Kenneth Blanchard and Paul Hersey produced the “Hersey-Blanchard Model of Situational Leadership.” The model provides a visual aid to their theory of high/low Relationships Behaviors and high/low Task Behaviors in relation to leadership/ management styles. According to this model and theory, situational leadership contains four primary leadership behavior styles: Participating, Selling, Delegating, and Telling. Participating results from high relationship behavior and low task behavior. Selling results from high relationship behavior and high task behavior. Delegating results from low relationship behavior and low task behavior. Telling results from low relationship behavior and high task behavior.
The theory of situational leadership takes this model a step further and emphasizes the importance of a leader choosing the correct leadership behavior style based. In order to be effective, the chosen style must come naturally to the leader AND be appropriate for the specific situation during which it is used – resulting from the needs and maturity levels of the employees. Over the years I have experienced both a correct and an incorrect choosing/matching of an appropriate leadership behavior style to a specific situation.
When I worked as a Sales Supervisor at a pottery painting studio, I had a leader/manager who did not choose the appropriate leadership behavior style based on the specific situation, needs, and maturity levels of her employees. When my previous manager quit to move across the country, the owner of the studio hired a new manager to take over her position. The new manager came into the store with a predetermined “Delegating” (low task – low relationship) leadership behavior style. As a result of this, she would not do her fair share of the day-to-day work and she would assign that extra work to her subordinates, along with their regular work load. Her employees soon felt overworked and underappreciated. Looking back on the situation, a more appropriate leadership behavior style for the manager at the pottery painting studio to use would have been “Participating” (low task – high relationship). If this manager had taken the time to become familiar with the studio before choosing a leadership behavior style, she would have seen the existing culture of the company and the store – friendly coworkers, fair work delegation, and an “all-hands-on-deck” attitude.
Jamie's Leadership Journey 