In Delegative Leadership, the leader are mostly hands-off and gives responsibility to the members to decide for their own. The leader however still gives advice and recommendations whenever needed.
The positive side of this style is that people who have the skills and ability are more productive in the sense that there is more freedom for them. I believe that this works especially in the creative fields and areas wherein each member has an expertise of his or her own and direct orders would hinder their performance and growth as a member of the group.
Some people however say that this kind of leadership is the least productive of all since if the people do not know what they are supposed to do, the tendency is to slack off due to poorly defined roles and lack of motivation.
Although I do agree that there are settings that this leadership would not be advisable, I think that leadership style should not depend on the leader but on the situation at hand. There are times that I tend to be autocratic as a leader especially when I think that my members have little drive or clue on what they are doing. When I think everyone has equally valuable input to offer, I tend to go for delegative approach or go midway which is participative.
I believe that I am more of a situational leader than a delegative one. Although I lean towards delegative approach more on my day to day dealings, it is because I find it more appropriate for the occasion. But when it comes to other things where I think I have a clearer vision than most, I tend to assert myself more than usual.
For me, there is no wrong or right leadership style; only that there are more appropriate styles than others for every situation.
As of the moment, I am undertaking an activity that needs me as a leader and I think what I am doing somewhere in between participative and autocratic.
In the Leadership Self-Assessment activity, I scored 74 out of 100 which indicates a desire to become a leader and a perceived ability to perform the tasks required of a leader. Generally, I find it somewhat true as I tend to subconsciously herd people whether it be among friends or group activities. It doesn't really show in school related work though, since I feel that everyone can work equally well and there is no need for someone to tell everyone what to do.
If I were to choose though, I would prefer to work in a setting where everyone is on equal footing and everyone has a say on things. I am a firm believer of democracy and it manifests itself in this way. For me, in a perfect world, no one has to go around and tell everyone to do things because we already know and do our parts. But of course, reality is always less peachy than expectations. This is the reason why my leadership tendencies show, it is because I easily get frustrated when things are not getting done the way I think they should be done. In all honesty, I only volunteer myself into leadership when I feel so strongly about something that I think I need to assert myself more and leadership gives more leeway for that without sounding too arrogant since you do more work anyway. I also think that this is not exactly a noble reason to go for leadership but sometimes things have to be done and you just do what it takes.
In the future, I have no wish to be a leader, especially a political one. I am more of a business type of person, since I came from the Asian Institute of Tourism (which actually has more business courses than people would suppose). My favorite subject back then was Organizational Management so I think it just figures that I would score high in the leadership self-assessment. All in all, I am just an impatient person who unwillingly volunteers to be the leader out of sheer boredom and irritation. Maybe it's not a good thing but it's not exactly bad either
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