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Democratic Leadership: Definition, Pros and Cons and Examples

Borrowed from the Indeed Editorial Team

March 26, 2021

Leaders inspire their followers to work together towards the company's vision and often imprint their own style on the organization. Some leadership styles fit better with particular work environments. If you work in an industry that benefits from open discussion and opinion sharing, you may want to know more about participative leadership. In this article, we will learn about democratic leadership and industries that can profit from this leadership style.

What is democratic leadership?

Democratic leadership is a very open leadership style that includes group members in the decision-making process. It is also called shared leadership or participative leadership.

When you run a team with the democratic leadership style, you encourage every team member to participate in the conversation, share their opinions and discuss openly. Then, you synthesize all their input to make a decision and explain it to the group. As a democratic leader, you help your subordinates set goals, help them evaluate their performance, and motivate them to grow.

The democratic leadership style is very effective as it encourages quality contributions from employees. It produces a cooperative spirit that motivates the team and improves group morale. This, in turn, induces higher productivity.

Related: What Does Leadership Mean?

Characteristics of democratic leadership

The main characteristics of democratic leadership are:

• Encouraging group members to share their ideas: The leader asks and expects subordinates to give their input regarding the job.
• Making group members feel engaged: The leader involves members and encourages them to also involve others.
• Fostering confidence: The leader wants subordinates to feel able to do things without supervision.
• Rewarding creativity: New ideas are encouraged and rewarded.

One of the most popular types of leadership is Democratic Leadership.

Democratic leaders traits

Democratic leaders allow ideas to flow freely but are still in charge of guidance and control. They identify team members who can contribute to the decisions. They also inspire respect and trust among their group. Here are some qualities democratic leaders usually display:

Courage

When it is time to choose a direction, leaders dare to explain why they think it is the best decision. When everybody is involved, some people don't agree with the majority's choice. It is important to face them and explain that the decision is the most valid one.

Creativity

Democratic leaders inspire others to give ideas by showing the example and come up with their own. Creativity comes easier in an environment where it is possible to speak freely. You can foster it by rewarding creative thinking.

Intelligence

All leaders need intelligence, but democratic leaders do need this quality even more. They conduct many different people expressing themselves freely and must keep the group cohesive and progress toward a decision. As a democratic leader, you must understand your industry and inform the subordinates about it to help them give accurate input.

Fairness

Leaders need to listen to everybody's opinion and stay fair. They don't favor any ideas but let the majority vote speak when making a decision. It involves transparency. You can let employees know your opinion, but you make sure that your decisions are rational.

Pros of democratic leadership

Here are the advantages of democratic leadership:

Increased job satisfaction and commitment

When employees feel included in the organization, their job satisfaction increase because they realize how useful they are to the group. When they feel that their contribution matters, they are more committed to achieving the best possible results. It is an advantage to the organization because employees who feel more invested finish projects more efficiently.

Increased innovation

Thanks to open discussion, creativity is encouraged. People share, discuss new ideas and constantly challenge the existing procedures or products. This practice induces a search for improvement and leads to more innovation.

Multiple opinions

When the decision-making process requires collaboration and multiple opinions, the discussion covers more possible issues. The group can analyze more aspects of the project they work on and make decisions that better answer the organization's needs. More opinions also represent more knowledge. By asking more people to give their input, you also gather more experts on different subjects and improve the decisions' quality.

Less absenteeism

Employees who are more committed tend to show less absenteeism.

More cohesion

Involving people in the decision-making process can help reinforce the company's vision. Everybody is a part of the group's decision and understands the motivations behind this decision. They know they are working towards a common goal. It promotes greater cohesion within the group.

Relationships built on trust

When employees and management have equal decision-making power and access to the same information, it increases the feeling of trust among them. Every group member knows the motives behind their leader's decision and doesn't need to question them. On the contrary, they can trust that their leaders want to know their point of view. Trust improves motivation.

Higher productivity

Thanks to their involvement in the decision-making process, employees feel more motivated and committed to their tasks. They are satisfied at work, waste less time questioning their leaders because they trust them. All these elements lead to higher productivity.

Cons of democratic leadership

Democratic leadership presents some disadvantages:

Slower decision process

It might be more challenging to make fast decisions when the decision-making process requires the input of everybody. The time needed to organize meetings and discussions can be detrimental to business when it necessitates quick decisions or involves deadlines.

Decreased performance

Some employees are less able to perform under democratic leadership because they don't like making decisions. They might also have the impression that they work more than the leader for a lower salary.

Not effective with uneducated employees

There is a risk of relying on different knowledge levels. There are usually different skill and knowledge levels in a team. Some may even be misinformed. Therefore, their opinions may not be as good as others. Since the democratic leadership style involves everyone's opinion, there might be a risk of relying on decisions based on less accurate ideas.

Burdened leaders

Leaders can find it burdensome to oversee the teams and organize the discussion