Situational Leadership
Posted on April 02, 2024 by Martin Hahn, One of Thousands of Career Coaches on Noomii.
Paul Hersey and Kenneth Blanchard believed that a single best leadership style did not exist, and they developed the situational leadership model.
Leadership means setting the direction and inspiring and influencing others to work willingly toward achieving a firm’s objectives. Leadership can have both positive and negative effects in organizations. At its best, leadership inspires and motivates employees to work hard toward organizational objectives and helps the organization succeed. At its worst, leadership can reduce the performance of individual employees as well as the entire organization, and even result in unethical behavior and an organization’s demise.
Paul Hersey and Kenneth Blanchard believed that a single best leadership style did not exist, and they developed the situational leadership model to help leaders decide how to adapt their style to a given task or situation. They proposed that leader effectiveness requires successfully diagnosing where subordinates are on a readiness continuum.
Because subordinates move back and forth along this continuum, leaders have to adapt. The four leadership styles featured by Hersey and Blanchard are:
◗ Delegating: letting group members decide what to do.
◗ Participating: asking group members for input but making the final decision alone.
◗ Selling: making the decision alone but explaining to the group the reasons for the decision, then helping followers to complete the task by persuading them and providing opportunities to learn more about the task.
◗ Telling: making the decision and telling the group what to do.
◗ Delegating: letting followers make and implement decisions is appropriate when followers are able, willing, and confident. Delegating leaders delegate activities and enhance group effectiveness by providing support and resources and by encouraging autonomy.
◗ Participating: sharing decision-making responsibilities with followers, handling followers’ apprehensions and concerns when necessary, and focusing on results works best when followers are somewhat less ready to be led. Participating leaders work well when followers are able but are unwilling or insecure.
◗ Selling: explaining and clarifying decisions is appropriate when followers are even less ready to be led because they are unable but are willing or confident. Here, a leader must persuade followers to buy into the decisions, then the leader must check their understanding of the task, explain why certain actions are taken, encourage questions, and demonstrate how to do the task.
◗ Telling: providing clear directions and closely supervising performance works best when followers are relatively unprepared for the task. The leader provides specific instructions and close supervision and positively reinforces small improvements. Telling leaders work well when followers are unable and are unwilling or insecure.
