But many would argue that his leadership style was also influential in making him the success he is today. In return, as a leader, he receives happiness by knowing he is providing benefits that can create the leaders of the future who will then shape the planet for those generations to come. Gates turned it down as it did not look like a Windows product. Lets start by examining the advantages of participative leadership. Standing as a role model with exemplary moral standards. While this theory is still hotly debated, there are many examples of companies that work to incorporate employees more in the decision making process. You can further improve your approachability by ensuring you always have time to talk with subordinates. He knows the importance of employee participation in decision-making activities. He has always understood the market continues to shift in its needs and desires. Gates has always taken a selfless approach to his leadership, spending considerable money and time in philanthropic efforts to give to others. 1. The discussion wouldnt be pre-planned and there might be no official participation requirements or outcomes set out. Spending time trying to reach a decision can mean cuts in productivity and therefore lead to financial losses. This leadership style helps achieve the companys objectives efficiently and effectively. He is known to take suggestions from colleagues and teams. Most of Bill Gates' impact on Microsoft and in the world through his philanthropic organization is due to his transformational leadership style. Identify your study strength and weaknesses. As a result, Microsoft now has a yearly revenue of almost $100 billion and employs more than 120,000 people throughout the globe. A leader gets in there and rolls his sleeves up because success it is not just about thinking up a good idea. Studying the leaders whove made the template work can help you understand the elements of the theory in more detail. However, this isnt possible without a good leader who inspires their employees and aligns business activities with organizational goals. As a participative leader, you want to ensure subordinates have enough opportunities to learn and develop themselves. Everything you need for your studies in one place. These are times when democratic, work best. In the business world, however, this style is not as popular. Apart from the above characteristics, there are certain actions you should focus on as a participative leader. Ghosn is an objective-focused leader, but he allows his team to be part of the decision-making process, as he believes the teams are best suited to knowing what needs to be done. A transformational leader is a leader who is driven by a strong passion towards and creating change that grows an organization. But the initial responsibility of starting the discussion and ensuring the participative process runs smoothly relies on the leader to facilitate it. He knows the importance of employee participation in decision-making activities. Join Harappas, Participative Leadership Style Advantages and Disadvantages. . Open-mindedness can be difficult to achieve, as its not simply the ability to listen to other opinions. Its a mixture of collective and consensus leadership, as the subordinates are a major part of the decision-making process and often serve on the board of directors. Bill Gates is a well known example of participative theory. Since participative leadership involves consultation before decision-making processes, subordinates have more time to adjust to the changes that might happen within the organization. The below interview is an interesting watch, as Lentz approach to leadership shines through in some of the questions: Another participative leader in the world of auto manufacturer is Nissan and Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn. Also, He was known to put long term strategies in place based on his market analysis, in order to give the organization a competitive advantage. An example of an organization that uses the participative approach of leadership is Microsoft Incorporated. If certain information gets out, your competitors can use it and the organization will face financial and sometimes even reputational damage. This style earns the leader immense respect and loyalty among his subordinates, as they feel that their opinions matter too. Standing as a role model with exemplary moral standards. When you are psychologically well, i.e. In his early teens, he met Paul Allen at the Lakeside School, where they both developed computer programs as a hobby. This means you should aim to improve the way you react to other people stay neutral, yet positive in the face of all sorts of news. Bill Gates The founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates is a true participative leadership example. They love receiving inputs from their employees. Before a decision, the representative might consult employees and then make a decision together with the leader. As well explore in more detail later, all of these can be models within participatory leadership. Nothing happens until the team is able to reach a consensus. Subordinates would be able to provide their opinion regarding the different software alternatives and talk about their ideas in terms of the implementation. In reality, the authoritarian leadership style leads to a hostile work environment that dampens creativity and destroys morale. Its 100% free. Read books that are different to your natural preferences, listen to people who you dont agree with and learn more about different ideas, cultures and practices, especially out of your comfort zone. Lets examine the common characteristics of a participative leader and the actions you should focus on if you want to become better at this leadership style. Despite Gates' phenomenal success, he did have to contend with anti-trust litigation claiming that