Good Bosses Switch Between Two Leadership Style Analysis

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Jon Maner of the Harvard Business Review discusses the difference between two proactive types of leadership and their advantages and disadvantages in the article Good Bosses Switch between Two Leadership Styles. Jon compares the effectiveness of leaders who utilize dominance as a strategy versus those who use prestige. A dominant leader is described as someone who thrives off of feeling empowered and in control and are often respected by their coworkers an employees. Dominance is achieved by “asserting their role as the boss” and actively using fear and punishment as motivation. The other form of leadership the article discusses is prestige which is a less intimidating approach. Prestigious leaders use a more encouraging strategy, allowing …show more content…

Situations such as uniting teams and operations to align and work together, the author suggests dominant leadership being most effective. When people are having issues agreeing on viewpoints, fear of punishment is effective as it forces people to find a solution. Dominance puts constant pressure on people to perform whether it’s by an incentive or fear consequence. Though the dominant qualities of leaders prove effective in deadline and controversial crisis, they are also the disadvantages of dominance. The author describes the main issue with dominant leaders is that they are commonly disliked. They tend to be close minded individuals with a single perspective and often do not react well to threats to their authority and can supress the potential of those they feel could surpass them. There are ways to moderate dominance to minimize the negative qualities and the article supports this argument by suggesting that dominant leaders “harness their egos” to limit irrational decision which can arise when they feel their power is being threatened. Jon also suggests that dominant leaders keep an open mind and be and assertive leader, but one that makes their employees “feel

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