The Impact of Democratic Leadership and Motivation

Introduction

With both leadership skills and democratic leadership, the impact that both of them have made during the Brasserie is the effectiveness and the smoothness of operation during the shifts. It is proven during the past three weeks of Brasserie both 1st and 2nd years student have improve and have embrace the changes to the Brasserie well. This is a good sign to start off the new Brasserie system and I believe it will be better in the future. Another important impact that should be highlighted here is the participation of the students. At first, the 1st years are reluctant to ask question or voice out their opinions but through the whole process of Brasserie, towards the end, they become confident to ask questions and to voice out their opinions. This Brasserie has touch me as a leader, to see the 1st years struggling hard and trying hard to improve and enjoying the whole process. As a leader all I can ask for in the end of the day is the commitment shown from my team members.

Effectiveness of Leadership Styles

According to Gamelearn Team (2019), “democratic leadership is not a fail-safe leadership theory compared to the other” therefore we have to evaluate its advantages and disadvantages. The advantages of democratic leadership is that it involves everyone’s participation to find a solution, creates a relax atmosphere because it creates cooperation, creates a bond/trust towards other team members and increase their productivity. The disadvantages of democratic leadership is the slow decision making process, it is not effective in some cases where decision making has to be done in a short manner of time, lack of experience can cause trouble and a team member might be discourage when their ideas are not picked. Base on the advantages and disadvantages a democratic leadership style can be effective depending on the situation itself. An example would be during the briefing period where everyone sits and listens, it is the perfect time to be participative and democratic leadership can be used. It has disadvantages when a problem occurs and a decision has to be made right at that point without the discussion/opinion from others. However it does not necessarily affect me when I have to come up with a solution straight away as I have mentioned that a leader should be flexible. As it is the leadership style that I am using I find it effective because I want others to have a sense of involvement, to have that confidence to make decisions and bear with the responsibility. I am giving them the opportunity to think ahead and showcase their ability and skill that they possess.

Changes for Improvement of Democratic Leadership

As mentioned in the previous point that there are some disadvantages to democratic leadership, there is always room for improvement and a different techniques or style can be used. With democratic leadership it is a fact that there is a slow decision making process done when a leader has to come up with a solution straight away. With this being said I should apply another leadership style to balance everything and turn the tide to my advantage. Another leadership style that I could use is an autocratic leadership and this benefits the leader in some cases. According to Reza (n.d.), “autocratic leadership style can be useful when important decisions has to be made without delay when crisis strikes”. This is a contrast to democratic leadership but I feel that having two or more leadership style can be beneficial to a leader as they can use different styles according to the situation that they are facing. An example to use autocratic leadership style is when a customer/guest in Brasserie is asking for a certain favour/special requirement like merging two tables to one because they want to sit together, walk-in guest that wants to dine in, etc. These type of situations needs to be solve straight away and most importantly the leader should not panic and should handle the situation calmly.

Motivating Others

Having self-motivation is essential for an individual to have and to be able to be self-motivated is not a hard task for an individual to do. Motivating others as a leader is a harder task to do and not everyone is capable of doing that. According to Margol (2015), “it drives people to success”, it also increases their productivity. As a leader my job is also to motivate my team member and some of the things that I have done/contributed that I wish to highlight is giving appreciation/recognition to an individual. By giving the individual a recognition it motivates them to do well because they are in a new environment and a sense of accomplishment can be felt when they successfully overcome those challenges. An example from Brasserie is when some of the 1st years are given new task/job, this could be as a wine waiter, pass, bar, etc. I find them more motivated to do their task because they are not in their comfort zone and their subconscious mind are forcing them to do well. Another form of motivation that I find helpful is to engage in small conversations with everyone and do put in some motivational conversation in between like “don’t worry, everything is going to be okay, there will always be people that can help you handle those tables”. Those kind of small conversation I feel is helpful and motivate people to even help others and not think about themselves resulting to a solid team running the service.