Directive vs Empowering Leadership: When to Tell or Ask

Abstract

This article is about directive vs empowering leadership, and how to decide when to tell your team what to do and when to ask. Two pieces of research bear on it. A laboratory study of 60 teams of students found that teams with a directive leader performed better in the first rounds, while teams with an empowering leader improved faster in the later rounds. A field experiment in the United Arab Emirates, summarised here from its published abstract, found that both styles improved task proficiency and that only the empowering style increased proactive behaviour. The results depended on how satisfied a work unit was with its leader. Neither study looked at finance teams. The three steps at the end are practical readings of this research and of ordinary management practice, not tested methods.

The reconciliation on day two

It is day two of the close. A new analyst has taken over the intercompany reconciliation, and her first draft is wrong in a way you can see at once.

You can tell her what to change, line by line, and be finished in ten minutes. Or you can ask what she would check first, and wait. Last month you told someone, and it felt like doing the job twice. The month before you asked, and the close ran late.

Both choices have a cost, and you can feel each one.

Directive vs empowering leadership: how do I choose?

Research does not give a rule, and nothing cited here studied finance teams. It does suggest that the answer depends on two things you can look at: how far along the person or team is, and how they currently feel about you as their leader. The next two sections cover the studies. The three steps after them turn this into a way to decide.

What happened over ten rounds

Lorinkova, Pearsall and Sims (2013) studied 300 senior undergraduate students in 60 teams of five, each with one leader and four members. The teams ran a computer simulation in a single session of about three hours, with ten rounds of decisions. Leaders were chosen for their comfort with one style and trained for about 30 minutes. Directive leaders were trained to give specific instructions and a detailed plan, and to decide with little input from the team. Empowering leaders were trained to involve every member in setting goals, to encourage sharing of information, and to listen to suggestions.

In rounds 1 to 5, teams with a directive leader performed better. In rounds 6 to 10, teams with an empowering leader improved faster. The authors report that this later gain was partly explained by better team learning, better coordination, a stronger shared sense of authority and responsibility, and more similar mental models among members. They also note that comparing the two styles only at the end would have shown no significant difference.

The authors name limits: short-lived teams, a laboratory task, and leaders with no particular expertise. They could not say whether the empowering teams would keep improving, or whether those teams would benefit from more direction later.

Read the day-two reconciliation through this. For a person who is new to a task, the first study points toward telling. This is an inference. The study used students on a simulation, not analysts in a close.

What a field experiment found

Martin, Liao and Campbell (2013) compared directive with empowering leadership in a field experiment in the United Arab Emirates. This summary is based on the published abstract, which does not give the sample size or the sector. They measured customer-rated task proficiency and proactive behaviour in work units.

Both styles improved task proficiency. Only empowering leadership increased proactive behaviour. How satisfied a unit was with its leader changed the picture. Where units were highly satisfied, directive leadership also boosted proactive behaviour. Where they were less satisfied, empowering leadership had stronger effects on both proficiency and proactive behaviour.

Read your own team through this. Overall, telling improved the work, but on its own it did not make people more proactive. This is an inference. The abstract does not say what kind of work the units did.

Directive vs empowering leadership: three steps to decide

None of these is a rule, and none was tested on finance teams. They combine what the two studies point to with ordinary management practice. Where a step goes beyond the research, it says so.

1. Match the style to the stage: tell for the new, ask for the familiar. For a new person, a new task or a new team, give specific steps and a clear standard. For someone who has done the task before, ask what they would do first. For instance: "For this reconciliation, start with the intercompany balances, then the FX lines. Send it to me at noon." Next month: "How would you set this one up?" The pattern comes from the first study, where the directive advantage appeared early and the empowering gain later. That is an inference. Deciding which stage a person is at is a judgement, and it will sometimes be wrong.

2. Say which mode you are in, and when it will change. People can read the same instruction as help or as distrust. Say what you are doing and why. For instance: "I'm going to be specific this month because it's your first close. From next month I'd like you to decide how to set it up, and I'll check the result." This is a judgement. No study cited here tested it.

3. Hand over on a date, and watch for proactivity. After two cycles, move from telling to asking. Say: "What would you check first?" Then see whether the person starts raising things without being asked, such as a mismatch or a better way to do a step. In the field experiment only empowering leadership increased proactive behaviour, so this is the sign to look for. This is an inference from the abstract of Martin and colleagues (2013). The same abstract reports stronger effects of empowering leadership in units less satisfied with their leader, so if your team is not yet convinced by you, asking more may be worth trying. That is also an inference, and the abstract does not say how much asking is enough.

If your team already feels watched, How to Deal With a Micromanaging Boss in Finance describes how that feels from their side. If you have just been promoted over your colleagues, How to Manage Former Peers After a Promotion covers the first weeks.

Questions People Ask

Is directive leadership bad?

No. In the laboratory study it produced the better performance early on, and in the field experiment it improved task proficiency. What it did not do, overall, was raise proactive behaviour. Whether that matters depends on what you need from the person.

Is empowering leadership the same as leaving people alone?

Not in the laboratory study. Empowering leaders were trained to involve every member in setting goals, to encourage sharing of information and to listen to suggestions, which is active work. The study did not test leaving a team without leadership.

How do I know when someone is ready for more freedom?

The studies do not say. This is a judgement. Look for signs that the person has done the task correctly more than once without needing your steps, and that they ask good questions instead of waiting for instructions. Then ask them what they would do first.

Do these findings apply to finance teams?

Not directly. The first study used students on a simulation. The second was a field experiment in the United Arab Emirates, and its abstract does not name the sector. They give you a direction to try, not proof that it works in your team.

When style is not the problem

Changing how directive you are will not fix every difficulty. If someone repeatedly misses a clear standard after you have set it out and checked it, that is a performance matter, and your own manager or HR can help you handle it. Difficult Conversations: A Framework for Honest Communication covers how to prepare for that conversation.

If you dread every conversation with your team, or managing leaves you exhausted for weeks, talk to your doctor or a qualified mental health professional. This article is not medical advice. Coaching is educational support for work patterns. It is not treatment and not a substitute for it.

Sources

• Lorinkova, N. M., Pearsall, M. J., & Sims, H. P., Jr. (2013). Examining the differential longitudinal performance of directive versus empowering leadership in teams. Academy of Management Journal, 56(2), 573–596. DOI: 10.5465/amj.2011.0132

• Martin, S. L., Liao, H., & Campbell, E. M. (2013). Directive versus empowering leadership: A field experiment comparing impacts on task proficiency and proactivity. Academy of Management Journal, 56(5), 1372–1395. DOI: 10.5465/amj.2011.0113 (Summarised from the published abstract.)