Situational Leadership Theory (SLT) has many benefits for leaders within any organization. For example, SLT is practical for organizations that groom leaders from within (Northouse, 2010). For practicing leaders to understand the practicality of SLT, it is important to complete Hersey and Blanchard’s self-assessment to understand where they fall on the four-quadrant leadership framework. I personally completed a self-assessment to determine my leadership style. After completing the assessment, I give a synopsis of my self-assessment, I apply the leadership style, I evaluate the benefits/challenges, and I provide a summary of the entire process.
After taking an assessment adapted from Hersey and Blanchard (link to self-assessment: https://www.learninganddevelopment.org/Resources/Leadership-Videos/Learning-Stages/Pre-Work/Situational-Leadership-Self-Assessment), I gained a better understanding of my leadership style. According to the assessment, I cannot differentiate between how to lead people by joining them to arrive at a solution or by selling what followers need to accomplish. On the other hand, on the Hersey and Blanchard survey, I scored seven points in the Participating (Facilitating) style of leadership followed by three points in Selling (Coaching) style. Based on the two assessments, I relate best with the Participating (Facilitating) style of leadership. I completely agree with the results of the assessment, for example, I focuses on finding why people are not committed to the organization by listening to their concerns and opinions.
Table 1: Adapted from Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership Theory.
Leading a change initiative is an extensive process. However, the Participating leadership style is an ideal style for a leader who is leading a change effort. For example, based on the characteristics of the Participating style, I focus on gathering information by actively listening to employees and staff. In order change or a reform effort to be successful, a leader will need to actively listen to the needs of employees and staff. More specifically, a leader needs to gather important feedback for changing a process or procedures within an organization. In addition, if employees lack commitment or show signs of apprehension, then a leader will need to find the root causes for why employees and staff are not committed. Once the leader finds why employees and staff are uncommitted, a leader needs to persuade and motivate the staff to cooperate with the change or reform effort. Most importantly, a leader needs to focus on the staff’s high level of competence. Furthermore, a leader needs to motivate their staff if they are unwilling to commit to the overall mission and vision of the school, which should ultimately lead to decisions that are in the best interests of the organization.
Based on the four Quadrants in Hersey and Blanchard’s adapted model (Table 1), I am considered a S3 or Participating leadership style. In order for a change or reform effort to be effectively implemented, it is important to understand how long each employee or staff member have been part of the organization. In addition, it is extremely important to understand how long each employee has been in the profession. Knowing how long employees and staff have been employed will indicate the staff’s level of competence. If employees are seasoned veterans, then the S3 style will complement these highly competent and experienced employees. The focus of the change or reform plan will depend on an employee’s commitment and willingness to change the status quo. A leader will need to open dialogue with the staff and research why they are apprehensive to change. Once a leader finds why the staff are hesitant about change, they will need to persuade or motivate them by asking, how do you feel about the organization not performing up to expectations? What are some causes for not perform? How can we increase our performance? What is preventing us from perform better? It is also important to involve the staff in reviewing, developing and implementing the new change or reform initiative. In doing so, the staff are invested in implementing the reform plan by providing their input and having a voice in the decision-making processes. Staff voice is an extremely important component to change. If staff don’t provide input, their experience is not being validate or utilized. Having staff partake in the implementation process will convey to them that they play a significant role in the operation of the organization, essentially, a leader is validating staff as professionals.
When evaluating the components of the S3 (Participating) leadership style, there are numerous communication challenges. For example, an S3 leader places minimal focus on tasks, which is contrary to implementing a reform plan. Little (1989) commented that to ensure that a reform plan is effectively implemented, employee’s tasks need to be clearly defined, explicitly stated, and not trivial. Therefore, in order for a reform plan to be effectively implemented, there needs to be a higher level of focus on tasks than what the S3 leadership style provides. More specifically, a leader will need to couple a low task focus with the high task focus of the S2 (Coaching) leadership style. Balancing the high and low task focus of the S2 and S3 leadership styles will provide optimal involvement. Most importantly, the S3 leadership style lacks the commitment from both the leader and followers to effectively implement the needed organizational changes. For example, if the followers are uncommitted, then they will feel like the reform plan is forced on them.
The benefits and challenges of situational leadership are based on the limitations of the theoretical framework. For example, the main benefit of SLT is that the theory is not a one size fits all leadership approach. The theory takes into account different types of leaders and also different levels of follower development. On the other hand, the challenges of the SLT are based on the nuances of the framework. For instance, a leader who goes into an organization thinking their followers should adjust to their style of leadership will face major challenges and flat out resistance. The theory is based on leaders adjusting to the readiness of their followers and the dynamics of the organization.
After evaluating SLT more in depth and applying the theory to a real-world situation, it is important understand that the benefits of the theory out weight the challenges. SLT takes into account different variables (leadership style, readiness of followers, and the situation), which makes this theory appealing. Therefore, even though the assessment results indicate that utilizing the Practicing (Facilitating) leadership style, a leader needs to account for the developmental and motivational levels of employees.
Reference
Little, J. W. (1989). Assessing the prospects for teacher leadership. In A. Lieberman
(Ed.), Building a professional culture in schools (pp. 78-106). New York:
Teachers College Press.
Northouse, P. G. (2010). Leadership: Theory and practice (5th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA:
Sage Publications, Inc. ISBN-13: 9780470294376.