Most young managers will end up emulating a mentor’s management style early on in their career. This probably works out just as often as it leads to a total disaster. The thing about a management style is that it needs to fit your personality, not someone else’s. For instance, if you don’t have a strong personality and are afraid of confrontation, an authoritative style may not work well for you even though it was successful for your mentor.
Before we start discussing developing a management style, it is important to understand the basic types of managers:
- Autocratic – sometimes referred to as “fear” management. Decisions are made from the top-down, with zero input from staff. In this style of management, staff members are generally either rewarded or penalized, with no in-between. It will often alienate team members as well as promote a micro-managing climate.
- Consultative – with this style, leaders will often involve their staff in the decision-making process, which can sometimes lower production or create problems meeting deadlines if too much power is given to staff. However, it can also be quite productive when mastered.
- Participative – this style of management demands participation from the entire team and empowers employees to make decisions on their own. Delegation will play a prominent role in this style, which can be both detrimental or positive, depending on the reliability and staff below the main decision maker.
- Persuasive – this is almost a parental-style approach to management, where staff members are encouraged to ask questions and help management reach a conclusion on how to proceed. It shares some traits with the autocratic style but does not use punishment and reward as its main motivator.
Within these four basic management categories, there are several sub-categories that are a direct reflection of the parent style or a combination of two or more of these styles of management. Some examples of these management styles are:
- Democratic
- Inspirational
- Authoritative
- Results-Based
- Laissez-Faire
- Collaborative
- Example-Setting
- Strategic
- Team-oriented
- Charismatic
- Visionary
- Servant
- Pacesetting
How to Identify Your Management Style
In today’s workplace, some of these styles will simply no longer work. For instance, using the autocratic way of “my way or the highway” may be called upon from time to time, but no manger in today’s world is going to succeed using this style all the time.
What you need to do is identify your skill set and personality traits as well as your experience to identify what style will work best for you. Over time, this may change, which is perfectly normal.
When I first made the switch to the hotel industry, I had a very authoritative approach (autocratic) because I was taking over a department that had largely run itself and a staff that was running over the manager that worked there prior to me. Once I established myself as the unquestionable leader of the department, I fell into my more natural style, which was a combination of different techniques within the consultative category. At any given time, I would use strategic, democratic, and inspirational styles, depending upon the situation and the employee. However, there were still times when I needed to use the autocratic style to get the department back in line.
You are going to have to take an honest look at yourself and your staff to decide what style will work best for you, as your staff will also play an integral role in how you manage your department or entire operation. For instance, choosing a collaborative style will simply not work with newer employees or employees who have proven in the past they need constant guidance in order to be successful.
Developing Your Management Style
To be honest, the key to this is going to be experience. There will be a lot of trial by error until you find out what works best for you in different scenarios. In one of my first managerial roles, I tried to always be positive and always be the nice guy, and it almost got me fired. On the other hand, I also tried to be hard nose, telling staff it was my way or else. As you can imagine, that did not work well either.
Over time, I learned what style worked best at specific times as well as identifying the different types of employees that responded well to each type of style. This can only be done with experience and make no mistake about it, you will fail at times and you will struggle during others, but you will eventually find that sweet spot that will enable you to be a successful manager in this hospitality industry. You just need to remain open and realize that no two employees are going to be alike, no two clients are going to be alike, a no two situations are going to be alike. Point being, you may have an overall management style, but you will have to be a chameleon when the situation calls for it.
If you are looking for managers that can adapt to your staff and take your operation to the next level, consider letting JDI help you find the top talent in the hotel industry. Joseph David International is consistently ranked among the top hospitality recruiters in the country because we work hard to find the ideal fit for your property or hotel organization. For more information about our hotel recruiting services, please click here.