When you have a good leader on your team, you know it. You can feel it. They inspire you, instill confidence in your abilities, and you feel as though they care about you as a person not just a worker bee. They make it look easy.
In my past experiences I had the opportunity to manage a team of 35. These people were of various educational levels, different backgrounds, and varied in age. As a leader, there is no way that you can treat all of these individuals the same. Some would say that is not fair, how can you treat people differently and expect them to respect you for that? Easy, by using the situational approach of leadership and integrating that with the style approach.
The style approach of a leader is all about how a leader behaves (Northouse, 2012). This can either be a task oriented behavior, which focuses on getting the task at hand completed, or this can be a relationship oriented behavior, which focuses on the followers and the relationships between not only the leader and follower, but also on the followers relationships with one another as a team. The style approach does not mean that the leader is either one or the other, but it is the leader being able to recognize which type of style best suits him/her and use it to their advantage. So if, I’m the leader and I feel as though I’m very strong relationally with my followers, I need to be able to recognize that my short coming lies with the task oriented behavior. With that knowledge of myself, I will then to focus more on my task oriented behavior.
Blake and Mouton created the model of the Leadership Grid (Northouse, 2012). This grid basically has a y-axis measures the concern for people, so the relational style and the x-axis measures the concern for results, the task oriented style. Both axis’ go from 1, being low, to 9, being high. Where a leader falls within this grid is the indicator as to what they fall into as far as the styles of management as Blake and Mouton have defined in the illustration below.
Fig. A (“Managerial grid,” 2008)
Northouse (2012) states, ‘the style approach reminds leaders that their actions toward others occur on a task level and a relationship level.’ For a leader to understand where their style falls within this grid is important for them to know where exactly they, as a leader, need to be more focused and expend more effort in those areas in which they fall short.
Situational leadership comes into play when a leader does recognize where he or she may have strengtsh and weaknesses but goes a step further into also assessing their subordinates. Are the subordinates competent to do the job, willing and motivated to do the job, do they need support? These are the questions a leader must ask themselves about those that they lead. So back to the question raised of how can you treat everyone differently and still be fair? This is how. A leader cannot possibly treat everyone the same if everyone is at a different level. Blanchard and Blanchard developed what is known as the Situational Leadership Model (SLII) (Northouse, 2012).
Fig. 1 (“Situational leadership,” 2010)
The grid is divided into four sections: S1, S2, S3 and S4. These dictate which style is needed for which situation and for each subordinate. Those subordinates who are competent in the task presented to them may need a more supportive leader while those subordinates who are new to the job, may need to have the S2 type of leadership approach applied to them.
Situational leadership is actually more fair than treating everyone the same because each individual on the team has a leader that is adapting to their skill set and their level of competence of the task at hand. Even the same individual can be lead differently based upon the task at hand.
So is leadership a situational style? I say, yes it is.
REFERENCES
Northouse, P. G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and Practice (6th edition). Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications.
(2008). Managerial grid. (2008). [Web Graphic]. Retrieved from http://www.shkaminski.com/Classes/images/Managerial Grid.gif
(2010). Situational leadership. (2010). [Web Graphic]. Retrieved from http://elmundopequeno.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/situational_leadership.jpg
SHAUN MILLER says
Adding a personal touch to leadership can make all the difference. As you mentioned, subordinates know when they have a good leader. They can feel it. These intuitions are based on our feelings. A leader’s ability to connect with his or her subordinates is important. Although understanding feelings may not be a requirement of the job, in the end it may prove more effective. Also, this style seems to be more natural to us as we understand socializing and compromise. Northouse (2013) explains that situational leadership is practical, easy to understand, intuitively sensible, and easily applied.
Bringing in your own experience as a leader was a good illustration of situational leadership. The explanation of treating different people the same was well stated. Situational leadership is designed to treat each subordinate differently with a goal of helping the subordinate become successful (Northouse, 2013). It would seem that leaders, at some point, would apply situation leadership simply considering that some subordinates need to be coached while others need to be delegated. Alternatively, leading a team of 35 people, as you did, I imagine is quite difficult with one style. However, managing many styles must also be challenging. It seems that once you commit to situational leadership one must always apply that same approach.
References
Northouse, P. G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and Practice (Sixth ed.). Los Angeles: Sage Publications, Inc.
SHAUN MILLER says
Adding a personal touch to leadership can make all the difference. As you mentioned, subordinates know when they have a good leader. They can feel it. These intuitions are based on our feelings. A leader’s ability to connect with his or her subordinates is important. Although understand feelings may not be a requirement of the job, in the end it may prove more effective. Also, this style seems to be more natural to us as we understand socializing and compromise. Northouse (2013) explains that situational leadership is practical, easy to understand, intuitively sensible, and easily applied.
Bringing in your own experience as a leader was a good illustration of situational leadership. The explanation of treating different people the same was well stated. Situational leadership is designed to treat each subordinate differently with a goal of helping the subordinate become successful (Northouse, 2013). It would seem that leaders, at some point, would apply situation leadership simply considering that some subordinates need to be coached while others need to be delegated. Alternatively, leading a team of 35 people, as you did, I imagine is quite difficult with one style. However, managing many styles must also be challenging. It seems that once you commit to situational leadership one must always apply that same approach.
References
Northouse, P. G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and Practice (Sixth ed.). Los Angeles: Sage Publications, Inc.