Leadership Styles in Higher Education - Big Leader-bonds, Inspires, Guides

Objectives: Different leadership styles are adopted to motivate employees and to promote innovations. This research aims at identifying the leadership styles followed in higher institutions of learning in Chennai. We have also tried to explore which leadership style in higher level educational institutions motivates a team to a greater extent.

Method: This research is an exploratory research that aims at identifying the leadership styles followed in higher institutions of learning in Chennai. We have also tried to explore which leadership style in higher level educational institutions motivates a team more by conducting in-depth interviews with team members working under different leadership styles. The data has been collected, analyzed through percentage analysis, and tabulated.

Results: We identified three leadership styles: Authoritarian, Participative, and Innovative leadership style. It was found that majority of the educational institutions follow an authoritarian style of leadership. Participative leadership style was next and very few leaders were innovators. It was found that authoritarian style is the least desirable and participative leadership style is highly successful in educational institutions. We have tried to identify the crucial traits of a leader based on desk research, responses received through questionnaire, and discussions with teams. Some of the traits of a good leader are: a. The Three Aces: Acknowledging Uniqueness, Assessing Potential, and Assigning Appropriate Role. b. Providing direction through clearly articulating the mission and vision, c. Building trust through honesty&integrity. d. Consistency. e. Effective communication and praise. f. Setting high standards and never ceding control.

Conclusion: The higher level leadership in educational institutions are so obsessed with the bottom line that they forget that bottom line can be achieved only through delegation, empowerment and involvement of team members in the decision making process. To support the agenda of accountability and good performance educational leaders need to be proficient in leadership and a participative, democratic and innovative leadership style plays a pivotal role in improving the bottom line.