State Secretary

Leaders Needed — Apply Within

Wouldn’t this be a great message for the sign outside our lodges? If it was only that easy. Remember, we are a private fraternal organization, and you must be “invited” to membership in our order. You can’t just knock on the door! However, this message could be entirely appropriate on our signage if holding a membership drive and it would certainly send a message to the community that we are way more than just a social club and restaurant! Have you ever seen any of those clever signs outside of churches that catch your attention and make you look every time you pass by them? One of my favorites: “The fact that there’s a highway to hell and only a stairway to heaven says a lot about anticipated traffic numbers.”

But seriously, imagine if we used our signs for more than just advertising upcoming events and happenings. What if we were to start a movement here in Florida with our 90 lodges? We could challenge our members to come up with great messages and we could compete to see who could come up with the best, and even better, we could start a library of the best sign messages for use in lodges everywhere! How about it? Are you in?

Leadership has been a frequent topic in my messages over the years and is my favorite topic to cover at our annual state officer training seminar. In fact, and in my humble opinion, it is one of, if not the most, important component of a successful lodge and is something we can never give enough attention to.

There are many different leadership styles, as many as six that are the most common. But for the purposes of this article, I will highlight only four, eliminating coaching leadership style and transformational leadership style, since these two require a lot of time to implement, much more than the year most of our leaders are given, and are styles more suitable to growing employee-based groups. With each of the below I have included pros and cons along with when and how each style is best used.

Authoritarian Leadership Style
This is the command-and-control style of leadership, the “Do as I say, or else” type of leader. Authoritarian leaders make decisions independently, inviting little or no input from their followers. Know any of these?

Pros: Decision-making is efficient, and it produces consistent results.
Cons: It is generally considered one of the least effective management styles. No one likes being controlled, so it results in high member dissatisfaction, high staff turnover, and low-quality work. It also completely stifles creativity and innovation.
Best used: Not to be totally discounted, this style can be useful when a decision needs to be made quickly and when the leader is the most knowledgeable person. It can be an effective approach when input from the team isn’t required or agreement among the team isn’t necessary for a successful outcome. It can also be useful when people need clear guidelines. For example, when working with contractors or freelancers, they often don’t require much support, but they do need to know exactly what you expect from them.

Transactional Leadership Style
Very common today, transactional leaders rely on “transactions” to motivate their members and employees to achieve their objectives. In exchange for achieving (or not achieving) a certain goal or meeting a target, those being led are either rewarded or punished. Examples are how we recognize our top membership recruiters or how we recognize our Elks of the month.

Pros: It’s easy to implement, and members/employees are clear about their role and what’s expected from them. It can be an efficient way to achieve short-term goals.
Cons: It relies on outside motivation, which tends to wane over time, and it might reduce inherent motivation, the natural motivation which generally drives others to succeed in their work.
Best used: When problems are simple and clearly defined. It’s less useful in situations that require creativity and independent thinking.
It can also be an effective style of leadership in crisis situations, where the focus is on achieving certain tasks and clearly defined roles are important.

Democratic Leadership Style
The exact opposite of the authoritarian leadership style. Rather than “Do it now, or else,” you’re much more likely to hear “How do you see it?” from a democratic leader. In the democratic leadership style, also known as participative leadership, the leader offers guidance, but they also participate in the group’s processes and encourage input from the members. While their decisions are based on the team’s input, the leader still has the final say. Importantly, just like in a democratic political system, each team member has an equal say. It is generally believed that the democratic leadership style is found to be the most effective style.

Pros: Often effective because it results in engaged, motivated teams and greater commitment to the organization. It also allows employees and members to grow and develop, as it encourages lower-level participants to exercise authority.
Cons: The decision-making process can be time-consuming if there are disagreements in the group.
Best used: When you want to encourage creativity and new ideas and you don’t need to make quick decisions.

Laissez-faire Leadership Style
“Laissez-faire” is a French term that literally means “allow to do,” and laissez-faire leaders do just that — they allow their team to work on whatever they want with little or no supervision or guidance. Also known as delegative leadership, this completely hands-off approach leaves decision-making up to the group members and the group is sometimes the team with the loudest voice or clique with the most followers. Laissez-faire leaders expect a certain level of performance from their followers, but they generally don’t actively help or check in with them.

Pros: Members are empowered to practice their leadership skills, sometimes undeveloped skills at that, but there is less fear of failure.
Cons: Probably one of the least effective styles of leadership, as the lack of guidance and vision can leave members/employees feeling neglected. Without direction and support, the team may feel they’re being pulled in every direction.
Best used: When you fully trust the individuals or team to make good, often low-risk, decisions.

So, what type of leader are you and what environment type do you work best within?

Perhaps the most important takeaway from this study is that different situations call for different types of leadership. As leaders, when a situation requires our leadership, it is best to first decide what type of leadership is needed for the situation and then either apply that type of leadership or choose a leader who can best provide the needed leadership style.

Take lodge membership growth, for example. No one person is an authority on membership growth so if membership growth is a priority in your lodge, it should probably not be led with an authoritarian leadership style. Transactional leadership works well for a motivational approach to driving growth, but is it sustainable and the correct style for a long-term plan? A comprehensive approach to membership growth will require a little more creativity and would be better served by something more than transactional leadership. Then there is laissez-faire leadership, an unguided approach with no clear vision or leadership. In many lodges this is the most common approach to membership growth because it’s easy and involves the most members, but although it has slowed our membership decline in recent years, it is probably not the leadership style we need if we are going to get back to proactively growing our membership. That leaves us with a democratic leadership style, not just because it is the last of the four styles but because it is the best choice for this project. It allows many members to participate at once, it values their input and ideas, and it allows everyone to grow their own leadership skills and feel accomplished when the results of their hard work begin producing results. There are many resources at both the national and state levels that have been developed over the years by a multitude of students of membership. It will take many members in the lodge to access these resources and accomplish the feat and will be best served by a leader using the democratic leadership style.

If membership growth is a goal in your lodge, and well it should be, why ever would you consider electing leaders whose leadership style is anything other than the democratic style?

In the years to come, our order is going to continue to experience challenges. Our pivot toward charitable works and community service continue to serve us well, but as the dynamics of community engagement change and alternate social structures continue to rise, such as civic clubs and professional organizations, they compete with our more traditional fraternal society. In more recent years, there seems to be a resurgence in interest in fraternal organizations, particularly among younger generations seeking community and networking opportunities. Our leadership must adapt, and our leaders will need to rise to the challenge and develop new and innovative approaches to what we offer our members. The development of leaders should be at the top of our list! Leaders needed — apply within!

Send me your ideas for slogans on our public-facing lodge signs and share with me your ideas for growing our leaders. Email me at carl@floridaelks.org. I look forward to hearing from you!

Carl T. Seibert, COO/State Secretary
Florida State Elks Association

Portions of this article taken from “6 Leadership Styles (and When They’re Best),” found at https://au.indeed.com/hire/c/info/leadership-styles?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw3624BhBAEiwAkxgTOu_ynltYUCf-2kUqLn6iW1-K2NZ1S0lSucOfyoODtuxZiJ3cUzX9PBoCouwQAvD_BwE&aceid=&gclsrc=aw.ds