One of the most critical factors in managing a business is knowing how to engage and motivate employees. A flexible leader who can embrace and accept change can manage a team successfully, no matter the circumstances. Choosing a management style involves knowing your strengths and weaknesses, as well as employees’ areas of expertise. Knowing what type of management style to use depends on self-awareness and what kind of style works best with the business, the needs of your colleagues and your personality.

The best leaders can adjust and adapt their leadership styles to changing situations and communicate with their team to keep everyone on the same page. An online Master of Business Administration (MBA) with a Concentration in General Management from the University of Wisconsin-Parkside (UWP) can help students develop their knowledge of current management techniques and critical business issues while preparing for advanced leadership positions and entrepreneurial ventures.

This online MBA program focuses on managing and coordinating diverse workers across national boundaries using case studies involving different cultures. These studies lend themselves to identifying and executing the appropriate management style for the context in which graduates will work.

How Different Management Styles Can Impact Organizations

How a manager leads can impact a team’s mood, emotions, motivation and effectiveness. Knowing what management style to use is important to improve productivity and engagement. Successful leaders typically use one primary management style and will change to other techniques based on varying business situations. By modifying their approach to deal with specific circumstances, managers can encourage their team members and be flexible under challenging conditions.

Conversely, the wrong management style can have detrimental effects, such as disengagement, lower productivity, poor work quality, increased turnover, reduced profitability and issues with absenteeism or theft. Since different teams, projects, organizations and tasks require different management styles, it’s vital for those in management positions to adapt to the needs of their company and position.

Being a leader differs from being a manager. For many people, a manager is a title with a set list of responsibilities. Often, managers are goal oriented and determined to accomplish their job by maintaining and administering while focusing on structure and systems. Leaders are more focused on people and how to influence, inspire and bring out the best in everyone on their team.

The best managers are leaders, but having the title does not automatically make someone a leader. While a manager is a specific position within a company, being a leader can apply to any employee if they act in a way that encourages, engages and inspires others. Some factors that set leaders apart from managers are creating a vision, embracing change and being willing to be themselves. They know that failure and making mistakes are steps in the process of being successful.

By learning something new every day, leaders seek to remain relevant and focus on people to build loyalty and trust. Managers focus on achieving goals by controlling situations to meet their needs. By sticking with what has worked for them in the past, managers maintain the status quo and sometimes mimic the managerial styles of others instead of being themselves. Managers typically look to minimize risk and focus on short-term goals by perfecting their existing skill set. Developing strong leadership skills can lead to more influence and better job performance.

Next Steps

This online MBA with a Concentration in General Management from UWP will teach students how to obtain and evaluate relevant information, analyze problems, develop creative solutions and approach tasks systematically and logically.

Learn more about the University of Wisconsin-Parkside’s online Master of Business Administration with a Concentration in General Management program.