Improve Your Leadership Skills with Situational Leadership Theory
(approx four minute read)
Situational Leadership theory is about tailoring your style to the needs of an individual in any given moment. We summarise the four leadership styles that make up the theory - and outline five benefits.
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“The problem today is we’ve got thousands of people across the country being put into leadership or management positions and they’ve had absolutely no formal training,” says Simon Moran, a culture change consultant who has worked for 30 years helping to make people, teams and organisations work better together.
“It’s absolutely the responsibility of an organisation to make sure any new manager or leader is given some sort of training.”
One theory of leadership that Moran thinks every leader should know is Situational Leadership, which was founded by behavioural scientist Dr Paul Hersey in the 1960s.
Improve Your Leadership Skills with Situational Leadership Theory
The Situational Leadership Model was proposed by Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard in 1996 as a way to guide leaders to more effective leadership.
According to the website The Centre for Leadership Studies, Situational Leadership is a ‘flexible framework that enables leaders to tailor their approach to the needs of their team or individual members. Unlike other leadership models, Situational Leadership recognises that there is no one-size-fits-all approach, allowing leaders to adapt their behaviours to suit the unique needs of each situation.’
https://selfawareness.org.uk/2022/10/22/situational-leadership-and-developing-great-teams/
Four Key Leadership Styles Explained
1. Directing: This management style is all about telling telling telling. Stay close to your team member, give them clear structure, guidance and, ultimately, the answers. This style is intended to be a short term approach, though.
2. Coaching: The leader still makes the decisions but there’s more of an explanation around why a decision has been made or a direction taken. It’s a bit more two-way. This approach works when a team member has a reasonable handle on what is going on.
3. Supporting: In this leadership style it’s over to your team member here to make the decisions. A leader’s job is to encourage autonomy and empower. This style is spot on when people really know their stuff and have the confidence to carry out tasks independently.
4. Delegating: Leaders provide minimal direction and oversight, entrusting their team / individual to take responsibility. This stage is all about fostering a sense of ownership and accountability. Like the supporting style, only adopt delegating when people know their stuff.
Want to read more about leadership? Then read our article titled: The 12 things I learnt in 20 years of training and coaching the best - and worst - leaders.
Benefits of Adopting Situational Leadership
1. Makes a leader a better leader: “It puts an emphasis on a leader being adaptable, which any good leader should be,” says Moran. “Every human has differing needs and no single situation is ever the same. An efficient leader that can be adaptable has got a better chance of responding to a variety of situations. I’d put good money on the leader becoming a better leader if they adopt Situational Leadership.”
2. Improved team performance and staff development: “As a leader, if you’re able to identify what style you need to implement in any given task you’re more likely to get the answer back you want,” says Moran. “That then gives an opportunity to provide positive feedback which in turn enhances motivation, builds trust and will lead to improved performance. It’s also a style that lends itself to focus on training and development on a team.”
3. Creates a culture of empowerment and autonomy: “Situational Leadership can often create a more collaborative environment because team members feel valued or empowered to contribute,” says Moran.
4. A more efficient team: “A good leader recognises they might need to adopt the four styles with the same person on the same day for four different tasks,” says Moran. “Where leaders can fall down is when they’ve worked with someone for a period of time. Let’s say you’ve worked with someone for five years, you give them tasks they’re comfortable with and they simply go off and get it done. Then you give them a task they’ve never done before but expect them to deliver it to the same standard. Your team member might spend ages trying to deliver the task but return it in a way you weren’t expecting or hoping. Then they have to go and repeat the task or you might end up taking it on yourself, this is inefficient.”
5. A happier team or individual: “If you’re adapting and tailoring your style to each team member and every given situation, you’ll undoubtedly have better work outcomes which will lead to a happier team or individual,” explains Moran.
“Companies should without doubt be making their staff aware of Situational Leadership theory and encourage them to learn and adopt the approach.”