Flexing Your #Leadership Style to Achieve Results & Develop #Capability

This post explores situational leadership and builds on Part 1 "Leadership Styles - Which Are You?" Part 2 of our leadership series explores how and when to use some of these leadership styles.  

Don't get trapped in one leadership style - branch out and flex your style

What is Situational Leadership?

Situational leadership theory was developed by Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard in the 1970’s, entitled "Life Cycle Theory of Leadership” and is often known as Hersey and Blanchard’s situational leadership. The following blog post is based on their research.

So what is it all about?

• In a nutshell Hersey & Blanchard believed that successful leaders are flexible and adapt their leadership style according to the “development maturity” of the individual or group they are leading. 
• Leadership approach also varies according to the task that needs to be accomplished. 
• They identified four leadership styles and four development maturity levels.

Leadership Styles:

They identified four main leadership behaviours:

• L1: Telling/Directing - is characterised by one-way communication in which the leader defines the roles of the individual or group and provides the what, how, why, when and where to do the task.

• L2: Selling/Coaching - while the leader is still providing the direction, he or she is now using two-way communication and providing the required support to ensure engagement and buy-in.

• L3: Participating/Supporting - shared decision-making about how the task is to be accomplished, less task focused and more relationship based.

• L4: Delegating - the leader is still involved in the decision making and monitors progress, but passes the responsibility for delivery to the individual or group.

Development Maturity levels:

• In summary there are 4 development maturity levels D1 – D4, as described below. 
• Development maturity levels are also task-specific, in that an individual might be skilled, confident and motivated in their job (D4), but could have a development maturity level of D1 when asked to perform a task requiring skills and competencies they don’t yet have. 

High	Moderate		Low
D4	D3	D2	D1
Very capable and confident:	Capable but unwilling:	Unable but willing:	Unable and insecure:
·  They are experienced at the task, with high confidence and strong skills. They are comfortable with their own ability to do it well. ·   They are able and willing to not only do the task, but to take responsibility for the task. ·  They are capable of working autonomously	· They are experienced and able to do the task but lack the confidence or the willingness to take on responsibility.	·    They are unable to take on responsibility for the task. ·    However, they are willing to work at the task but don’t have the skills to complete it successfully. ·    They are a novice but enthusiastic.	·  They still lack the specific knowledge, skills or confidence required for the task. ·  They are unable and unwilling to do or to take responsibility for the task. ("The honeymoon is over") ·  They often need to be pushed to take the task on
Most appropriate leadership style to adopt
Delegating	Participating/Supporting	Selling/Coaching	Telling/Directing

Examples to illustrate the point:

Example 1 – Not tailoring your leadership style to match the development maturity of your team:

You are asked to take on new responsibilities, to ensure a business critical project delivers on time. In the short-term your work will be covered by an experienced development maturity (D4) level colleague. He or she is very capable, confident and motivated and relishes the stretch and challenge that covering your portfolio will provide.

However you have high control needs and so provide your colleague with detailed “to do” lists and instructions, in-line with someone of development maturity level D1 capability. You behave in the L1 Telling/Directing leadership style, when what is actually required is the L4 Delegating leadership style.

Outcome:

The work gets completed to the required standard but your colleague does not feel trusted, respected or empowered. Your working relationship suffers and what was previously a high relationship approach now deteriorates

Example 2 – Effective flexing of your leadership style to develop capability in others:

You are promoted to a managerial position, which involves leading and managing a new team. The team is highly motivated and broadly capable (in line with D3 capability). You are reassured that they appear to have the required inherent capability, but sometimes lack the confidence to deliver.  

You decide to flex your leadership style and adopt the L3 Participating/Supporting leadership style. You coach the team through the business objectives, building a relationship with them and allowing them to participate in the decision making process.

Outcome:

The team relationship with you continues to grow and strengthen, business goals are successfully delivered and achieved. Your team is developed through your coaching approach and you build a culture of collaborative working. You are recognised as valuing the opinions of your team.