Week 4: Task vs. Relationship Oriented Leadership at Avascent

Task-oriented leadership focuses on the tasks that need to be performed in order to meet certain goals. Relationship-oriented leadership, on the other hand, focuses on the satisfaction, motivation and the well-being of the group. While specific project managers or executive members favor certain orientations, as a whole, Avascent has a healthy and productive mix of task-oriented and relationship-oriented leadership.

The leadership dynamic on the project teams is very much task oriented. Project managers delegate specific assignments and due dates to team members, and then team members receive reward or punishment based on the quality of work (for example, a reward could be praise and a punishment could be less responsibility moving forward on the project). My team has frequent check-up meetings so the project manager can monitor progress and doll out either praise or constructive criticism on the work performed up to that point. I personally have only witnessed my team receive reward; however, I have heard stories of from other teams who’ve received the latter.

In contrast, the leadership style of the firm as a whole is very relationship oriented. We have had multiple company events (happy-hours/retreats) after work thus far geared towards boosting overall group moral. The office also has occasional open forum meetings with Principal members for employees to discuss areas of improvement for the firm. Also, every Friday at the end of the day the firm gathers in the café to debrief about the week, relax and tell any [funny] stories that may have happened over the course of the week.

I’d say it’s a good mixture of both styles, both in terms of productivity and employee well-being.