Leadership Style: Persuasive

When an individual's competence is medium but motivation is low he/she is considered an alienated follower and the appropriate leadership style to use is Persuasive.

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Style Description

A persuasive style will require you to inspire and motivate the individual. You should try not to resort to your position or role authority to get compliance, but choose, rather, to encourage and convince through the use of your informal influence. The person is competent but does not seem motivated to do what needs doing. Try to muster your people skills and attempt to increase this person’s motivation. In other words, lead by inspiring and encouraging. Recognize and praise this person’s past accomplishments and remind him/her of the role and the importance of that role. As with the autocratic leadership style you will probably need to monitor this person closely to ensure he/she follows through on tasks. Appeal to this person’s heart. Something or someone may have demotivated this person and you should seek to find the cause of diminished motivation. Keep in mind that attempting to motivate someone can be accomplished in two basic ways: 1) point out the positive consequences of good performance, or 2) point out the negative consequences of a continued lack of enthusiasm. A danger with alienated followers is they may undermine you by using their high competence as leverage to influence other people to their negative outlook. They may impact others by grumbling and complaining.