Improving My Democratic Leadership Experience

Democratic leadership style enables the leaders to engage with the followers freely and everyone has an equal opportunity of participating in the formulation of crucial decisions. As a leader, I have realized that this style increases performance since all the members own the operations. The main challenge associated with the use of this leadership style is the lack of mechanisms to handle conflicts amongst the followers when they disagree about different opinions. Therefore, in order to ensure that I have improved my democratic leadership experience, I have to identify ways of improving my conflict resolution skills.

Characteristics of a Democratic Leader

Democratic leadership style involves the distribution of responsibility among the followers as a move to ensure that all the members within the group are involved in making key decisions. I have ensured that all the participants have equal powers in making key decisions, and this had led to higher cooperation levels, which have enhanced unity in the performance of different roles. Since the interaction levels are high, the performance of different roles has been increased thus making the group achieve better results (Sample, 2009). The members feel more engaged in the operations of the team and this has made them utilize their innovative skills in achieving major solutions. As a democratic leader, I have been inspiring followers to take major actions and always contribute to any decisions that will lead to the achievement of the overall goal. This has increased the trust and respect amongst us since everyone contributes to the wellbeing of the team. Seeking diverse opinions from the followers has been a move to provide a uniform platform where the members utilize to convey their different perceptions concerning the decision. I have not been dissenting the voices of those who offer a less popular point of view and this has made them have confidence in formulating better decisions that have been utilized effectively.

My high human skills have made me guide the followers in tackling major decisions within the team thus inspiring them to work better. I have also utilized the behavioral approach in identifying the characters of the followers and this has made me assign them different roles depending on their capabilities. Understanding their different behaviors has facilitated the provision of meaningful relationships that can lead to the delivery of better results (Al Khajeh, 2018). I always utilize the supportive situational approach in guiding the members who feel secluded in the decision-making process. I normally try to understand the reasons that might affect their poor performance, and this has made them have higher trust in my leadership style. Supporting the group initiatives within the team is a move that can make the group have higher performance. One of my goals is to ensure that there is an increase in teamwork, which can be achieved through continuous motivation during and after the performance of different roles.

Challenges Associated with the Democratic Leadership Style

The main challenge that I have experienced while utilizing the democratic leadership style is how to handle negative and conflicting situations among the team members. Sometimes the members have conflicting decisions that are all valid and have a dilemma on which decision to implement and which ones to forego. The dilemma has made some of the followers to consider my leadership style as being inefficient. The lack of better conflict solving skills has made me hesitate to make crucial guidance on conflicting issues, and this has led to delays in the delivery of better services (Al Khajeh, 2018). Other members have been suggesting negative ideas that cannot assist the group and I have been unable to tolerate them within the group. These members have felt that their decisions are not being appreciated, and this has made them withdraw from providing any comments to the group. The negative situations have affected the relationship between the members thus lowering their esteem and satisfaction levels. Another challenge has been on how to handle followers who are not willing to participate in any decision-making process. This has been a serious issue since the participants have started performing poorly, and this has negatively affected the results of the team. The poor performance has also affected the team spirit thus making the members work individually rather than as a team. The poor team spirit has affected by leadership performance, and some of the followers have completely lacked trust in my style. These challenges have made me identify different ways of addressing the situation so as to increase team spirit.

Enhancement of the Leadership Style

Since I have identified the main problems that are affecting the utilization of the leadership style, I have decided to take bold steps that will be geared towards eradicating the challenges. The first step I am planning to take is enhancing my crisis communication style. Initially, I did not listen carefully to the conflicting situations, and this led to the delays in deciding which decision to adopt. I will be actively listening to all the differing opinions than from that point, we will analyze all the decisions so as to identify the best opinion (Tang & Basheer, 2017). I will strive to maintain a calm positive attitude to the negative followers as a move to try to understand the reason driving them to make the comments and after identifying the reason, I will advise them accordingly. This will be a team-building strategy that will be utilized in identifying the best decision at the group without compromising anybody's opinions. I will also utilize my human skills in ensuring that the inferior participants feel valued by encouraging them to participate in the decision-making process. Besides, I will perfect on my strong points, and once I am able to perfect handling the challenges, I will be able to guide all the members in undertaking better roles that will increase the outcome of the team.

Conclusion

All in all, to ensure that I have improved my democratic leadership experience, I have to identify the key ways of improving conflict resolution skills, which have been my major weakness. Effectiveness of the style requires constant work on the mechanism of solving the conflicts as well as perfecting on the stronger areas. I will also guide the other members in identifying ways through which they can improve their conflict resolution methods. This approach will help in solving further conflicting situations that might occur in the future.