In this blog post I will discuss the pros and cons of situational leadership. Furthermore, I will explain why NBA Coach Phil Jackson is considered one of the most successful NBA coaches of all time and his implementation of situational leadership. Situational Leadership is leadership that emphasis managing your style of leadership based on the strengths of the subordinates that are in place amongst the group, team or community. In Leadership: Theory and Practice, by Peter Northouse’s he describes the different types of leadership within the theory. Within this type of leadership style there are two types of leadership: Directive leadership is leadership that is more specific and is more about directing individuals to achieve specific goals amongst the group. For example if I am coaching a basketball team I may instruct the point guard to only pass the ball and not to take any shots if I believe passing to be the strength of that individual. The second type of leadership under that theory is supportive leadership. Supportive Leadership is leadership that emphasizes developing human relationships and supporting individuals given their task. Both of these types of leadership have different dimensions which are high and low.
Coaches tend to be high in directive and supportive leadership. This is in contrast to some of the other situational styles of leadership such as Directors whom are high in direction and low in terms of supporting. Directors tend to provide tasks for their subordinates to take and accomplish but do not provide much support to achieve those goals. In this style of leadership the burden is placed on the worker. Coaches in contrast tend to deliver very specific goals to their players but also have to be extremely supportive of their players individual needs to be successful. As the great Dallas Cowboys Coach Jimmy Johnson stated “I treat all of my players fairly but I do not treat them equally.” In this quote he was alluding to the fact that it is impossible to treat all of his players fairly and equally because individuals have different needs. This type of situational leadership- that is coaching, led Coach Johnson to be very successful and win back to back Superbowl’s with the youngest team in the NFL.
Phil Jackson coached NBA superstars Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neil. However, despite the amass talent level of these players they each had various personalities and qualms with their teammates that made it extremely difficult for them to be coached. Prior to Phil Jackson’s arrival as Coach of the Bulls and Coach of the Lakers none of the star players listed won any NBA championships. As the theory of Situational Leadership suggests leaders are supposed to act in a way that matches their follower’s levels of commitment and competence. This is the theories most controversial ten of emphasis. Primarily because it asks an individual to judge a person’s level of competence and commitment and categorize them.
Coach Phil Jackson was arguably the greatest at meeting the needs of his players. When coaching Michael Jordan he was aware that Jordan was known for working the hardest in the gym and often pushing his teammates beyond their level of commitment to achieve their goals. This indicated to Coach Jackson that Jordan as the textbook indicates is a D4 dimension type. This means that he has a high level of both competence and commitment. Accordingly, Phil Jackson could entrust Michael Jordan with a huge amount of responsibility. Similarly Kobe Bryant also shared these qualities and could also be viewed as a D4 dimension type. Kobe Bryant however was teammates with Shaquille O’Neil. Shaquille O’Neil is the type of player that could be viewed as a D3 dimension type. The D3 Dimension type indicates that an individual has moderate to high competence and a low commitment level. After joining the Lakers Coach Jackson stated that O’Neil had a low commitment level to basketball because of the amount of time he spent rapping and participating in movies and music videos. Phil Jackson as Shaq noted called him and told him that if he listened to him and stopped rapping he could be the league MVP. In 2000 Shaq was voted league MVP.
While Situational Leadership is not viewed to be perfect for a long time it was a dominant theory in leadership studies, situational leadership I have found is an accurate portrayal of human ability an individual success as a leader.
References:
Theory and Practice, Peter G. Northouse, Chapter 5 Situational Leadership, 6th edition, 2012
http://www.themarkofaleader.com/phil-jackson-zen-at-work/
I found your article very interesting. I enjoyed reading the way that you applied the situational approach to Phil Jackson. The situational approach does a great job at explaining his style of adapting to different situations and changing his type of leadership style to fit accordingly with those situations. Also in situational leadership it helps the leaders decide what behaviors to use with certain followers in particular situations (PSU WC, 2016). Phil Jackson also recognized the importance of being a leader, the players and the situation which is what the situational approach recognizes (PSU WC, 2016). He would adapt to each players commitment and skill as you showed with different types of players.
I thought I might add what style Phil Jackson used with each of these players according to their developmental levels. Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant were both developmental 4 types (D4) which means that coach, Phil Jackson had to intervene minimally by using delegation (PSU WC, 2016). This means that these two players were in charge of accomplishing their goals (PSU WC, 2016). Shaquille O’Neil is described as a developmental level 3 (D3) type which means that Phil used a supportive style (PSU WC, 2016). He did not focus on Shaquille’s goals but would allow Shaq to make his own decisions on what he spent his time on. As a coach Phil Jackson did a great job adapting to the needs of the players. Also we must remember that followers are on a developmental continuum and task difficulty does fluctuate (PSU WC, 2016). That means that the follower or in this case players, can move up and down the developmental levels which will require the leader or Phil Jackson, to change his leadership style to match.
References:
Theory and Practice, Peter G. Northouse, Chapter 5 Situational Leadership, 6th edition, 2012
Pennsylvania State University World Campus. (2016). PSYCH 485 Lesson 5: Style and situational approaches. Retrieved July 3, 2016 from https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/su16/psych485/001/content/05_lesson/03_topic/01_page.html.