Laissez Faire Leadership : How Autonomy Can Drive Success

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A laissez-faire leader is a leader who allows team members in a group to make decisions and do what they want to do. Instead of a single leader making decisions for the organization, group or team, the de la Faire leaders make few decisions, but allow their employees to choose the appropriate solutions in the workplace. A good leader of secularism offers a kind of freedom that provides the group with everything it needs to achieve goals but is not directly involved in decision-making unless they ask for his or her support. ^{Sources: 6, 7}

People who are self-starters, who excel in individual tasks and who do not require continuous feedback from other team members, often prefer to work with a laissez-faire manager. ^{Sources: 7}

Kurt Lewin is often credited with developing the concept of laissez-faire. However, the term dates back to the 1930s, when it was identified by management researcher Kurt Lew in 1930. In the years that followed, it was associated with the ability to lead groups and make entrepreneurial decisions. Personal traits of laziness and disinterest in leaders have become a common trait in the management of large organizations, such as corporations and government agencies. ^{Sources: 5, 7}

Laissez-faire – fair management styles have their hands and feet – emanates from management and leaves the decision-making power to employees. It was introduced because workers are naturally motivated, and it is desirable because it gives workers autonomy, which is now the greatest motivator for people in the workplace, and replaces survival and reward as the main motivation. ^{Sources: 1, 5}

Warren Buffett is one of those who has had a lot of success with this leadership model. In Berkshire Hathaway’s 2010 annual report, Buffett said, “We let our many subsidiaries operate on their own, without our supervision or oversight. ^{Sources: 1}

Other researchers agree that the leadership style practiced must be consistent with the current situation. Identify team members who have leadership potential and provide guidance and follow-up – from the leader. Note in the last paragraphs that autocratic leadership (e.g. performing team tasks) is a laissez-faire style of leadership, but it is confused by sending a team member off to do a task with minimal direction. Identify team members who have leadership potential and provide guidance for follow-up. ^{Sources: 2}

As one of the papers says, it would be a mistake to choose a uniform style for each situation. Leadership styles can be highly intentional and at the same time horribly random. ^{Sources: 0, 2}

While other laissez-faire leaders do not offer their employees adequate leadership structures and leave them to their own devices, the laissez-faire leader works hard to give his followers the freedom to freely manage their own tasks and deadlines. When a manager has more hands – there is a strong tendency for “delegated” leadership, also known as “laissez-faire leadership,” when it comes to supervising employees. An effective laisez fair leader understands that if he or she can practice more hands-off approaches to leadership, he or she has a much better chance of long-term success than a traditional style of leadership. ^{Sources: 0, 3}

Leaders who adopt this kind of leadership style let people use their own skills and talents to succeed, and the leader would intervene only when necessary. Like any leadership style, it can have both positive and negative aspects, so it can be suitable for some situations and cultures and not others. ^{Sources: 3}

It is not Autocratic leadership

A laissez-faire leader is different from an autocratic leader in which people have complete control over their employees, much like a micromanager. If one places the term fair in the context of leadership, it means that the leader allows subordinates to work independently. ^{Sources: 0}

A laissez-faire leader offers his subordinates autonomy by providing them with the resources and information they need to do their job and intervene when there is a problem. This gives product managers working for a laissez-faire leader the opportunity to act quickly and make quick decisions without having to wait weeks for the approval process to begin. ^{Sources: 0, 7}

In other words, laissez-faire leadership tends to benefit the people who benefit the most. This is because a laissez-faire style of leadership tends to favor success – orients people with the ability to solve society’s most pressing problems, not the other way around. ^{Sources: 7}

By looking at management styles, not economic philosophies, laissez-faire leadership can be used to initiate positive change. Together with his colleagues, Lewin defined two different types of leadership styles: management style and business philosophy. ^{Sources: 4, 7}

We will also discuss on how a leader’s style can influence a group to achieve goals. The next post is focused on autocratic leadership style and after that we will focus on on democratic leadership. ^{Sources: 6}

In both leadership styles, the emphasis is on allowing groups to perform relatively freely. Democratic styles tend to involve groups in the decision-making process, with the leader acting more like an organizer. Lewin’s experiments show that authoritarian leaders are responsible for a group’s situation without the group’s involvement in decision-making. ^{Sources: 4}