…service and experience implications of the new leadership style
By J. N. Halm
One of the accepted facts about leadership styles is that there is no single accepted number of leadership styles. In 1939, German-American psychologist Kurt Lewin and his colleagues said there were only three leadership styles. These were Authoritarian (Autocratic), Participative (Democratic), and Delegative (Laissez-Faire). This grew into four styles—the Authoritarian, Democratic, Laissez-faire, and Coaching styles. Later some said there were actually five leadership styles. Others say there are seven.
In 1970, Robert Greenleaf added Servant Leadership. His essays on this particular style of leadership relied heavily on the leadership style of Jesus Christ. Interestingly, the list of leadership styles keeps growing by the day. One recent list contains the Autocratic, Authoritative, Visionary, Pace-Setting, Democratic, Coaching, Affiliative, and Laissez-Faire Styles.
No matter the number of distinct leadership styles one believes there are and which particular style one subscribes to, the truth is that leadership styles are very, very important. Every kind of leadership indeed affects the performance of those being led. The eminent Ghanaian academic, Prof. Stephen Adei is widely quoted as saying, “Leadership is cause. Everything else is effect.” That is as true as it gets.
The importance of leadership to the effectiveness of organisations means that when new models of leadership come to the fore, it is important that that particular model or style is given the necessary attention. In addition, the recent belief that there is a deficit of good quality leadership means that a new leadership style should be well-researched to see if its adoption could help leaders become more effective.
Quite recently, there have been calls for the addition of another leadership style to the current list of leadership styles. This has been referred to as Ebullient Leadership. An Ebullient supervisor is defined as “one who through words and deeds helps create a work environment that is considered by a subordinate as a fun place to work.” Fun at work has been defined as any social, interpersonal, or task activities at work of a playful or humorous nature that provide an individual with amusement, enjoyment, or pleasure.
It is important to note that fun is a need that people have at work. There is a wrong notion that the workplace must be a place for serious work, with no fun at all. Studies have found that not to be true. People still need to work in a place that is fun to work in. Therefore, a leader or supervisor who can provide a fun place to work is actually providing something of value to his or her team members.
The reason why this leadership style is slowly garnering attention is that it has been said to provide several benefits for employees. Among the benefits, according to researchers, are employee enthusiasm, group cohesion, and employee satisfaction. It has also been found that ebullient supervision also led to organisational citizenship behaviours, mutual trust as well as a reduction of complaints about boredom. With such a tall of merits, it is little wonder that ebullient leadership is slowly becoming the latest buzzword in corporate circles.
It has also been found that ebullient supervision helps in shaping employee creativity. This was the main finding in a study published in the 2023 edition of the Journal of Positive School Psychology. The rather long title of the study was “Ebullient Supervision—Meeting A Tall Order! Exploring The Role Of Ebullient Supervision In Developing Happy, Perspective-Taking, Thriving, And Creative Employees”.
Findings from the study proved that when employees are supervised by a leader with an ebullient style, the staff tend to experience positive moods such as joy, interest, and alertness. The pleasurable moods, in turn, have a positive effect on the cognitive skills of these employees. These employees are said to experience “mental flexibility”. In other words, their minds become a lot more open to possibilities. In general, such employees have been found to thrive at work. This is what leads to the enhanced creativity of employees who are led by an ebullient leader.
Due to the importance of creativity in customer service and experience, the concept of Ebullient Leadership style has the potential to greatly impact the provision of excellent customer service. The rapid rate of change in these times means that customer expectations are forever changing. With customers becoming a lot more knowledgeable about the options available to them, frontline employees are now, more than ever before, having to be more creative.
Add to this is the fact that today’s customer has tools at her disposal that allow her access to any kind of information she wants as and when she wants that information. Customer-facing employees have to think on their feet to ensure that the customer walks away from the transaction with a smile. Finding innovative ideas to keep customers happy is not a luxury. It is a demand, in these times. The organisation that can come out with the most creative and innovative ways to serve today’s customers is the one that is sure to lead the market.
There are some industries where the need for creative frontline employees is even more imperative. The hospitality industry is one of such industries. With customers coming in from diverse backgrounds and needs, there is always the need for customer-handling employees to always innovate to find the right solutions to customer needs and wants.
Beyond being creative, it is also important for organisations that their employees are happy, especially those whose job it is to serve customers. The role of happiness in employee performance has been widely studied. Happy employees equal happy customers. Happy customers equals happy shareholders. Therefore, businesses need to do their very best to ensure that their customers are always in the best mood possible.
Another very important quality that frontline employees are expected to possess is interpersonal skills. This refers to the ability of the employee to become aware of the needs, preferences, emotions, and values of others. The ability to read a customer and to accurately gauge one’s moods is a very desirable quality for the front office employee.
Interestingly, all these three very important qualities (creativity, happiness, great interpersonal skills) needed in the high-performing frontline team are said to be prominent among teams that are led by ebullient leaders. In other words, employees under Ebullient Supervision tend to be more creative, happier, and exhibit greater interpersonal skills.
The importance of ebullient leadership was brought to the fore in a 2022 thesis by an MBA student of the Department of Management of the School of Business of the University of Cape Coast. That study found that ebullient supervision had a significant positive influence on the commitment of employees. This is a very good reason why ebullient leadership should NOT be easily discarded as a concept. It has the potential to turn around the fortunes of any business.
In assigning leaders to teams, therefore, the leader must be tested for ebullience. In headhunting and interviewing for leaders for frontline teams, the potential leader must be able to exhibit the ability to provide an environment where the personal milestones of team members are recognised and celebrated. The potential leader must also prove that the professional achievements of team members would also be celebrated. An ebullient supervisor must also help to ensure that there are opportunities for personal development. The work environment must also provide staff with opportunities to volunteer for causes that are dear to the employee.
The office must also be a place where there are activities and games to relieve stress. The potential ebullient leader must also show that he or she would create an environment where there will be lots of good, clean humour. The workplace must also be a place where there is friendly competition. The workplace must be a place where there are opportunities and resources for entertainment.
It is, however, critical to state that ebullience in leaders should not be mistaken for sheer jocularity. Although some experts equate ebullient supervision with the concept of creating fun at work, ebullient leadership is not all about having fun just for the sake of having fun. Bosses who joke too much are often not taken too seriously by their subordinates. The successful ebullient supervisor must be someone who straddles between creating and maintaining a fun place to work without losing the seriousness needed to achieve the needed results.
It is widely accepted that the quality of the front-line employees of an organisation has a direct effect on the quality of the service and experience offered by that organisation. Frontline employee-to-customer interactions form the basis of the service quality of any organisation. The quality of the frontline team can therefore make or mar the customer’s experience. For as long as the front line is staffed by humans, one cannot overstate their importance.
It is also equally known that the quality of leadership also affects the quality of the team. The popular saying is that a group of sheep led by a lion will always triumph over a group of lions led by a sheep. That is how important leadership is.
From the ongoing discussion, it seems the concept of Ebullient Leadership is something that deserves a second look at. Especially for organisations that are very much interested in the quality of customer service, it is important that they, at the very least, “experiment” with Ebullient Leadership. If it works, as propounded by the aforementioned study, the results would be very beneficial for the organisation.
