Laissez-Faire

We all have heard the word leadership millions of times. But what exactly is leadership? It is a practice or an action to guide or lead a group of people working in an organisation. Laissez-faire is one of the popular types of leadership, which means Let go. Let it be. This type of leadership is generally used for describing political or economic policies; however, it is used regularly in the world of business. 

Today, in this study material on laissez-faire, you will get a detailed understanding of the concept of leadership along with Styles of leadership that includes laissez-faire leadership. Further, we will discuss laissez-faire leadership in detail and its advantages and limitations. So, let’s get started with the laissez-faire study material without further ado.

What is Leadership? 

Leadership is a powerful and critical element of the social cycle that involves persuasion and motivation to achieve organisational goals. A leader can motivate their people through influencing words and, most importantly, actions. In simple terms, in an organisation, leadership can be defined as guiding, inspiring, and leading the subordinates to achieve goals set in the planning phase. 

Styles of Leadership 

Leadership is further classified into three different styles. These are as follows- 

• Autocratic style – The Autocratic leadership style mainly shows arrogant behaviour such as “Do as I say.”  

• Affiliative style – Out of all the leadership styles, the Affiliative style is when the leader gets too close with their subordinates. An expression that says “People first” mostly comes under the Affiliative style. 

• Laissez-faire style – If there is an exact opposite of the Autocratic leadership style, it’s the laissez-faire style. An expression saying “Let go, let it be ” is categorised as laissez-faire. 

Introduction to Laissez Faire Leadership 

The laissez-faire style is a popular leadership style widely used in the business world. However, this leadership style is primarily self-explanatory. Leaders with a laissez-faire style have a positive and trustworthy attitude towards their employees. As a result, they tend to maintain a distance and do not get involved in the organisation’s everyday work, nor do they give guidance or instructions. 

On the other hand, laissez-faire leaders allow their employees to explore several aspects and tackle the situation creatively while meeting the organisational goals. In this leadership, the leader is extremely confident about the abilities of their people. However, not every leader prefers the laissez-faire leadership style as they want to act as a critical part of the organisation; hence, they guide their people at every step. 

Characteristics of Laissez Faire Leaders 

Here are the multiple characteristics of laissez-faire leaders. Let’s have a look –

• Little to no guidance 

• Employees hold power to take decisions on their own 

• Employees are expected to tackle the emerging challenges by themselves.

• Have access to resources and tools. 

• Leaders give constructive criticism. 

• Leaders enter the picture whenever necessary. 

• Leaders are responsible for the overall activities, decisions, and actions taken by employees. 

Advantages of Laissez Faire Leadership 

Here is the list of laissez-faire style leadership advantages for both employees and managers. Let’s have a look – 

• High retention – The laissez-faire leaders are bound to get higher retention than other types of leadership by their people. Employees who feel their abilities are trusted to stick as it calms them down. 

• Accountability – In the laissez-faire style of leadership, the subordinates need to be accountable for everything they do. As a result, they make sure everything is on-point without any gaps. 

• Leadership style provides a more relaxed and sorted company culture. This promotes an easy workspace, a relaxed mind, and a healthy work environment. 

• Creative and interactive environment – Since employees have the decision making power, they try to think out of the box and bring the best to the table, which gives rise to a creative and interactive business environment. 

• Employees are motivated- Employees are extremely motivated; as a result, it improves work efficiency automatically. 

Disadvantages of Laissez-Faire Leadership 

Apart from several advantages, laissez-faire leadership has many disadvantages as well. These are as follows – 

• Complex for newcomers – In this leadership style, the newcomers joining the organisation generally feel left out as they need a direction to move in. 

• Confusion – In laissez-faire leadership, there might be an ongoing confusion of who is in charge of the project. As a result, the political entries within the organisation directly impact the overall results. 

• Lack of support and structure – Since the high-level managers are not involved, it is common to witness a lack of structure, support or guidance. 

• Accountability passing – There are higher chances that the manager tries to back off from being accountable for any action. 

• Not ideal for groups – For group work, laissez-faire leadership may not be an ideal decision as there are lower chances that a group will work in a synchronised way without a leader. 

Conclusion 

The laissez-faire style is a popular leadership style widely used in business. However, this leadership style is primarily self-explanatory. Here, leaders allow their employees to explore several aspects and tackle the situation creatively while meeting the organisational goals. In this leadership, the leader is extremely confident about the abilities of their people.

In this article on laissez-faire, we studied the concept of leadership and laissez-faire in length. We covered several other topics, such as characteristics of laissez-faire along with its advantages and disadvantages. We hope the laissez-faire must have helped attain a greater understanding of this topic.