Laissez Faire Leadership Style

The Laissez Faire Leadership Style was first described by Lewin, Lippitt, and White in 1938, along with the autocratic leadership and the democratic leadership styles.  The laissez faire style is sometimes described as a "hands off" leadership style because the leader provides little or no direction to the followers.

The characteristics of the laissez faire style include:

• Allows followers to have complete freedom to make decisions concerning the completion of their work or ask questions of the leader
• The leader provides the followers with the materials they need to accomplish their goals and answers the follower's questions

Lewin, Lippitt, and White were one of the first researchers to categorize leadership styles in terms of behavioral characteristics.  Prior to their work, leadership traits were the focus of leadership studies.