Four Basic Leadership Styles Used by Situational Managers

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A Term Paper
Presented to

Dr. Sergio P. Revuelta

Mindanao State University
General Santos City

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In Partial Fulfilment of the

Requirements for the Course Education 302
Ecology of Educational Administration

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by :

EVELYN FE E. SANORIA
PhD in Educational Management

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December 19, 2015

 Introduction

Effective leadership is essential to an organization's success. Leaders communicate the

company message, delegate work assignments and motivate workers. Leadership styles depend on

a manager's personality.

Different leadership styles can be effective given the particular challenges being faced and

particular needs of the people involved. Instead of selecting one leadership style, effective leaders

are able to move among styles, selecting the one that is required in the moment.

Traditionally, effective Leadership Styles were thought of being “a one size fits all”

approach: that any Manager could pick the best off the shelf model and mirror this to create

successful leadership results.

The fundamental underpinning of the situational leadership theory is that there is no single

"best" style of leadership. Effective leadership is task-relevant, and the most successful leaders are

those who adapt their leadership style to the maturity ("the capacity to set high but attainable goals,

willingness and ability to take responsibility for the task, and relevant education and/or experience

of an individual or a group for the task") of the individual or group they are attempting to lead or

influence. Effective leadership varies, not only with the person or group that is being influenced,

but it also depends on the task, job or function that needs to be accomplished.
 Four Basic Leadership Styles Used by Situational Managers

Situational leadership is a theory developed in 1969 by Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard.

Situational leadership is a theory of leadership that is part of a group of theories known as

contingency theories of leadership. Generally speaking, contingency theories of leadership hold

that a leader's effectiveness is related to the leader's traits or behaviors in relation to differing

situational factors. According to situational leadership theory, a leader's effectiveness is contingent

on his ability to modify his management behavior to the level of his subordinates' maturity or

sophistication.

Four Basic Styles of Situational Leadership

True leaders have the innate ability to motivate staff to achieve better results. Some people

come to work every day, do their job and then go home. Their heart isn’t really in it, but they need

the money, so they see their job simply as a means to an end—money. As a result, they do the bare

minimum to get by, and their work—and the customer service—suffers.

Situational leaders adjust their leadership style according to the behavior and skill level of

the employees. The style a leader uses under situational leadership is based upon combining levels

of directive behavior and supportive behavior. You can think of directive behavior as an order and

supportive behavior as providing support or guidance.

Coaching

Coaching is a type of situational leadership style that involves a great deal of "hands-on"

involvement in an employee's work process. According to Money-Zine.com, coaching is most

beneficial when the employee displays weaknesses that need improvement. For coaching to be

effective, the employee must acknowledge the weakness and indicate a desire to improve. An

example of coaching is when a sales manager spends time on the road making calls with a

struggling salesperson in an effort to improve her performance.

Directing

The directing leadership style typically involves taking over a challenging situation and

applying specific knowledge and experience to right the ship. A directing-type manager will

establish clear goals and objectives for his work area as well as his staff, although staff members

have some latitude as to the process used to meet the goals.

Delegating

The delegating style places more of the responsibility on the shoulders of the workers as

opposed to the managers. The manager is able to provide guidance, but only when needed or

requested by the employees, and serves in more of a consultant capacity. This style is most

effective with an experienced staff that can work independently. It also allows for maximum

creativity in how employees choose to go about accomplishing a task.

Although the leader will still monitor task- and organizational-progress, he or she will pass

much of the responsibility for the execution and completion of the established goals onto the

individual subordinates or dedicated work groups. By delegating, the leader is usually less

involved with decisions and is therefore able to focus on the work and achievements of

subordinates, as seen commonly in the freedom given to tenured professors who are allowed to
teach in the manner they believe is most effective while being monitored by a dean or department

head.

Supporting Style

In the supporting style, the leader plays more of a motivational role. Her main function is

to attempt to instill confidence in the workers so they eventually become more self-sufficient and

productive. This method is often referred to as a "selling" style because the manager attempts to

persuade the employees that they have the ability to perform the job. This style typically involves

the assigning of tasks by the manager while providing support as needed. Leader attempts to

convince the group of that the leader should lead by providing social and emotional support to the

individual being convinced. There is two-way communication, but it is clear that the leader is

leading.

Advantages

One of the advantages of these styles is makes it easy to apply. The theory has simple scales

that a leader can use to give a "thumb in the wind" assessment of what leadership style to use and

maturity and competence of the group are often overlooked factors in good leadership and it helps

to focus on these.

Disadvantages

The theory may not be applicable to managers as administrators or those with limited

power but in structurally in a leadership position. There are also situations in which the theory may
be less applicable such as those involving time constraints and task complexity. Sometimes, testing

of the theory doesn't seem to bear out the predictions.

More specifically, situational leaders have to maintain an acute awareness of their innate

leadership-related strengths and areas for development – critical skill sets in working in high-

performing organizations; conduct highly effective coaching conversations by understanding

when a particular leadership style has a high probability of success and when it does not; skillfully

influence up, down and across the organization by knowing when to be “consistent” and when to

be “flexible”; create more productive teams/organizations by accelerating the development of

individuals that are new to their role and/or are learning a new task; develop engaged, committed

employees by effectively recognizing and proactively addressing the dynamics of performance

regression; and effectively drive behavior change and business results by communicating through

a common, practical language of leadership.

 Conclusion

The core foundation of the Situational Leadership Model is the belief that there is no single

“best” approach to leadership. Instead, effective leadership is viewed as task-relevant. Therefore,

the most successful leaders are the ones who are able to adapt their leadership styles across a broad

range of varying maturity levels readily present within the average organization. Also factoring

into the choice for leadership style are the individual employees’ willingness and ability to take

responsibility for the task as well as their applicable education and experience.

There may not be a way of assessing accurately competence or maturity of a group,

especially is there is a time limitation. "Unfortunately, no absolute standard of readiness or

maturity exists. Therefore, standardization is needed in order to clarify which subordinate

populations should be considered 'ready' and which should not. There always, too, is the

misjudgment of the leader, especially when there is urgency or task complexity involved. Another

issue is context and dynamism. Willingness to do a task may change, and an initial judgment may

be erroneous later. The scales are subjective, and context free.

I came up with the conclusion that contingency leadership is more effective. In order to

manage a dynamic environment, a leader must adjust and adapt to suit their surroundings. Effective

leaders need to be flexible, and must adapt themselves according to the situation. Effective

leadership rely on the ability of a manager to understand the situation and his/her environment,

including employees’ culture in order to achieve the company’s objective/goal, to keep the team

together and focus on the individuals and manage them for optimum team performance.
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