Leadership is a function of management that determines the action of people in specific ways. There are useful leadership characteristics and skills like empathy, sense of humor, confidence, and a locus of control that are crucial in the success of an organization (Iqbal, Anwar, & Hairder, 2015) . Studies depict that leadership styles adopted by a person or an organization relies on the tasks intended or focused on people. The focus of this paper is to discuss democratic leadership, which is a kind of leadership that our leaders can demonstrate to be successful. In this kind of leadership, the leader gives the subordinates the opportunity to make decisions and solve the problems in an organization. These aspects and much more will be discussed further in this paper.
The democratic leadership style is a scale utilized to assess the level of leadership a person has in regards to democracy. Another term used to describe democratic leadership style is participative leadership style since there are more involvement of the employees in the selections and implementation of decisions. It is also understood as a group-centered leadership style as decisions concerning various works are not considered by the leader alone but also team members are consulted before any steps are finally considered. The basis of a democratic leadership style is decentralization (Parés, Ospina, & Subirats, 2017) . The leader appreciates and respects the inputs of team members, and strives to attend to their needs. This kind of leadership entails discussion, deliberations and giving ideas and motivating people to appreciate their input to the whole team (Genovese, 2017). The limits of democratic involvement are often defined by the organization or the requirements of a group and the significant value of individuals’ attributes (knowledge, skills, abilities, attitudes, etc.). The democratic system entails the idea that each one, by virtue of their human status, has a capacity to contribute to the decisions of the entire team.
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Democratic leadership style is demonstrated when the supervisor or leader embraces the input of all the employees in an active manner. This way, the employees enjoy job satisfaction and above all, they have a sense of responsibility in the way all things are carried out. Notably, it takes longer for decisions that are made through the democratic style of leadership to be made because of considering the input of all group members (Iqbal, Anwar, & Hairder, 2015) . This is a limitation compared to other styles of leadership, especially if decisions to solve a problem have to be made quickly. However, decisions that are made by a team or a group are well thought and debated so that the most appropriate approach is considered.
Nonetheless, the democratic style of leadership needs guidance and control by a particular leader. The democratic style requires the leader to come up with decisions on the people that should be incorporated in the team and who is given the right to be a participant, to make or vote on decisions of the organization. Since team members are motivated to share their ideas, democratic leadership can amount to well-deliberated ideas as well as more creative answers to problems (Genovese, 2017). Team members are also motivated and they can be more engaged and dedicated to projects that they determined. Since the decisions of the team members were incorporated, it makes them be concerned with the results. Iqbal, Anwar, and Hairder (2015) have emphasized that among the various leadership styles, democratic leadership amounts to increased productivity among team members.
Two factors are critical in the democratic leadership namely the managing and the leading. A democratic leadership style always involves an open strategy to leading, where decision-making is divided up and different perspectives of a group are esteemed. The approach is also cognizant of the vision, and decisions that the organization makes. Another aspect is managing, Genovese (2017) defines management as the practice or kind of managing, supervising, directing or controlling of an organization’s business. Logically, management concerns the control and handling of resources. In other instances, the resources are categorized in the politically correct group of ‘human capital.” Human capital refers to the employees, which is the most significant domain of the leader. The leader is careful to regulate both the tangible and intangible requirements of individuals they are leading. The manager has the task of ensuring that all the category resources comprising the people are doing their job as required. When comparing management and leadership, the manager has a more direct role of ensuring that the job is successfully done, and does not go further to ensure that the team is working as a whole as the leader does (Parés, Ospina, & Subirats, 2017) . Leaders can sometimes be managers, but some managers fail to lead by being concerned with the good, wellbeing and progress of their team. The fundamental to management as compared to leadership is being cognizant of the more conceptual and psychological aspects of leading individuals.
Democratic leadership style is applied best in institutions and departments that require the input of other employees or team members to offer a solution to a problem or process and product improvements. Before an organization depends on the decisions made by the employees, it must establish that the workforce is highly skilled to eliminate any chances of substandard steps. A leader that has expressed democratic leadership style successfully and recently is President Barrack Obama. In 2009, when Barrack being the president, he promised the people who voted him that he will initiate the withdrawal of the country’s Combat Forces from Iraq (Iqbal, Anwar, & Hairder, 2015) . The process of this would involve training of an Iraq force of military so that they could have the capacity to defeat the remaining rebels. A government, though delicate, was formed in Baghdad as a result. It is the basis of a plausible state of Pro-Western that could be presented as democracy sign in the Middle East. Nonetheless, this revolution increased hopes globally that democracy had been demonstrated in a region that had always experienced autocratic governance. The president, therefore, has demonstrated that the democratic leadership style can be applied anywhere by retreating US Combat Forces from Iraq and promoting democratic school practices in the United States.
For a democratic type of leadership to be effective, the leader must undertake a number of factors. First, the leader must keep communication open. If the workplace will encourage openness to communicate ideas, team members will be comfortable enough to present their thoughts and contributions to issues of the organization. Thus, this type of leadership flourishes when all the deliberations are presented openly for everyone to give their responses about the same. Another factor is focusing the discussion. It is challenging to make unstructured deliberations be successful. It is the responsibility of the leader to harmonize a number of ideas and at the same time concentrating on the main issue of discussion. If the topic of discussion is missed, the conversation starts to stray. Therefore, the leader should keep on stating the point of discussions and return to pertinent issues that will be helpful at the end of the day.
The success of democracy in leadership will also be dependent on how people are willing to commit themselves. In the democratic leadership style, one has to encounter various possibilities and propositions that can be devastating and challenging to commit to (Parés, Ospina, & Subirats, 2017) . Thus, the leader should be ready to choose the best and act with conviction. Again, there is the aspect of respecting the ideas of others. The leader, as well as team members, may not be able to agree to every suggestion. Even at that point, a healthy environment should be created where all such ideas are welcomed and contemplated before the final idea is made.
Democratic leadership does not spread in one dimension and is critical in democratic movements for attaining democracy. Information democracy and equality enforces very specific demands on the democratic style of leadership. It promotes democratic values as well as the common good of all team members and the organization. Democratic leadership has a significant role in attaining democracy since leadership is linked to public values, equality, freedom, and justice. As public representatives come up with public values, democratic leaders also concentrate on creating democratic values (Iqbal, Anwar, & Hairder, 2015) . Democratic leadership depends on the significant value of democracy that is endeavoring to cultivate equality and freedom. If the democratic leadership style is extended through economic, cultural and political frameworks, it may cause individuals to be even more ready for democratic social changes, making democratic leadership progressively sustainable and viable.
In conclusion, the democratic leadership style should be embraced by many institutions because of its many advantages over other types of leadership. Democratic leadership style refers to the aspect of management that regulates individuals to act in specific manners or others to benefit the entire team and organization. Nonetheless, the traits of empathy, sense of humor, confidence, and a locus of control are critical to being successful in democracy. The effectiveness of democratic leadership style is also dependent on making communication open, focusing the discussion, readiness to commit oneself, respecting the ideas of others, and among others. This kind of leadership also entails the pursuit of democratic values of equality, freedom, and justice .
References
Genovese, M. (2017). The Presidential Dilemma: Revisiting Democratic Leadership in the American System . Routledge.
Iqbal, N., Anwar, S., & Haider, N. (2015). Effect of leadership style on employee performance. Arabian Journal of Business and Management Review , 5 (5), 1-6.
Parés, M., Ospina, S. M., & Subirats, J. (Eds.). (2017). Social Innovation and Democratic Leadership: Communities and Social Change from Below . Edward Elgar Publishing.
