Open-Minded Management Styles

Management styles vary based on an individual leader's blend of task-orientation and relationship ability in interacting with employees. While leaders may exhibit an open-minded attitude in lieu of any style, certain types of prominent approaches to management include a common propensity to listen to employee input and consider alternative viewpoints.

A visionary manager is a high energy-leader who typically specializes in formulating a vision and inspiring employees to work collectively toward it. While visionary leaders usually take the initiative to set a direction or path for a business, they remain open to employee input on the strategies and techniques to achieve company goals. Workers are able to suggest ideas, take chances and introduce new approaches to routine tasks.

A consultative or affiliative management style means the leader proactively seeks out the input of his employees. In this style, the manager still holds final decision-making responsibility, but he gives serious credence to workers' suggestions and inputs. For this style to work, the manager must encourage employees not only with words but also with supportive reactions to ideas. Even if the leader doesn't use a particular suggestion, he praises an employee's willingness to share.

The democratic or participative management style is similar to the consultative approach, but the manager is even more open-minded to employee involvement. In this style, employees not only offer input, but they are often placed into teams or work groups and tasked with coming up with new ideas or solutions. This type of open-minded approach is important in organizations that use work team structures to promote innovation and employee empowerment.

A consensus-building manager takes an indirect leadership approach in supervising employees. With this style, you delegate authority, responsibility and tasks to a worker and then provide a lot of freedom and flexibility in the way he carries out his tasks. In this case, the manager's open-mindedness stems from the fact that he accepts the competence of the employee to get a project or task completed at a high level. The manager plays a supportive, helper role.