16 Nov 2022

Leaders should adopt and employ a range a leadership styles in order to draw the most out of those that they lead.

A Botswana National Productivity Centre (BNPC) consultant Mr Kennedy Tommy said Monday at a four-day leadership workshop hosted by the Central District Council (CDC) that adopting diverse leadership styles could be beneficial to workplaces in many ways.

Mr Tommy said there were six main styles that leaders should adopt in the workplace in order to ensure productivity and efficiency in the workforce’s performance of daily duties. The leadership styles, he said were coercive, authoritative, and affiliative, pacesetting, democratic and coaching.

Mr Tommy said due to it ordinarily demanding immediate compliance by employees, the coercive method was often viewed in negative light as it at times portrayed supervisors as bossy.

However, in terms of being efficient, he said the coercive method was vital since it facilitated immediate compliance which would in turn lead to things being immediately carried out in the work place.

He continued to state that the affiliative style on the one hand, created an emotional bond between workmates, leading to the existence of closely-knit teams.

A good emotional bond between workmates was essential since it made it easier for workmates to know and understand each other well, he said.“These days we are all overwhelmed by our daily social issues, therefore there is higher need for us to know and understand each other as workmates,” he noted.

Regarding the pacesetting style, Mr Tommy observed that the need for leaders to be pacesetters could not be over-emphasised. The leadership style he said, not only called for excellence and self-direction in the workplace but also promoted competency in the workplace which on its own contributed to workers being productive. When motivating participants, he implored them to note that the state of one’s mindset was critical to good leadership.

Citing the fixed and growth mindsets as the two outlooks that leaders should adopt, Mr Tommy stated that the fixed mindset comprised fixed paradigm which entailed employees most often giving up easily when facing obstacles, or left them at most times feeling threatened by the success of others.

On the growth mindset, he said the mentality comprised the resolve by employees to learn something new every day in the workplace, as well as learning from criticism, finding lessons and inspiration in others’ success and also being alive to possibilities to accomplish more.

In a question and answer session, most participants highlighted that they mostly adopted the coercive style and were generally content with the results it produced.

Held in collaboration with United Nations Development Plan (UNDP), the workshop, which targeted heads of council departments, was meant to equip participants with different leadership skills. ENDS