Directive leadership style is one of the common leadership styles in the modern workplace. Directive leaders precisely instruct their employees on what tasks to do and how to do them. They issue projects, set deadlines and exercise strict rules. Nowadays, the directive leadership style seems to be outdated, and it carries negative connotations for being autocratic and dominating. However, this style of leadership still has positive effects on the organization if applied in the right situations.
In this article, we will explain several key concepts of directive leadership, explore the characteristics of directive leaders, and discuss its pros and cons. If you are interested, we also point out several situations when directive leadership style can play an effective role.
Contents:
What Is Directive Leadership?
Features of Directive Leadership Style
Advantages of Directive Leadership Style
Disadvantages of Directive Leadership Style
4 Situations When Directive Leadership Should be Used
What Is Directive Leadership
In 1970, Martin G. Evans proposed the path-goal theory that forms the basis of directive leadership. Directive leadership is one of the four characteristics of a leader, and it sets and defines objectives, expectations, and rules for the team. It may also be referred to as an instructional or managerial style.
The directive leadership approach consists of passing down instructions along a chain of command with a strong leader at the top. The directive leader is fully responsible for the organization as a whole. Directive leadership focuses on steadily completing specific tasks to achieve specific goals.
A high task/low relationship is the focus of this autocratic style. Leaders determine the roles of followers and explain what, when, where, and how they will accomplish certain tasks. There is one-way communication between the leader and the followers, usually from the former to the latter. Leaders instruct their people to do things exactly as they should be done. A leader who follows this approach spends less time using supportive behaviors and more time focusing on goal achievement. Leaders are characterized by their task behavior, which reflects how much they care about their tasks and their followers' success. Directive leaders give instructions and then supervise their subordinates personally in order to do what needs to be done to accomplish the goals.
A manager who performs directive leadership guides and structures followers' activities, schedules, assigns responsibilities, defines roles, communicates effectively with followers, motivates and conveys expertise, monitors and follows up on assignments, clarifies expectations, goals, and work procedures, and monitors and follows up on assignments.
Features of Directive Leadership Style
In directive leadership, employees are guided on how to perform their duties by a strong, central leader who defines their roles, sets clear expectations, and provides guidance on how they should accomplish their tasks. Team members who enjoy their work and accept an organizational hierarchy benefit from this directive behavior style. It is possible, however, for this leadership style to fail if employees feel resentful or feel micromanaged by their bosses. Here are a few characteristics that make it easier to identify a directive leader.
Take charge of everything
A directive leader is responsible for setting the team's objectives and implementing the necessary measures to reach them. In your role as a directive leader, you are solely responsible for establishing the team's objectives and implementing measures to achieve them. In most cases, individuals will not challenge your decisions after you have developed the steps involved in a specific assignment or project, mostly because you will not allow them to do so. Whether or not improvements are appropriate is completely up to you.
Establish authority quickly
In response to an assignment to take charge, a directive leader does not waste any time stamping their authority. It doesn't matter to them whether or not people are "on board" with them. Once they have established their authority, a directive leader delegates tasks and holds people accountable.
Follow protocol
In contrast to other forms of leadership, directive leadership does not foster collaboration or creativity. As designed, it achieves success because it follows a written protocol. To accomplish their duties, employees follow proven strategies under directive leadership. Your team should be able to meet deadlines as long as they adhere to these guidelines.
Impose strict control
Control is at the core of a directive leadership style, which stimulates productivity when used correctly. Keep an eye on how your team responds to your requests to ensure you are leading them with respect.
Discourage innovation
Innovation and creativity are required in many types of jobs. It is not appropriate for those settings to lead in a directive manner. A team leader must adhere to strict policies and procedures when setting clear expectations and setting firm boundaries. Meeting specific goals and completing projects is what motivates your team.
Appreciate hierarchy
It would be impossible for you to delegate tasks effectively and perform your directive role without a hierarchical structure. Your goal can only be achieved if you adhere to the command structure required for you to accomplish it.
Advantages of Directive Leadership Style
It is common, yet not very popular among the younger generation, to exercise directive leadership, yet it can be surprisingly effective. Following are a few benefits that directive leadership can provide when leveraged effectively:
Quick decision-making
A major advantage of directive leadership is its ability to make quick decisions. It may even save a life when a directive leader makes a quick decision during an emergency. Making decisions collaboratively is good, but sometimes it can result in unnecessary delays. It is often said that it is better to make a decision than not to make any decision, so directive leadership will always have an impact.
Guarantee safety and security
A directive leadership style places great emphasis on rules and regulations. Certain tasks must be performed in a particular way for specific reasons. This method is often used in the military, law enforcement, and construction sectors since there is no room for error. It is necessary to follow certain rules a certain way, and the directive leader is capable of communicating this effectively.
