Theories of Leadership
Negotiative Leadership

One style of Bass and Colleagues’ theories of leadership which I’m not particularly fond of is the negotiative leadership style.

The negotiative leader comes to the table with his own agenda and he seeks out his personal interest before the organization’s. This could happen with ambitious and driven leaders in any organization.

To achieve their personal goals, they leverage on their position as leaders and entice their followers to perform certain tasks with incentives and other benefits. Their followers, seeing the dangling carrot in front of them, reaches out to take it and pushes the leader further toward his own agenda.

One example would be Alexander the Great. To fulfil his ambition of ruling the known world, Alexander and his men fight for many years without stopping. His men although tired, are constantly spurred on by the vision of the great leader, and also the promises of great riches for each of them.

As a result, Alexander managed to get his loyal soldiers to fight for over seven years for him until the edge of modern India.

Most leaders are negotiative and their primary goal is usually to look out for their own interests and agenda.

In our modern day society, this could come in the form of a manager claiming credit for the work of the team, or a manager promising big bonus for employees if they would support him in the boardroom against other colleagues.

This form of leadership can be destructive in an organization because when everyone looks out for themselves, no one looks out for the benefit of the organization. In the end, everyone suffers because the organization fails as a whole. The house divided against itself simply cannot stand.

Alexander’s great empire fell to pieces soon after his death as his children all began to look out for their own interest. As a result, the great empire was divided into four factions but none lasted through history.

When you are searching for leaders to lead your organization, remember to look out not just for those with talent, but also those with a loyal and faithful heart. Look out for people who will put the organization before their own interests.

These are the people that can support you and run with you. And together, everyone will succeed.

Bass and Colleagues
Five Styles Of Leadership

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The leadership styles proposed below reflect different levels of task and people orientation.

» Directive leadership style
The directive leader tells his followers what to do, and how to do it exactly. He specifics standards required of his followers and exercise firm authority over them.

» Consultative leadership style
The consultative leader seeks the counsel of the whole team before making a decision on what the team should do. He is also task oriented, but he seeks the opinion of his followers as well.

» Participative leadership style
The participative leader puts himself as a member of the team and discusses possible decisions with the team. He seeks consensus before coming to a decision and everyone is supposed to take ownership in the final decision.

» Negotiative leadership style
The negotiative leader employs a more political approach to leadership. He has a personal interest in his decisions and he uses incentives to entice his followers to do certain things.

» Delegative leadership style
He takes back seat toward decision making, and allows his team to take their own course of action. He only sits down together with the team to discuss possible decisions that could be adopted.

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