A brightly lit, modern office is shown. There are six work professionals seated at a long table in an open-office layout working on their desktop computers.
Laissez-faire leadership is a more hands-off leadership style. While this management style isn't suited for all work teams, it may complement autonomous, creative individuals. — Getty Images/Morsa Images

Laissez-faire is a French term that translates to "let them do." It's typically used in regard to an economic philosophy that argues against government intervention in the economy. However, laissez-faire is also used to describe a type of leadership.

What is laissez-faire leadership?

Laissez-faire leadership, sometimes called delegative leadership, is a management approach in which leaders give minimal oversight and allow employees considerable autonomy in making decisions and managing their tasks. Laissez-faire leaders operate in a support role rather than giving directions, setting deadlines, and getting in the weeds of their teams' work.

"Laissez-faire leadership is one of three main types of management styles, the other two being authoritarian and democratic," explained VeryWell expert Kendra Cherry, MSEd. "Successful laissez-faire leaders focus on delegating tasks and cultivating an environment that empowers their employees to make the best choices for themselves."

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Characteristics of laissez-faire leadership

Laissez-faire leadership follows a few key principles, according to Cherry:

  1. Managers take a hands-off approach. This leadership style is the direct antithesis of micromanaging.
  2. Leaders provide all training and support. Their role is to provide guidance, consultation, and training when needed.
  3. Decisions are left to employees. Team members are given the authority to work how and when they need to.
  4. Everyone is comfortable with mistakes. Little oversight means mistakes can and will happen, and everyone needs to be prepared to redo some work.
  5. Accountability falls to the leader. To keep everyone invested, the team leader is accountable for the successes and failures of the group.

Ultimately, every version of laissez-faire leadership looks different because each team works according to their own personal styles.

"Laissez-faire leadership takes on many forms due to the ability of each employee to make their own decisions, but most such environments have a strong culture of honesty and trust among employees," wrote Indeed.

Teams that are made of passionate, driven individuals benefit highly from the freedom and autonomous decision-making that laissez-faire leadership empowers.

Benefits and drawbacks of laissez-faire leadership

Laissez-faire leadership may sound good in concept, but until recently, it has been criticized as one of the more difficult ways to work.

"Laissez-faire leadership is universally considered to be the most ineffective leadership style," wrote Jiaojiao Zhang, Yao Wang, and Feng Gao, authors of the study "The Dark and Bright Side of Laissez-Faire Leadership: Does Subordinates' Goal Orientation Make a Difference?"

Laissez-faire leadership is ideal for skilled experts who require little to no oversight. Workers in fast-moving or creative industries benefit from a hands-off approach that lets them create, iterate, and draw on their expertise to deliver unique, innovative solutions. Teams that are made of passionate, driven individuals benefit highly from the freedom and autonomous decision-making that laissez-faire leadership empowers.

"Overall, these benefits can boost effectiveness, job satisfaction, and forward momentum which contributes to higher team member retention," wrote the National Society of Leadership and Success.

However, if your team is not made up of self-motivated individuals, this leadership approach has significant drawbacks.

"At its worst, laissez-faire leadership represents passivity or even an outright avoidance of true leadership. In such cases, these leaders do nothing to try to motivate followers, don't recognize the efforts of team members, and make no attempts at involvement with the group," wrote Cherry.

This leadership approach often works best once teams are comfortable in their roles and have clearly defined processes. As employees gain more experience and become confident in their expectations, a laissez-faire approach can be phased in via more delegation and flexibility.

Examples of laissez-faire leaders

Warren Buffet and Steve Jobs are two contemporary examples of laissez-faire leaders. These two executives were keen delegators who put their trust in the experts they hired.

Steve Jobs is known for the quote "It doesn't make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do." Historically, entrepreneur Andrew Mellon and President Herbert Hoover are also considered examples of laissez-faire leaders.

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