Microsoft was a monopoly. Stop procrastinating with our smart planner features. A participative leadership system can include more than one of the below dimension or it can be based on a single system. Some of the aspects of Bill Gates' transformational leadership include: Inspiring and encouraging the positive empowerment of his employees. This is especially true of transformational leaders. It also explains, in large measure, why Colin Powell grew to be an excellent example of Situational leadership. As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others, is a great example of what participatory leadership aims to do. The broader view in terms of listening to opinions can also take off pressure from a single person, or mainly, the leader. The participative leadership style examples discussed above show that these leaders can push their employees in the right direction to attain organizational goals. On the other hand, intangible benefits include things such as improved employee motivation, job satisfaction and enhanced work morale. Again, you must be aware that the different participative dimensions might influence the implementation of the below steps. participative leadership characteristics, refers to leaders who employ a democratic approach to team engagement. If things go wrong, dont be the first to judge and criticize. Therefore, decision might be taken based on wrong or insufficient information. Instead, it was about driving significant change in the world that would make a difference for those who need it the most. He understands how imperative it is to value the knowledge and skills of team members. Participatory leadership creates a stronger culture of we instead of us and them. Under this dimension, subordinates are only temporarily included in the decision-making process. The participative leadership style puts quite a bit of pressure on the leader. Bill Gates is a great leader with a great vision. He believes that employees are experienced and can provide valuable inputs to improve operations. Promoting a culture of originality, innovation and invention among employees. There are 6 clear traits that are a fundamental part of how Bill Gates approaches the concept of leadership. Owning ur own buin could possibly b one f th grtt things a rn . Interestingly, the term participatory, which is defined by the Cambridge dictionary as the idea that things can be achieved more easily if everyone works together and is involved in making decisions, embraces a number of different styles. Principles of the transformational leadership style include: https://www. Tranformational leader looks to , , and provided resources needed for employees to create the change they aim for. Your role is to balance the flow of information and to ensure you help subordinates understand the new procedures and roles. Please use the. Instead of one person having to learn everything regarding a specific project, the responsibilities can be shared and peoples strengths in terms of knowledge put to a good use. Whenever you add more opinions and consultation to a decision-making process, you hinder the speed of reaching a consensus. Bill Gates offers a more participative leadership style. It doesnt always make things smoother to have more players involved. Therefore, this trait influenced his leadership style. He is the co-founder and former head of Microsoft. Therefore, the following characteristics can help in your role as a participative leader. Test your knowledge with gamified quizzes. This is in stark contrast to authoritative leadership, where all decisions depend on the leader. If you implement a high degree participatory leadership with little control from the leader, the decision-making can become extremely slow and laborious. Disagreements during the process can easily lead to resentment, if subordinates start feeling like their opinions arent listened to or respected. As youll see in the next section, sharing information is a balancing act in a participative leadership framework. In a workplace, this could involve the introduction of a new operating system. Harappa offers various effective leadership courses. This might seem surprising since the style generally makes decision-making easier, as the leader might share responsibilities with subordinates. It can create a much bigger sense of a community and add enthusiasm to the workplace. Nonetheless, the framework is commonly present in a participative leadership model. Bill Gates was known to push his employees to achieve set goals through motivation and making them believe the goal is an attainable one. The key is to be open to change and avoid following certain routes simply because youve always done so. You want to start providing more decision-making duties slowly, to ensure you build trust with subordinates, but also become more comfortable in not being the only one in charge. Password reset instructions will be sent to your E-mail. Under tangible benefits, an organization could see improvements in productivity, turnover rate and absenteeism rate, along with its costs. Provide them the opportunities to become the best leaders they can be. Together with his colleagues, Lewin found there to be three different leadership styles: democratic, autocratic, and laissez-faire. Read our privacy policy for more information. How did Bill Gates and Steve Jobs differ in their leadership style? The Chief Executive Officer of Pepsico, Indra Nooyi, realizes the importance of teamwork. Transformational leaders also trust their trained employees to make decisions in their assigned roles, thus encouraging creativity across all levels of the organization. Bill Gates was born in Seattle in 1955. Over 10 million students from across the world are already learning smarter. Bill Gates' leadership style is purely autocratic or sometimes called authoritarian (Thielen, 2000). Another one of Bill