Why is situational leadership important

When an employee or teammate is learning something new, the best leadership for them will be highly directive. This experience of failure or inadequacy, coupled with only marginally increased competence, can be incredibly deflating.

As a person is confronted with the shortcomings in their proficiency, the natural reaction is to become discouraged. The critical mistake leaders make in this stage is to think that because the person has been working at a skill that they no longer need direction. However, this is actually the stage where highly directive behavior is most important.

At this level, the employee starts to turn a corner. As their competence increases, often people will start to move out of that low-commitment funk. The leader makes decisions and directs the team or team members to their roles.

This can include providing instructions to novice team members or taking charge in an emergency. Selling S2 — Selling, or persuading , is useful when a team or team member has some competence or when they are unmotivated. Leaders using this style may help team members develop or improve their skills. This style can also encourage buy-in to a larger vision. Participating S3 — Participating, or sharing, is useful when a team or team member has the competence required to participate in planning and decision-making.

Leaders adopt a more democratic leadership style, letting their teams make decisions in their areas of expertise. Delegating S4 — Delegating is useful when a team or team member has a high level of competence and is self-motivated. Leaders leveraging this style will:. These situational leadership styles are most effective when paired with one of the four developmental levels of team members:. These are developing team members who may not yet have the specific skill set required for a task, but they have a high level of commitment.

This might call for a more directive style S1 in which the leader tells the employee what to do, how, and when to do it. What can help? Connect them to more experienced peers and side-by-side coaching to speed up skills development. These are team members who may have some skills but not at the level required to be successful in performing a task. This often calls for a leadership style where the leader coaches team members in problem-solving and engages them in the process S2.

Show commitment by recognizing their specific contributions and supporting their development needs. These developed team members are highly skilled and sometimes have more expertise than the leader in their field. However, they may be experiencing a lack of drive or confidence around performing a particular task. The most appropriate leadership style to use here is one that supports team members and encourages participation S3. The skills and knowledge of the team can be applied to the challenge at hand.

These developed team members are highly skilled, often more so than the leader, and they have a high level of motivation and commitment. The leadership style that best supports this situation is delegation S4.

The leader empowers team members to work independently toward achieving agreed-upon goals. Share more about organizational goals so team members can make more informed decisions. Situational leadership requires leaders to have multiple leadership styles and move among them. Being able to provide a direction for an organization and answer the questions team members have is a very important responsibility of a leader.

Path-Goal Theory Path-Goal Theory is considered the most comprehensive and generally useful situational model of leadership. They are to determine the employee and environmental characteristics, select a leadership style, and focus on motivational factors that will help the employee succeed. The expectations, behaviours, and thought process of these employees differ and can dictate the way they in which they perceive situations e. As mentioned earlier, organisational culture is an assumption pertaining to behaviour.

This implies not only to the employees but also to the leaders within the organisation as it determines the style of leadership they incorporate e.

Leaders have to be able to contribute to the role of leader and to the people their leading. Building a Foundation Leaders are the foundation of the company and their decisions affect everyone within the organization. If the foundation is weak, usually this means that the leadership…. Task-oriented leaders are more focusing on the structure of the organization, the management of the organizational procedures as well as performance.

With this leadership style, leaders still take the people element into consideration but it is not their priority. With this leadership style, leaders are usually concentrate on activities like organizing, initiating, clarifying and information gathering.

In contrast, people-oriented leaders will prioritize the relationship within the team. They will focus on their behaviors to ensure the effective communication as well as the level of satisfaction of the team members. Managers control, plan, and organize. As a situational leader, you gain the capacity to display multifaceted leadership principles depending on the needs of your business. The corporate environment comprises of a blend of experienced experts and budding millennial professionals.

With your ability to be able to adjust to the needs of the complete spectrum of employees, you are a perfect match for leadership roles. You can get the desired results by getting the best out of all types of subordinates.

Leaders that do not possess situational leadership skills tend to be unilateral in their approach. They may achieve the desired results, but not in all scenarios. They also are not able to get the best out of their employees. Hence, leaders with other leadership styles will get the required business outcomes only in specific frameworks.

For instance, the following are a few situations along with the leadership styles, which are generally considered tailor-made for them. A situational leader would be able to adjust to all of them. However, as a situational leader, you will be able to use directing approach in this situation and achieve positive results. However, with the coaching style of situational leadership, you will be able to handle these scenarios. However, with the delegating style of situational leadership, you can handle them with equal ease.

By adjusting yourself to the requirements of your employees, you become more flexible. You get into the shape of the situation and get the best out of everyone by satiating their wants. A transactional leader would fit a reward-penalty system in all situations, an autocrat would look to dictate terms even with self-motivated employees, and a democratic leader looks to make decisions taking input from everyone, including the inexperienced ones.

These leadership styles, along with all others, are rigid and fail if applied with a unilateral approach. Situational leadership, on the other hand, is all about working your way out as per the situation. Your actions depend on the maturity level of employees, the complexity of tasks, and the needs of the business. Thus, you can fit into all types of teams, industry demands, and leadership roles.

Also, as a situational leader, by customizing your leadership skills, you can adapt to the changing customer needs and evolving technologies. This ability to tailor your approach makes you more flexible than leaders with other leadership styles. As a situational leader, you analyze the readiness level of your employees and adjust your style accordingly, which helps to create a comfortable space for them.

They do not work with the fear of meeting deadlines and start enjoying the challenges of their tasks. Also, you support your employees through their learning curve and give them the liberty to take time to develop new skills. With this freedom, they can express themselves better, which creates a healthy work environment. As a result, they perform their job duties with more efficiency and productivity.

The other thing you attempt is to build a relationship-behavior with your employees. You determine relationship-behavior by the level of support you need to give your employees as per the phase of the situational leadership cycle. To comprehend this better, have a look at the following list of relationship behaviors and task behaviors that you need to adopt along with corresponding situational styles.

Your ability to develop these relationship behaviors creates a positive atmosphere at your workplace :. High relationship means your focus is on exhibiting a high level of support for your team members.