Chapter 5
Situational Leadership® II: The Integrating Concept
Empowerment is the key to treating people the right way and motivating them to treat your customers right. Therefore, having a strategy to shift the emphasis from leader as boss and evaluator to leader as partner and cheerleader is imperative. But what, exactly, is the right strategy or leadership style?
For a long time, people thought there were only two leadership styles—autocratic and democratic. In fact, people used to shout at each other from these two extremes, insisting that one style was better than the other. Democratic managers were accused of being too soft and easy, while their autocratic counterparts were often called too tough and domineering.
We believe that managers who restrict themselves to either extreme are bound to be ineffective “half managers.” Whole managers are flexible and can adapt their leadership style to the situation. Is the direct report new and inexperienced with the task at hand? Then more guidance and direction are called for. Is the direct report experienced and skilled? That person requires less hands-on supervision. The truth is, all of us are at different levels of development depending on the task we are working on at a particular time.
Oversupervising or undersupervising—that is, giving people too much or too little direction—has a negative impact on people’s development. That’s why it’s so important to match leadership style to development level. This matching strategy is the essence of Situational Leadership®, a leadership model originally created by Ken Blanchard and Paul Hersey at Ohio University in 1968.1 The revised model, Situational Leadership® II, has endured as an effective approach to managing and motivating people. It opens communication and fosters a partnership between the leader and the people the leader supports and depends on. This model can be summed up by a familiar phrase:
Situational Leadership® II is based on the beliefs that people can and want to develop and there is no best leadership style to encourage that development. You should tailor leadership style to the situation.
Matching Leadership Style to Development Level
The Situational Leadership® II model (see figure 5.1) has four basic leadership styles: directing (S1), coaching (S2), supporting (S3), and delegating (S4). These correspond to the four basic development levels: enthusiastic beginner (D1: low competence, high commitment), disillusioned learner (D2: low to some competence, low commitment), capable but cautious performer (D3: moderate to high competence, variable commitment), and self-reliant achiever (D4: high competence, high commitment).
Figure 5.1 The Situational Leadership® II Model
Can you remember when you started learning how to ride a bicycle? Sometimes you were so excited that you couldn’t sleep at night, even though you didn’t know how to ride yet. You were a classic enthusiastic beginner who needed direction.
Remember the first time you fell off your bike? As you were picking yourself up off the pavement, you might have wondered why you wanted to learn to ride in the first place and whether you would ever really master it. You had reached the disillusioned learner stage, and you needed coaching.
Once you could ride your bike with your mom or dad cheering you on, that confidence probably became shaky the first time you decided to take your bike out for a spin without your cheerleader and supporter close at hand. At this point, you were a capable but cautious performer in need of support. Finally, you reached the stage where your bicycle seemed to be a part of you. You could ride it without even thinking about it. You were truly a self-reliant achiever, and your parents could delegate to you the job of having fun on your bike.
Now, let’s see how the development levels and leadership styles apply to the workplace.
Enthusiastic Beginners Need a Directing Style
Suppose you recently hired a 22-year-old salesperson. Three key responsibilities are required of an effective salesperson besides selling: service, administration, and team contribution. Having worked in the hotel industry during the summer, your new salesperson seems to have good experience in service. Since he was the treasurer of his fraternity and captain of his college soccer team, it looks like he also has some experience in administration and team contribution. As a result, your initial training focus with him will be in the sales part of his job, where he is an enthusiastic beginner. In this area, he is excited and ready to learn, despite his lack of skills. Because of his high commitment to becoming a good salesperson, he is curious, hopeful, optimistic, and excited. In this area of his job, a directing leadership style is appropriate. You teach your new hire everything about the sales process, from making a sales call to closing the sale. You take him on sales calls with you so that you can show him how the sales process works and what a good job looks like. Then you lay out a step-by-step plan for his self-development as a salesperson. In other words, you not only pass out the test, but you also are involved in teaching him the answers. You provide specific direction and closely supervise his sales performance, planning and prioritizing what has to be accomplished for him to be successful. Teaching and showing him what experienced salespeople do—and letting him practice in low-risk sales situations—is the appropriate approach for this enthusiastic beginner.
Disillusioned Learners Need a Coaching Style
Now, suppose that your new hire has a few weeks of sales training under his belt. He understands the basics of selling but is finding it harder to master than he expected. You notice that his step has lost a little of its spring, and sometimes he looks a bit discouraged. While he knows more about sales than he did as a beginner and has flashes of real competence, he’s sometimes overwhelmed and frustrated, which has put a damper on his commitment. A person at this stage is a disillusioned learner. What’s needed now is a coaching leadership style, which is high on direction and support. You continue to direct and closely monitor his sales efforts, but you now engage in more two-way conversations, going back and forth between your advice and his questions and suggestions. You also provide a lot of praise and support at this stage, because you want to build his confidence, restore his commitment, and encourage his initiative. While you consider your salesperson’s input, you are the one who makes the final decisions, since he is learning on actual clients.
