Currently I work as the General Manager of a fast-casual restaurant, Zoup! Fresh Soup Company. My small staff consists of a group of diverse individuals with varying needs and personal circumstances that have lead them to become who they are. Each of these individuals have different motivators for personal and occupational growth. As the General Manager, it is essential for me to meet individuals exactly where they are, so I can support their growth in the most effective way for them. In addition, it is my job to motivate my staff members to reach personal benchmarks and accomplish their occupational goals.
Working with a small staff of only 8-12 at a time, I find that a directive, authoritarian style is not effective in most daily situations. As expressed in the lesson material, a directive approach may be more effective for a large group, whereas participative, supportive, or achievement-oriented leadership may be more effective in small group settings (PSU WC, 2018). Through my personal experiences as both a manager and a leader, I have certainly found this to be true.
My Assistant Manager, Gabbi had a bit of difficulty with the previous GM’s leadership style. Gabbi exhibits a strong internal locus of control, and feels that she can contribute greatly to her peers and change the environment around her for the better. The previous manager had a directive style and did not allow her to participate in store decisions, even though these decisions directly affected her. As an individual with a strong internal locus of control, this certainly impeded her personal growth and occupational satisfaction.
One of the first things I changed when I took my promotion was setting a different standard for how the GM and AM would communicate to each other about store decisions. I told Gabbi my first week as GM that I would never make a decision that would affect her without involving her in the decision-making process. Over the past 5 months, this has greatly improved communication at the top, which encourages followers to communicate effectively with leaders and subordinates alike. Changing leadership from a directive to a participative style has also encouraged subordinates to talk to upper management about concerns, rather than talking negatively among themselves. This helps discourage the “us against them” mentality that can occur between subordinates and leaders. Subordinates feel that their voices are heard, and in turn feel better about the outcomes of decisions they had a considerable part in making.
As expressed in Northouse (2016), participative leadership works remarkably in some situations such as the one I just described, yet other situations call for entirely different leadership behaviours. One of these styles includes achievement-oriented leadership behaviours, which cultivate follower’s feelings of self-confidence and satisfaction in their work. This is done by holding the followers to a gold standard, and placing confidence in followers’ abilities to rise to emerging challenges (PSU WC, 2018). Achievement-oriented leadership motivates followers to believe in themselves despite adversity, and continually seek improvement (Northouse, 2016). Quite frankly, achievement-oriented leadership is a powerful thing. When a leader allows followers the space to succeed while holding firm belief in their subordinates’ abilities, this garners self-confidence in even the most self-critical of individuals.
I have found that achievement-oriented leadership behaviours work best when training an associate to become a shift leader. Currently I am training one of my staff members to rise to the challenge of becoming a shift leader. Will is a 19 year old recent high-school graduate who has never taken a leadership position in an occupation before. Despite Will’s “Greenness” I have expressed strong confidence in him that he will be successful and rise to the challenges of leading our staff effectively. Expressing confidence in subordinates’ abilities encourages them to be confident in themselves, and hold themselves to a higher standard.
Above all, the most important aspect of using achievement-oriented and participative leadership behaviours is inspiring others to believe in their own abilities and feel that their voices deserve to be heard. Not only are subordinates more satisfied in their occupations, but they are also in turn more satisfied with themselves. A leader has the unique opportunity every day to help individuals see something inside of themselves that they never thought possible, and cultivate confidence in the followers that will one day perhaps become leaders themselves.
References
Northouse, P.G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Los Angeles: Sage Publications.
Pennsylvania State University World Campus. (2018). PSYCH 485: Lesson 6: Path-Goal Theory. Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1972967/modules/items/25704910
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I enjoyed reading your blog post because I have recently gone through a similar training to become a supervisor at my job and it was fascinating to hear your views as a leader who has trained someone like myself for a “beginners” management position. I would completely agree with you on that achievement-oriented leadership styles work well when training this position. I don’t think I would be as confident in my abilities to succeed as a supervisor if my training manager had not expressed confidence in me and my ability to learn. I also enjoyed your post because you mentioned the differences between leadership styles and approaches in real life scenarios that pertained to your experience as the GM of a smaller business. I work for Hyatt, which is a large hotel brand. I see a lot more of the approaches that pertain to larger groups and number of staff members. While I was able to experience a similar style of training for my specific position, it was interesting to hear how the strengths of participative, supportive, or achievement-oriented leadership work for you and the success in managing Zoup!