The Leadership Buffet 5 – Democratic-Participative
The next dish on our leadership buffet is one which requires a special kind of leader who is very comfortable in their own skin because they literally share power. While a modern label for this kind of style is the collaborative leader, the traditional title is democratic-participative leadership. This leader creates and uses a safe environment to make group decisions through discussion. They have excellent listening and delegation skills, a team orientation, and a belief that everyone is valuable. While each of these traits is important, the last may be the defining characteristic of this kind of leader. They believe and treat others as valuable, which all too often is not how many team members feel when dealing with some of the less-than-positive leadership styles of their boss. My observation is that there are not many truly democratic-participative leaders in lead pastor roles, because many became the lead because they want to do things their way and are convinced that they always have the best ideas. A true democratic leader will listen to the views of their team members and in the case of a church, to the congregation members, in order to help establish what the best steps forward would be. Being participative doesn’t mean that they lead by majority rule, but rather they allow the input of others to guide and influence their decisions so that actions are for the good of the whole.
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IMPACT: When the humility factor is added to the leadership style of Democratic-Participative, the humble pastor outcome is that the leader becomes a collaborative leader with a high level of emotional intelligence and healthy, open relationships among team members. They model forgiveness, gratitude, compassion, and service, all qualities which others will desire to emulate.
I hope that you are enjoying your trip around the leadership buffet. Next week we will sample a couple less-known dishes, before we dive into some significant and prominent pastoral leadership styles.