Late last week, my supervisor asked me to research meeting protocols and minute procedures. While doing so, I came across a recommended website called Your Office Coach.com. I gave the website a cursory overview and dismissed it for work; however, I retained the link so that I could review the site’s information on Leadership for this course. Over the weekend I was able to go back a review the site, and found some items that I thought might be of interest to the class. This blog will give a short overview of the site’s recommended style of leadership, Developmental Leadership, and how this style parallels the Situational approach to leadership as discussed in our studies.
According to Dr. Marie G. McIntyre, an organizational psychologist and founder of Your Office Coach.com, leadership should be a combination of styles that flexes to fit the needs of each follower. She notes that “successful managers are not locked into a single approach, but have learned to adapt their style to the needs and abilities of each employee” (McIntyre). Her recommendation is to follow something that she calls Developmental Leadership. This process balances the behavioral aspects of both Control and Engagement as the leader combines each in measure to achieve a difference leadership style. She notes that “by using different combinations of Control and Engagement behaviors, you can easily learn to shift your leadership style” (McIntyre). A basic listing of the Control and Engagement behaviors are listed as follows:
� Marie G. McIntyre
Knowing that these behaviors are often in contradiction with each other, Dr. McIntyre challenges managers and leaders to balance their behaviors into the following four leadership styles:
Dr. McIntyre believes that leaders should become familiar with each of these styles and should understand what their own comfort level is with each. Then she suggests using each employee’s level of Reliability to measure which style of leadership to use for each employee:
Dr. McIntyre feels that it is the leader’s role to coach their subordinates through the learning curve as they adjust to their role in the organization. She notes that this model allows for all employees at all levels of experience and hierarchy.
I was struck with the similarity of Dr. McIntyre’s recommended approach to leadership to Situational Leadership as described in our lesson. Not only does Developmental Leadership consist of four very similar categories of behavior (Directing, Coaching, Supporting, and Delegating), it also requires the leader to adjust his style of leadership to different followers and different situations – the same as the Situational Approach. Additionally, the Developmental style has the same strengths and weaknesses that the Situational approach does. The basic difference that I noticed between the Developmental style and the Situational approach was how to determine which style to use with which subordinate. Instead of using the Developmental Level to determine what type of leadership each subordinate needs as per the Situational Approach, the Developmental Style measures a subordinate’s reliability. Basically these are measuring the same traits in subordinates. This only measured difference I could see was the scoring chart that is used for the Developmental style. Utilizing a scoring chart to determine where an employee or follower falls to determine the type of leadership style one should use with them seems like an easy tool. However, I can see that this could be burdensome over time and could prove to be problematic from an HR legality standpoint.
While I found the Your Office Coach website to be interesting and to have some great tips, I did not feel that the recommended leadership style was all that different from the Situational Approach notated in our learning. I did find some of Dr. McIntyre’s information to be right on target and believe that I might return to her site for more ideas and tips later on in my career.
For more information on Dr. McIntyre’s services and advice: http://yourofficecoach.com
Have a Wonderful Thanksgiving- Cassandra
Works Referenced
McIntyre, Marie G. (n.d.). Developmental Leadership : Learning to Shift Your Style. Retrieved November 16, 2012, from Your Office Coach.com: http://yourofficecoach.com/Topics/developmental_leadership.htm
Northouse, Peter G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and Practice, 6th Ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
The Pennsylvania State University (2012). Lesson 5: Style and Situational Approaches. In the Pennsylvania State University, PSYCH 485: Leadership in Work Settings (pp. 1-16). State College, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press.