There are various forms of leaders and leadership plans. The region or surrounding political environment a leader finds himself or herself in will determine what leadership tactics to utilize. Since this article is about the things managers should know about being effective leaders in a democratic society, we will limit our discussion to some key factors. However, before we continue, we will have to define a few key terms.
Key Terms
Democracy: This is a system of government where the people have the bulk of the rights. The people or citizens get to choose their leaders and those who will represent them in positions of power. It is basically a government-run by eligible and elected representatives. Countries that practice democracy is referred to as democratic nations. Such nations usually have a constitution and practice the rule of law.
Leadership: Leadership is simply the ability to influence the decisions of a group of people. In such a group, one person or a few are elected or chosen to lead the rest. The rest of the people are referred to as followers. The job of the leaders is to make all the difficult choices on behalf of the followers. The leaders ensure that the decisions they make are in the best interest of the followers. The leaders are the ones who will steer such a group toward achieving a particular goal, while the rest (the followers) will simply follow orders. In most cases, the followers trust the leader as an upright person. This is why they put their fates in his or her hands without the worry of betrayal or disaster befalling them.
Manager: A manager is a leader in his or her own right. The job of managers is to monitor and direct the activities of a chosen group of people. The manager makes sure that everyone he or she is overseeing is doing his or her part in achieving the collective goal of the group.
Leadership for a Democratic Society: What It Means
This type of leadership is usually the hallmark of good leaders. In a democratic society, citizens come first. There are a lot of things managers can learn about leadership by observing a democratic society.
In leadership for a democratic society, the people come first: As a good manager, you should learn to put your employees’ (or followers’) interests first when considering the general picture. If a company has a given goal, the manager should make plans that would allow those he or she is leading to comfortably and efficiently work toward achieving the general goal. The manager should not just do what is comfortable for himself or herself.
In leadership for a democratic society, roles are delegated: A good manager should learn to trust those under him or her and delegate when appropriate. The manager can not do everything on his or her own.Â
In a democratic society, leaders take advice and council: A good manager should be able to know when to take advice that would be useful and when not to, but he or she should take every council under advisement before dismissing it.
Now that you know the importance of good leadership for a democratic society, we encourage you to take those skills into your workplace as well.