Effect of leadership styles on employee performance and thus on organizational productivity

Introduction:
One may ponder, what is a corporation without proper organizational guidance? As we reflect
more upon this question, we will begin to realize that a corporation is nothing without this
aspect. The impact leadership styles can have on a work environment can be critical to how
effectively employees will complete their tasks. This is so because leadership styles, as defined,
is the method any leader is to acquire in order to make appropriate decisions and in order to
achieve organizational goals. This can further aid in positively influencing followers. Certain
leadership styles may include autocratic, democratic, laissez-faire, transformational, or
transactional. The leadership techniques could be present in a successful company regardless of
your rank. For example, one may be an owner and may have high prestige, yet it is still vital that
he/she has a leadership style to abide by. These styles are based on multiple theories that were
formed decades ago, for instance, the trait leadership theory which familiarized us with the basic
qualities a leader must be born with. Hence, we should now know what attributes a thriving
employee should undertake and the techniques that leaders should adopt to improve those
attributes. Moreover, once an individual is accustomed to these leadership styles, they will be
able to discern the significance it has on an employee’s performance and organizational
productivity.

Productivity based on employee performance and leadership styles:

Productivity can be measured based off one’s efforts and ambitions in wanting to complete the
duties set forth. In order for leaders to influence their employees into increasing their
productivity in any task they aim to accomplish; they must first begin with building a proper
mindset. This mindset must consist of effectiveness in striving to achieve certain goals under
specific time restrictions. The extent to which an employee is productive in a corporation has a
major impact on how successful that company will be. A productive employee responsibly
fulfills the goals set, satisfies deadlines, obtains additional sales, and engages entirely in their
work. Consequently, the company would secure high customer satisfaction, and additional
customers would be attracted to this business making them potential clients. Thus, as a result, we
will have higher organizational productivity and the company will notice an increase in profits.
In other words, organizations need employees with high performance ratio and employees
requisite effective leaders to guide and motivate them in their field of work. Therefore,
organizations are in great need for the proper leader to influence their followers with the proper
applied methods in order to increase employee performance and organizational productivity.
Regardless of the style the leader would adopt, some factors affect the followers’ work efficiency
the leader should focus working on in order to increase the employee performance.

In fact, the secret ingredient to any successful company is employee engagement translated into
higher enthusiasm towards work, minimum sick days taken, high retention, and high
productivity. Therefore, leaders should encourage and motivate their employees to extract the
most out of them. To begin with, successful leaders should have knowledge about their
employees, and they should be able to determine the status and capability of each employee as
well as knowing their preferences. Based on this information the leader should be able to deliver
the required training to each employee depending on his or her needs. As mentioned in a 2013
study published in international journal of science and research, “training is beneficial for
employees and managers.” In addition to that, leaders should know the needs and interests of
their followers in order to motivate them with the appropriate approach to accomplish employee
satisfaction. For example, Google and Facebook offer massage rooms, nap pods, complementary
haircuts to satisfy their employees. A Glassdoor survey shows that 4 out of 5 employees prefer
perks over a raise. At last, job matching can only be realized once the employer is well informed
about the employees, in order to assign the proper employee to the designed positon.
Additionally, leaders should avoid micromanaging and instead should encourage employees to
be more self-dependent. As verified, many researches prove that most employees prefer self-
recognition over financial rewards. In a 2015 interview with Robby slaughter, a productive
expert stated that, “the most effective tool for increasing productivity is having managers back
off.” Therefore, employees should have some kind of freedom in their work while managers
coach them on the right path. In other words, employees in a thriving company should focus on
the operational level while managers should be on the strategic level. As per Don Ashkenas
Harvard Business Review states, in order to increase productivity “mangers have to trust their
people to manage day to day operations and coach them as needed rather than trying to do it for
them.”
Finally, communication is one of the most important issues leaders should address. In fact,
without a two-way communication between employers and employees, corporations are dragged
down to failure. In addition to assigning responsibilities during meetings leaders should focus on
the future rather than blaming employees for past mistakes. On this matter, leaders should listen
to employees, offer constructive feedback, provide employees with challenging work, establish
clear parameters or success in order to reduce employee stress and in order to avoid employee
burnout.