Managing People - Management Styles

There are six general styles of people management: coercive, authoritative, pace-setting, democratic, affiliative and the coach.

These styles each have advantages and disadvantages, and are suited to different situations and personalities. Understanding your own favoured management style, and tailoring it to the situation at hand is essential to improving your people management performance.

Coercive
The coercive manager tells people what do do and shouts at them until they do it. This is one of the more popular, but less effective management styles. It is detrimental to the motivation of the team and can deaden creativity and initiative.

Coercive management is most effective in situations where there is only one available course of action, and where that course of action must be followed swiftly and precisely according to instructions. It is a powerful tool to be saved for moments of necessity, rather than wasted on everyday office situations.

Authoritative
While the coercive manager tells people the "what, when and how", the authoritative management style focuses more on setting objectives and encouraging individuals to work out their own priorities. It can be effective when dealing with unmotivated and apathetic staff, and is seen as a means of turning around problem teams.

However, the authoritative management style can fall as flat as a pancake when working with knowledgable and hardworking teams. Most team members who know what they are doing want only encouragement to continue in the right direction, rather than a schoolteacher to come in and tell them what to do.

Pace-setting
The pace-setting manager is usually the hardest-working member of the team. This is an effective management style when working with individuals who will be motivated by example, but obsessive target-setting can lead to resentment, careless error and disintegration of the team.

Democratic
Democratic managers turn everything into a team decision. In some circumstances this can be extremely effective: team members who have had a say in the design of a product, or the approach to a set of objectives, may be more motivated when carrying out the tasks involved.

However, in particular situations, democratic management can be impractical and even lead to a decrease in respect for the manager. If the team feels that the manager is unable to make an independent decision, then their motivation to carry out the eventual decision may be less than 100%.

Affiliative
The focus of affiliative people management is not the management, but the people. Affiliative managers are primarily concerned with the physical and emotional well-being of their staff, sometimes to the detriment of the objectives and responsibilities of the team.

The coach
Similar to the affiliative manager is the coach, whose goal is not so much the well-being as the education and development of the staff. For many new and inexperienced staff, the coach can be the ideal manager; however, when working on important or urgent projects, or with experienced teams, the coach management style may be inappropriate and even detrimental to the team goals.

Summary
Of the various management styles, only the coercive style is almost overwhelmingly negative. Each of the other styles as a place and a purpose in the effective manager's repertoire - the trick is to employ the different styles selectively, according to the situation, the individual at the atmosphere of the team.