Can Your Leadership Style Beat Out the Situation?
Why Being Able to Adjust Your Leadership Style to the Situation Can Make You a More Effective Leader
While many can agree that a leader’s specific style can affect the performance of their team, after all I know I’m less inclined to go above and beyond for a leader who never takes my suggestions or concerns under consideration (Autocratic Leadership), there is an even stronger correlation between adjusting those styles to fit the situation (situational leadership) and leadership effectiveness.
Situational leadership is a leadership style developed by Kenneth Blanchard and Paul Hersey and is based on the 3-D Management Style Theory. The Situational approach focuses on the situation and the follower, as well as the leader themselves. Situational leadership is when a leader adjusts his style, becoming more or less directive or supportive, in order to fit the demands of the situation and the development level of the followers he or she is trying to influence.
The Situational approach is considered to be the most effective because it doesn’t focus on just one style of leadership. Because it takes into account the leader, follower, and situation as a whole, it is always adjusting, focusing on leader flexibility. The Situational Leadership approach gives leaders a simple and clear process for determining which leadership style to implement based on the employee and situation, reminding leaders to treat each subordinate differently based on the task at hand. Because employees receive individualized attention, support, and direction, they tend to feel empowered and respected as a result, ideally becoming more loyal and engaged workers.
While truthfully there is no one best style of leadership, the leader who can adapt their leadership style to the individual or group they are attempting to lead or influence and the task or situation at hand, will be more effective.
References
Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: theory and practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.
Canvas learning management system. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2040131/modules/items/28001725
TikuFollowHead, L. K., TikuHead, L. K., Tech Mahindra Business Process Services (Enterprise & Service Desk, & Tech Mahindra Business Process Services (Enterprise & Service Desk. (n.d.). Situational Leader – The All Rounder. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/situational-leader-all-rounder-leela-krishen-tiku-1
Becker, B. (n.d.). The 8 Most Common Leadership Styles & How to Find Your Own. Retrieved from https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/leadership-styles
hxu5004 says
Kenneth Blanchard developed the situational leadership II model to illustrate this method of leadership. The model emphasizes that leadership is made up of two dimensions, supportive and directive (Northouse, 2016). Each situation requires the appropriate application of each dimension. Leaders should understand that the follower’s motivation and skills change with time; therefore, their leadership should be flexible to adapt to those situations. Therefore, effective leadership entails the understanding of the changing needs of the followers and working towards meeting the needs. The model comprises the leadership style dimension and the development level dimension (Northouse, 2016).
In the leadership style dimension, the leader shows both directive and supportive behaviors (Northouse, 2016). Directive behavior is meant to give directions on what is to be done, who is to do it, and the timeline within which tasks must get completed. Often one-way communication is preferred in order to ensure clarity of all information. Supportive behavior entails being committed to the comfort of the followers. It involves two-way communication to offer an opportunity for interaction with the followers (Northouse, 2016). Employees feel motivated when the leaders involve their opinions towards solving particular problems. Therefore supportive behavior helps bridge a gap between the leaders and followers since followers feel they are important and are part of the system.
Leadership style is classified further into four distinct styles S1, S2, S3, and S4 (Northouse, 2016). Style S1 is the directing style, which is a high directive-low supportive style. In this style, the leaders focus much on giving directions and offer little support to the followers. A lot of instruction and supervision is done under this style. Style S2 is a coaching style that is a high directive and supportive style (Mulder, n.d.). Leaders use communication to attain goals as well as meet the needs of their followers. In S3, leaders focus on bringing out the followers’ skills for the accomplishment of the goals. The leader is supportive and gives little directions to the followers. Style S4 is a delegating approach style. Here leaders offer little support to the followers and lessen their involvement in the clarification of goals (Mulder, n.d.).
This is the second part of the model. According to Blanchard, the development level is the degree to which followers are competent in order to be able to accomplish given tasks satisfactorily. To attain competence in a particular task, one needs to have the necessary skills and a positive attitude towards the task at hand (Northouse, 2016). In this model, confident and interested followers are considered to be at high development level while those that lack the necessary skills to accomplish assigned tasks but have the will and confidence to face the challenge are considered to be at the developing level (Northouse, 2016).
Followers are categorized into four groups; D1, D2, D3, and D4, according to their development level. D1 followers are followers without the skill to accomplish a given task but have the will to face the challenge (Cherry, 2019). D2 followers have some competence on the task but lack commitment towards it. They have learned on the job but have lost some motivation along the way. The competence of D3 followers ranges from moderate to high. However, their commitment towards the task varies since they do not believe in themselves towards accomplishing certain tasks. The D4 followers are highly skilled, have the highest commitment and motivation to getting assignments done (Cherry, 2019). All leaders thereby need to understand the type of followers they have in order to employ the right leadership at the right time.
Further comments:
i. Effective leadership entails adjusting styles to fit situations. Situational leadership entails employing different styles of leadership in different situations in order to get things done in an organization setting.
ii. Many employees are more than willing to work in environments where their voices are heard, and their views are taken into account. It is no doubt that situational leadership ensures that support is accorded to employees for their comfortability.
iii. Situation leadership is a more flexible approach to leadership. Being flexible as a leader is a key to the success of any business. Situation leadership is the way to go!
References:
Cherry, K. (2019). Why the Most Effective Leaders Know How to Adapt to the Situation. Verywell Mind. Retrieved 22 February 2020, from https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-the-situational-theory-of-leadership-2795321.
Mulder, P. Situational Leadership Model, develop your leadership styles | ToolsHero. toolshero. Retrieved 22 February 2020, from https://www.toolshero.com/leadership/situational-leadership-hersey-blanchard/.
Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: theory and practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.
klh333 says
Well written! I interpreted several commonalities between situational, Fiedler’s contingency, and path-goal theories. Each takes into consideration components of the situation, the leader, and the follower to provide a more holistic leadership model. I agree that the adaptability of a leader is huge contributing factor to their own success. As I mentioned in a previous post, no leader automatically became a top tier leader at the beginning of their employment career. Each leader has to learn and often times, that unfortunately comes by way of trial and error. We go through situations where we are as unsure as our followers are but because we are the leaders, we are looked to for answers. Whether those answers are correct for the situation or the follower at that time, is unknown, but we make the decisions and forge ahead. Once we come out of those situations we reflect on the results of our decisions and whether or not we should alter those actions should we encounter that situation in the future. That depicts a leaders adaptability and the ability to tailor their approach to the situation and their followers. While this may be a bold statement, I do not think any leader can be successful if they are incapable of adapting and catering to the situation or their followers. No one individual is the same. We do not learn the same, behave the same, or think the same. In order to have the most success as a leader, I am in full agreement with you, the leader must be able to adapt under many situations with many people in order to truly be successful.