Task Oriented vs. People Oriented Leadership Styles

Business leaders around the world have become increasingly aware of the fact that an effective leadership style is more important than ever in the workplace. The wrong leadership style can lead to many problems, including:

• low motivation
• Low productivity
• team disharmony
• High employee turnover

It is critical that both local employers who need local workers and non-local employers who need workers online provide engaging leadership. Modern workers are not limited to local labor markets and income options. Instead, they can now find unlimited income opportunities online and are not as tied to their geographic location as previous generations. Remote workers can easily move from job to job because they have no physical connection to a remote company. A supervisor’s leadership style often influences a remote worker’s loyalty.

There are many leadership styles that you could use in your business. Task-oriented and people-oriented styles are two of the most popular:

What is task-oriented leadership?

A task-oriented leader is someone who focuses on overall success through the completion of tasks. This type of leader is less concerned with building relationships than with workers accomplishing particular goals within a pre-set time frame. A task-oriented leader sees a goal, creates a step-by-step plan to reach that goal, creates a work schedule, and then expects workers to follow that schedule and finish the task by a specific deadline.

What is people-oriented leadership?

A people-oriented leader focuses on creating overall success by building lasting relationships with employees. This type of leader cares about tasks and schedules, but believes that work culture is more important. A people-oriented leader uses relationship-building techniques, such as employee recognition and team-building exercises, to create an environment in which employees feel appreciated and motivated enough to personally invest in the success of the team. business and work at the highest level possible.

The pros and cons of these leadership styles

There is no question that task-oriented leaders can get results. They provide workers with simple steps and detailed guidance. However, many task-oriented people are called micromanagers who make workplaces uncomfortable and unwelcoming. Task-oriented leaders care less if a worker has a good idea to make production easier than if the worker completes the task on time. As a result, task-oriented leaders often make workers feel like drones. Eventually, if this style of leadership is used consistently, workers feel underappreciated and less motivated to achieve their goals; and then production suffers.

People-oriented leaders create a work environment where employees trust their leaders and feel loyalty to the business and their co-workers. Productivity increases because workers really want to come to work every day. These leaders also open the door to creating new and better business processes by accepting and promoting employee and team feedback. However, many people-oriented leaders are known as weak leaders. They often spend so much time building relationships through team meetings, one-on-one reviews, and team-building events that production delays occur and they lead to missed deadlines. Some relationship-oriented leaders give workers so much control over the completion of a task with little guidance or supervision that tasks are not completed on time.

Choosing a leadership style

Both of these leadership styles are obviously beneficial to a company. Most experts believe that business leaders should create a personalized blended style that focuses equally on task completion and relationship building, while also emphasizing ways to overcome obstacles related to both styles.