Strong and organized structure
A direct leader is most effective when he or she can implement specific structures for others based on their experience and knowledge. This leadership style can be helpful if the team is unfamiliar with the responsibilities involved in the project. A leader will set up specific tasks or duties that must be followed exactly. By doing so, the leader can transfer his or her experience to each worker, resulting in a successful outcome.
Effective communication
A directive leader is characterized by precision, unambiguity, and effectiveness in communication. The followers are given all of the necessary details and specific instructions regarding the tasks, so that they can comprehend them correctly. This ensures that there is no confusion about the roles and responsibilities, and that subordinates are aware of the job requirements and incentives.
Clarify role expectations
The directive leader ensures that workers don't have to wonder about their assignments. There's always a clear understanding of each worker’s role in each project. The directive leader will provide clear expectations that the workers will be expected to follow. Workers who attempt to avoid creative job functions often experience less stress when these expectations are enforced through rewards and consequences. As a result of this clarity, a team is often able to perform at higher levels.
Leader’s Expertise and Experience
Directive leaders provide guidance and direction to the inexperienced workforce with their knowledge, expertise, and experience. In order to maximize the leader's experience and expertise, every subordinate must benefit from it, and the collective result indicates a positive outcome for all.
Motivate the workers
Team members may become discouraged because of past leadership voids. A directive leader ensures that workers will complete their tasks when there is a directive leader at the helm. Workers can become unmotivated for a variety of reasons, both personal and professional. Realizing that their job may be lost if they do not complete an assignment becomes a motivating factor if someone needs a job.
Disadvantages of Directive Leadership Style
Direct leadership style has many pros but also some drawbacks. Below we discuss a few of them.
Avoid collaboration and adaptability
One of the major drawbacks of directive leadership is its inability to adapt to changing circumstances. The strict adherence to rules could lead to complete ignorance of the prevalent situations, which could lead to its gradual decline. Additionally, it prevents employees from collaborating with other organizations, limiting them from learning new strategies, technology, and ideas. Personal growth isn't considered, and the aim is to achieve desired goals.
Lack creativity and innovation
Directive leadership achieves the best results when the directive leader ensures the followers adhere to distinct rules and regulations. Employee feedback or reviews are not involved in this process, so creativity, innovation, and ingenuity are lacking. Consequently, creative members might be undervalued because the style emphasizes more on achieving stated targets by regulating and inhibiting their autonomy.
Reduce overall morale
Some teams thrive when a directive leader heads the team. In the military and law enforcement, morale suffers when other leadership styles are used. There is, however, a diminishing need for directive leaders in the corporate world. These leaders expect employees to adhere to published work policies. They expect orders to be followed without question. This leaves many people dissatisfied with their work, as they feel they are not taking ownership of it.
Increase leaders’ burden
The directive style requires leaders to take full responsibility for their teams. It is the leader's responsibility to make decisions, regardless of whether others make them. That means this leadership style requires extra effort when compared to other leadership styles because delegation is not permitted. As a result, the supervisor is more stressed, and if coping skills are lacking, health problems can even develop.
4 Situations When Directive Leadership Should be Used
It has been found that directive leadership has the greatest impact on team roles and tasks when demands are ambiguous and intrinsically satisfying, according to a 1975 Washington University study. Although directive leadership is sometimes perceived as a negative and strict approach, it is actually an effective way of rallying and directing teams to achieve superior results.
Here are four situations when directive leadership should be adopted:
Employees are unskilled.
Your team members will need more direction when learning a new task. At this point, it is better to be more directive. Eventually, you may be able to let your team work more autonomously. The less skilled your team is, the more likely they'll need direction to finish the project. If someone is skilled and motivated, you can give them greater autonomy to accomplish their tasks since motivated people tend to take pride in their work.
There is an emergency.
A directive leadership approach is best used when an urgent issue must be resolved quickly. In these circumstances, you cannot afford to make decisions by a committee. As you work to solve the problem, directive leadership may lead you to be abrupt, but sometimes this is necessary in order to resolve the problem quickly. Nevertheless, remember there is such a thing as real urgency and fake urgency. Real urgency occurs when there is a crisis, issue or deadline with severe consequences for inaction. Fake urgency occurs when leaders create deadlines that don't matter.
A quick decision is necessary.
It's nice to collaborate when making decisions, because everyone has their say. This can take longer than making your own decision, but can result in a more acceptable outcome for all parties. However, you will take a long time to make a decision if you involve everyone in the process. In the event of stalled decision-making, people will wait for the perfect solution for a long period before they act. Directive leadership is more likely to break the deadlock and get things moving.
Certain rules should be obeyed.
There are times when people must follow the rules without exception. It usually relates to compliance or health and safety, where rules are in place to protect team members. You can also apply this if your team has standards to help deliver work more effectively or to a higher level of quality.
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