions.
However, it is essential to understand how liberal leadership works so that you understand if this is a viable option for the day-to-day of your enterprise.
To do this, follow this reading, understand what liberal leadership is and be inspired by the ideas that we will discuss in the topics below!
What is liberal leadership?
As we started the article by saying, the concept of liberal leadership is linked to a way to conduct its management in a more collaborative way. In other words: less centralized power, depending also on subordinates' ideas, suggestions and decisions.
This concept is also known as laissez faire (French term, meaning “let it do”).
It is, therefore, a simple and practical way of involve everyone in the decision-making process, either in planning or in the execution stage.
Initially, its application was discussed by a German psychologist named Kurt Lewin (one of the founders of social psychology), whose experiment contributed to the ventilation of this idea.
After all, the leader as a central figure, but collaborative, brought some positive points and others that awaken the warning sign in the organization when applying the concept. We will understand this issue better, below!
What are the characteristics of liberal leadership?
As we highlighted, what is liberal leadership decentralizes part of the power of a manager, as well as some of its responsibilities to add a greater sense of belonging to its professionals.
But more than that, the concept values a collaborative work culture and an influence indirect the figure of a leader.
As a result, your subordinates do more:
This should be reflected in a specialization and polishing largest of the professional profile types in your company.
Especially because it serves to build the generalized figure of leaders, internally. And the leader itself is only a central point of assistance and also the facilitator of the team's activities. In the style of liberal leadership the leader:
- inspires,
- influence,
- shares information,
- divides the credits of a well-conducted action.
It is worth mentioning, however, that liberal leadership it is not a synonym for omission responsibilities. On the contrary: the involvement of the leader is greater because, precisely, he gives more freedom of decision of its subordinates and has an active participation in the development of that maturity of its employees.
Are there any advantages to adopting liberal leadership?
Many positive aspects can be seen when the concept of liberal leadership is implemented after a good deal of planning and consensus among the leaders and the HR sector of the organization.
After all, without the slightest execution project, the liberal leadership is in danger of falling into what we mentioned in the previous topic, about omission (thought or unintentional) and even about the subordinates' lack of understanding.
We will see the care that must be established when implementing liberal leadership, but it is worth reinforcing initially some of the beneficial aspects of inserting this practice in your company's daily routine can be highlighted as:
- continuous improvements in confidence building of its professionals;
- strategic work in building leaders, teamwork and collaborative culture;
- qualitative approach to interpersonal relationships among employees (from the same team or who work closely together);
- more efficiency and productivity at work;
- promotion of motivation and engagement;
- reduction of the company's turnover index through the qualities mentioned above;
- development of new skills so that each professional becomes, more and more, a reference in their sectors of activity;
- more autonomy for the team.
Even taking advantage of the fact that the subject came up: turnover is one of the most important indexes for an organization, as it shows how much the company is losing resources (directly and indirectly) and talents due to a series of factors that, many times, they are not even perceived by management and HR. Read more in the article, “What is turnover management and how to structure your company”.
When is liberal leadership not indicated?
In turn, although it adds a number of positive characteristics on a daily basis, the style of liberal leadership can cause a series of misinformation and obstacles to collective harmony.
Therefore, pay attention to some debilitating causes that should be better developed before adopting this concept in the company, such as:
- attention to the degree of knowledge of subordinates regarding the responsibilities that, until then, were the manager's;
- careful to set deadlines that will negatively impact and accumulate to other employees' activities;
- focus on raising awareness and developing management skills for professionals to solve problems on their own;
- situations in which employees do not carry out their activities well without a leadership presence on a daily basis.
As you may have noticed, these are issues that can be addressed, provided that prior to the implementation of liberal leadership.
In short, liberal leadership is indeed an important job and it yields good results for the organization in general, but it has to be done with due planning.
Therefore, try to meet with HR in order to understand what are the challenges, risks and opportunities that may arise from this migration of a centralizing power figure, converting it into the style of liberal leadership – closer and more collaborative with the team, therefore.
How to start implementing flexibility in the company?
Even if you are far from being able to implement a liberal leadership model within the company, you can take advantage of this more flexible thinking and consider changing other areas of the company, adopting, for example, the salary flexibility. Like this? I explain!
Currently the payment model of on demand salary
It is a corporate benefit
O HR Consultants UKy is an application that allows employees to anticipate part of their wages whenever they want in a simple and instantaneous way. Believe me, benefits for the company there are also many:
- decrease your turnover,
- increase your productivity,
- attract more talent,
- reduce layoff costs and labor agreement.
Integration is quick and simple. As soon as your employees register, they can make withdrawals immediately.
Talk to an expert and discover even more gains that your company can make by offering a benefit like the HR Consultants UKy
.
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How about, now, you tell us your thoughts on the subject? Have you had contact with the liberal leadership or are you afraid of applying it? Share your opinion with us in the comments field!
