Organizations across all sectors face ongoing workforce challenges as employees increasingly seek meaningful workplace experiences beyond traditional compensation. Employees prioritize meaningful interpersonal relationships among colleagues and managers, a clear sense of purpose in their work and a personally rewarding workplace experience.
The online Master of Science (MS) – Organizational Leadership program from Eastern Washington University (EWU) equips leaders with the collaborative, adaptable management skills that transform employee attrition into long-term engagement and organizational success. Through a 44-credit-hour curriculum covering impactful leadership styles, theory and practical applications, the program develops the people-centered leadership competencies that today’s workforce demands.
What Are the Most Effective Approaches to Organizational Leadership?
The most impactful leadership styles prioritize employee engagement, collaboration and development over purely transactional management approaches. Research from SHRM’s 2025 State of the Workplace reveals that 51% of chief human resources officers identified leadership and manager development among their top priorities for 2025, recognizing its critical role in fostering sustainable business practices.
Among the most common management styles, two styles can contribute to high employee turnover. These include transactional leadership, which motivates employees primarily through rewards and punishments rather than intrinsic engagement, and autocratic leadership characterized by top-down decision-making that either excludes team input or disregards it entirely.
While situations such as crises and emergencies occasionally warrant these traditional approaches, more collaborative leadership styles prove effective for long-term employee retention and organizational success. Examples of effective leadership strategies for today’s workforce include:
Transformational leadership
Effective managers adapt their approach to help employees transition through changes in organizational goals, cross-functional team environments and evolving market conditions. By adjusting their mindset to meet new challenges, leaders provide employees with the resources and coaching needed to facilitate successful transitions.
Democratic leadership
Managers using this approach encourage employees to submit ideas and initiatives, present them to the team, and engage in collaborative discussions that drive suggestions and innovations. In many organizations, adopting this management style requires a substantial work culture shift to succeed.
Laissez-faire leadership
This hands-off approach requires clear understanding and intentional application to avoid confusing team members about goals and responsibilities. Effective laissez-faire managers remove barriers to goal achievement, ensure team members have access to needed resources, and support an atmosphere of independence and individual achievement. When executed well, this is a more distributed or delegative approach to leadership, which can be impactful for high-functioning teams.
These leadership approaches, outlined by Indeed Career Guide, represent alternatives to traditional top-down management. Leaders should evaluate their current management styles to determine whether their approach fosters employee engagement or contributes to turnover.
How Can Leaders Develop Management Styles That Foster Team Success?
Leaders can develop adaptable, collaborative management styles through leadership development programs that strengthen essential interpersonal and strategic skills. Human resources professionals report difficulty finding management candidates who demonstrate adaptability, strong relational skills and persuasive communication — qualities essential for retaining top performers.
An effective path to acquiring these competencies involves enrolling in a leadership development program. EWU’s online MS – Organizational Leadership program equips graduates for success through a specialized curriculum that develops expertise in the management skills that support long-term employee engagement and retention.
Through courses including Social & Emotional Dimensions of Leadership, Team Leadership, Organizational Communication and Conflict Resolution, and Leading Change, students strengthen capabilities in the interpersonal and strategic dimensions of effective leadership. By completing the program in as few as 10 months, graduates rapidly develop advanced competencies in organizational culture development, communication strategies, conflict resolution and change management. These are essential skills that foster employee engagement and retention, in turn driving organizational success.
Learn more about Eastern Washington University’s online MS – Organizational Leadership program.