Gates' entrepreneurial skills while he was at Microsoft is being an assertive person with the sole aim of making Microsoft a leader in the technology space. Therefore, focus of the theory has shifted to the decision-making style of the leader. Furthermore, its possible to have further discussions, in terms of clarifying some of the ideas, with the subordinates. A facilitator, for example, seeks to involve everyone in the process so that whole team forms its own conclusions collectively through dialogue and collaboration. An organization often has the so-called middle managers, who act as messengers between the higher ranked leader and the employees. It is a positive force based on solidarity and mutual trust, including perspective and commitment. Organizations could also implement short-term participation strategies. Despite dropping out of Harvard, Bill Gates has gone on to be one of the richest billionaires and most influential men in the world. Bill Gates was an innovative man, and he always encouraged his employees to embrace their authenticity and creativity in a move to improve the quality of their work and productivity. . Yet, the style also enhances creativity and guarantees employees become more involved and invested with the company they work for. Listening to everyones opinion and then consulting the subordinates on the decision can mean the leader and the subordinates are spending their time inefficiently. With the different types of participative leadership styles, the model comes with its own set of challenges and advantages. A lot of software produced by Microsoft is the result of adopted employee ideas. William Henry Gates II (November 30, 1925 - September 14, 2020), better known as Bill Gates Sr., was an American attorney, philanthropist and civic leader.He was the founder of the law firm Shidler McBroom & Gates (a predecessor of K&L Gates), and also served as president of both the Seattle King County and Washington State Bar associations. The man, identified as 40-year-old Marc Muffley, was scheduled to fly on Allegiant Flight 201 from Lehigh Valley International Airport to Florida's Orlando Sanford International Airport. He is known to take suggestions from colleagues and teams. On the other hand, the decision-making might be a shared process with the subordinates, in which case the team comes up with the right solution through consensus. Maslow wrote in his earlier article. When Bill Gates stepped down as Chairman in 2014, he continued to serve as a technology advisor. Bill Gates, the president of the company, embraces participative leadership through empowerment of the subordinates who work on the innovative projects of the company. There are two key aspects of communication in this leadership style: the ability to take in information and the ability to provide information. No matter what dimension of participative leadership you are focusing on, you will have to consult your subordinates to a degree. The participative leadership style examples discussed above show that these leaders can push their employees in the right direction to attain organizational goals. An example of a participation in work decisions could be the decision-making for a new projects timeline. Sign up to highlight and take notes. 7. The leader would discuss the project with the subordinates and the team as a whole would decide on how and when certain objectives shall be done and who will be in charge of doing specific tasks. Participative leadership refers to leaders who employ a democratic approach to team engagement. He remains one of America's most . No one can say for sure if he was born to be a leader, but his life's work shows a pattern of actions that illustrate how he became a legend among historical business leaders. As Gates said, "We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten. During his times as Microsoft's CEO, Bill Gates aligned employees' interests with corporate goals by providing generally reasonable share options for employees. While most banks required government bailouts, Barclays was able to continue without the need for a bailout Barclays even took over some American assets. Diamond added a lot of risk taking to his approach and his style has often been considered aggressive. Yukls four management styles included: All of the above include a different level of participation from the subordinates, expect for the autocratic model. Its obvious that sharing decision-making plays a big role in participative leadership. Online resources to advance your career and business. . Yukl highlighted the different levels of participation and how behavior affects the effectiveness of leadership. For Gates, his parents encouraged him to think independently and provided a values system that encouraged hard work, ethics, consideration for others and determination. Well discuss both groups of benefits below. Leader with Focus. This is a concept Bill Gates used exhaustively. In Motivation and Personality, Maslow further identified the hierarchy of needs, outlined in the below picture: According to Maslow, these needs must be met, starting from the basic, inborn needs and moving upwards in the hierarchy. He is a believer of input of value from all of his employees for the organization's success. Sorry, you must be logged in to post a comment. Communication is a significant factor in an organizations success. Before we start examining the current understanding and modeling of the theory, we should explore the ideas it is based on. At this point, the subordinates can voice any concern or further suggestions they might have, although it must be clear the decision has already been made. If a person is deficiency motivated, then they are alleviating the need by seeking for the basic needs, such as money or love. The traditional view of leadership supported a hierarchal style and the idea of democratizing leadership was not popular.