The Concept of Laissez-Faire Leadership Style

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The laissez-faire leadership style comes from the French word meaning “let it be”. The manager does as little directing as possible and empowers employees. Employees must determine goals, make decisions, and solve problems themselves.

This works well when:

Employees are skilled and experienced
Employees are very motivated
Outside experts or consultants are being used
Employees are trustworthy and loyal

This style should not be used when:

employees are insecure or unskilled
managers do not provide regular feedback
managers cannot give praise
the manager does not know what to do (Styles of leadership 2008)

This management style is found many times to create staffing and control issues. The strengths are its great flexibility, ease of change and democratic principles. (Staten, Clark 2004)

Some of the more common styles of leadership include autocratic, bureaucratic, democratic, and laissez-faire. The Laissez-faire style was found not to provide enough guidance and support, and the team members in a nursing facility did not feel that the leader took enough responsibility. (Lipley 2004) The same was found in emergency medical services. Thye leadership was needed during a crisis and laissez-faire was not dependable.

A laisses faire manager sets the tasks and follows up with minimal involvement. He or she is there to coach or answer questions, supply information if required. Employees are developed to take responsibility which may improve motivation and involvement. However, they may begin to feel lost and fail to reach the set goals.

Sometimes it is best, usually within small companies or departments which need innovation. William Casey of the CIA had some good points. He said the following about his management style,”My management style is simple: you hire the best people, you give them clear goals, you give the them the authority to achieve those goals, and then you get out of the way. If they don’t perform, you fire them and get someone else.” This is laissez-faire with consequences, and it often works well. (untitled blog on line 2008)

It worked really well for Paul Petrosino (Sichko 2008), who gets the most out of his employees by not spending much time around them at all. Four years ago Petrosino hired a manager from a to take over Integrated Liner Technologies, which makes tiny, specialized caps and cap liners for vials and other tubes and containers from silicone, Teflon and rubber. “His style of management destroyed the company for a year,” Petrosino said. “The sales force was completely disrupted. Finally, I saw that it was going to hell, and I took it all away from him.” After taking over again, Petrosino’s company continued to grow and now has annual sales of $12.5 million.

So most of the time the Laissez-faire management style is too loose, but if you have a small company and a great staff it can work very well, because it gives loyal and smart employees power to make things work.

References

Lipley, N. (2004). Mix of leadership styles is best. Nursing Management – UK, 10(9), 4-4.

Management Styles. 2008. Learn Management. Web.

Sichko, Adam, 2008, CEO’s laissez-faire management style empowers executives, spurs growth, The Business Review (Albany) – by The Business Review. Web.

Staten, Clark, 2004, Management Models and Participative Management: A Theory for the Future, Chicago Fire Department, Chicago, Illinois. Web.

Styles of leadership. 2008. eSsortment. Web.

Untitled blog on line 2008. Web.

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The Concept of Laissez-Faire Leadership Style

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