Is leadership just about creating a vision, mission, inspiring & influencing people, draw the roadmap and everything else that others don’t do? (Note that I didn’t say – Can’t Do!)
Actually, it’s all of it and most importantly a leader should have the TRUST in the abilities of people they hire. Really! What is an idea worth if it doesn’t get executed well? That’s precisely where ‘Permissive Leadership’ comes into the picture.
Unless it’s a math equation, most of the problems have more than one solution. The leader defines the end product; the people, who are hired, more often than not - take different paths towards the same goal! This translates into newer ideas, experimentation, higher risk-factor, people will challenge the existing ideas/status-quo – are you as a leader ready to accept this?
Permissive Leadership is really about letting people choose their path; might be either right or wrong. At least let them try it out, unless their choices hurt the business real bad. The end-result of the PL working style is found to be more effective is getting the best out of people. So what exactly does Permissive Leadership do for business? It ensures:
- A constant flow of Creative Ideas is guaranteed when folks are given freedom at work
- More than 100% effort goes into work when you let people do their thing
- Going beyond “Line-of-Duty” becomes just a way of life at work
- Employee confidence levels are at an all time high
- Recognizing future leaders gets easier, so does your succession planning! (Really!)
- Serves as a ‘Platform’ to generate newer ideas for the product/project
Sure, there are enough reasons to be hesitant with taking such an approach to leadership. It could lead to misuse of freedom; managing egos will be an issue (everyone has an idea, right? You only want one!); work could border on over-confidence and a thousand more reasons.
Really! If you are thinking about the negatives a lot, then you should take a step back and re-evaluate your thoughts! Negatives have a tendency to multiple faster, make into you another micro-manager! You are a LEADER, who should INSPIRE!
Let Go! The next BIG THING for your company could come from the person working in the corner cubicle!
- The HR Store
