4 Fundamentals of Situational Leadership

By Rohant Zalani for TurnedTwenty

Jack Stahl, former chief executive at Coca-Cola and Revlon, mentioned an experience with one of his predecessors Doug Ivester in one of his interviews. 

Ivester asked him to work on a team project with a rigid deadline. The task was to prepare a prospectus for the public offering of Coca-Cola’s bottling division. When Ivester asked for a review, the draft was far more incomplete than what Stahl expected. Even the new company’s phone number was missing from the first page.

The reason?

Stahl had assigned some parts of the project to his subordinates without sufficient supervision. He realized he needs to balance between high-level management and getting into the details when necessary.

That’s what you need to do as a situational leader. You need to adjust yourself according to the requirements of the business scenario, and the experience and competency level of your subordinates. 

Before we discuss why this is the most effective leadership style, let’s first get into its nitty-gritty.  

Fundamentals of Situational leadership:

Previously known as ‘the life cycle theory of leadership,’ situational leadership has been developed by Kenneth Blanchard and Paul Hersey.  

It refers to your ability to adjust your leadership style to fit the development level of your employees. With this type of leadership, your subordinates need not adapt to your style. On the contrary, you adjust yourself according to their needs.

In the current times, with teams across the corporate world having a blend of heterogeneous professionals from varied backgrounds and work experiences, situational leadership is the most effective leadership style. 

The situational leadership theory divides leadership styles into four types, which are to be used depending on the maturity level of your employees. As explained in the figure below, they are directing(S1), coaching(S2), supporting(S3), and delegating(S4) corresponding to the development level of your employees, which includes their competence and commitment, from D1 to D4 respectively.

Let’s discuss these styles one by one:

Directing:

In this type of situational leadership style, you call all the shots: You tell people what, why, when, and how to do things. Your behavior has to be highly commanding and need not be as supportive. This style is close to autocratic leadership. 

While exhibiting directing style in a typical corporate set-up, you need to use micromanagement techniques to get into the details of every task and assignment. You have to delve into the specifics of every piece of work and make sure your subordinates complete it as expected. 

You can map this style with the D1 level of employees. They possess low task competence and high commitment, and hence need clear instructions and guidance. When you use directing leadership style, you develop the proficiency of your employees by providing them with precise directions.

Coaching:

When your subordinates have gained a certain minimum competency level, you need to exhibit the coaching style of situational leadership. In this methodology, you have to be highly directive and supportive of your employees.

You need to help your team members to improve their skills and look to build a relationship of trust with them to develop a team. To attain this, you should make decisions after a discussion with your team members and let them know the reasoning behind the final resolution.

For instance, you can have a team meeting to discuss the status of tasks and also to make crucial decisions for the team collaboratively. 

You can map this style with the D2 level of employees. They possess some task competence but are low on commitment. Hence, not only do you need to give clear instructions and guidance but also provide them with encouragement and support.

Supporting:

You need to use the supporting style of leadership when your team members are good at task competencies but are not consistent in performance. Since, at this stage, they already have the necessary skills to complete their work, you need not go for a commanding approach.

Your primary focus in this style has to be relationship building with your employees and their inclusion in important decisions. This style is close to democratic style of leadership. You need to give your team the liberty to accomplish tasks on their own and not get into the details of every assignment.

This style is suitable for employees at the D3 level. They have all the necessary skill sets to deliver their piece of work; however, their commitment is not consistent. You need to handle them by giving them more autonomy and greater scope to develop self-leadership.

Delegating:

When you have a team of highly competent and self-motivated individuals, your job is to monitor progress and be a part of important decisions. You need to focus on neither supportive nor directive behavior. Instead, your focus should be on high-level goals and on providing opportunities for growth to employees.

This style is close to a laissez-faire style of leadership. You can take a hands-off approach and delegate work. Your employees can create plans and attain goals on their own. However, you need to make sure employees regularly update you on the tasks they perform. The delegating stage of situational leadership helps you develop future leaders.

As described, the employees with whom you can use delegating leadership style are high on competence as well as commitment; they are the D4 level of employees. They are motivated, competent, and confident.

How does the cycle of situational leadership benefit your organization?

If you get a team or individuals at D1 level of employee maturity, you can follow all the steps from S1 to S4 as described to develop individuals of D4 level. In other words, at the end of the situational leadership cycle, you are able to generate employees with very strong skills and commitment.

Have a look at the following video on situational leadership to understand the facets of this leadership style further: 

Situational leadership, due to various reasons, can help you become a better leader. I have boiled down to four broad reasons why situational leaders are bound to be successful. Following is a description of them one by one.