Capable But Cautious Performers Need a Supporting Style
Fast-forward a couple months. Now the young man you hired knows the day-to-day responsibilities of his sales position and has acquired some good sales skills. Yet he still has some self-doubt and questions whether he can sell well on his own, without your help or the support of other colleagues. While you say he’s competent and knows what he’s doing, he is not so sure. He has a good grasp of the sales process and is working well with clients, but he’s hesitant to be out there completely on his own. He may become self-critical or even reluctant to trust his own instincts. At this stage, he is a capable but cautious performer whose commitment to selling fluctuates from excitement to insecurity. This is when a supporting leadership style is called for. Since your direct report has learned his selling skills well, he needs little direction but lots of support from you to encourage his wavering confidence. Now is the time to stand behind his efforts, listen to his concerns and suggestions, and be there to support his interactions not only with clients, but also with others on your staff. You encourage and praise, but rarely do you direct his efforts. The supporting style is more collaborative; feedback is now a give-and-take process between the two of you. You help him reach his own sales solutions by asking questions that expand his thinking and encourage risk taking.
Self-Reliant Achievers Need a Delegating Style
As time passes, your former new salesperson becomes a key player on your team. Not only has he mastered sales tasks and skills, but he’s also taken on challenging clients and has been successful with them. He anticipates problems and is ready with solutions. He is justifiably confident because of his success in managing his own sales area. Not only can he work on his own, but he also inspires others. At this stage, he is a self-reliant achiever in the sales part of his job. You can count on him to hit his sales goals. For a person at this level of development, a delegating leadership style is best. In this situation, it is appropriate to turn over responsibility for day-to-day decision making and problem solving to him by letting him run his own territory. Your job now is to empower him by allowing and trusting him to act independently. What you need to do is acknowledge his excellent performance and provide the appropriate resources he requires to carry out his sales duties. It’s important at this stage to challenge your high performing salesperson to continue to grow in his sales ability and cheer him on to even higher levels of sales.
Development Level Varies from Goal to Goal and Task to Task
As we implied in the preceding example, development level is not a global concept—it’s task-specific. We could have tracked the salesperson’s progress in service, administration, or team contribution, and it would have been a different journey. It’s important not to pigeonhole people into any particular development level. In reality, development level applies not to the person, but to the person’s competence and commitment to do a specific goal or task. In other words, an individual is not at any one development level overall. Development level varies from goal to goal and task to task. An individual can be at one level of development on one goal or task and be at a different level of development on another goal or task.
For example, Casey works in the consumer products industry. In the marketing part of her job, she is a genius when it comes to rolling out new products and opening new markets. She is clearly a self-reliant achiever, as demonstrated by the success of her past marketing plans. However, when it comes to setting up a database to track demographics and buying patterns, Casey has little experience beyond e-mail and word processing. Depending on her motivation for the task, she could be an enthusiastic beginner or a disillusioned learner.
This example shows that you need to use not only different strokes for different folks, but also different strokes for the same folks, depending on what goal or part of their job you are focused on at any given time.
To determine the appropriate leadership style to use with each of the four development levels, draw a vertical line up from a diagnosed development level to the leadership curve running through the four-quadrant model. As illustrated in Figure 5.2, the appropriate leadership style—the match—is the quadrant where the vertical line intersects the curved line.
Figure 5.2 Matching Leadership Style to Development Level
Using this approach, the enthusiastic beginner (D1) would get a directing (S1) leadership style. The disillusioned learner (D2) would get a coaching (S2) leadership style. The capable but cautious performer (D3) would get a supporting (S3) leadership style, and the self-reliant achiever (D4) would get a delegating (S4) leadership style. In determining what style to use with what development level, just remember this:
The Importance of Meeting People Where They Are
Some people think that it’s inconsistent to manage some people one way and other people in a different way. However, we don’t define consistency as “treating everybody the same way.” We define it as “using the same leadership style in similar situations.” To those who argue that it’s unfair to treat direct reports differently, we agree with U.S. Supreme Court justice Felix Frankfurter:
Friends of ours experienced the downside of equal treatment for unequals when their son was eight years old and in the third grade. They got word from the school that he was way ahead of his class in reading but far behind in math. Initially, they thought, “How can that be? How could a kid be so good in reading and so bad in math?” But after they thought about it for a while, it made sense. Some kids are great in social studies but poor in science. People are good at some things and not others. When the father of the child in question understood the reality of the situation and how it was possible, he met with one of his son’s teachers. We say “one of his son’s teachers” because their son was in an open-style school with 110 kids in the class and four or five teachers working with them in a large, open space.
“Look, I don’t want to cause any problems,” he said, “but what I’d like to know is, why is our son doing so well in reading and so poorly in math? How do you treat him differently in reading versus math?”
The teacher said, “Over here on this wall we have a group of files. Each kid has his or her own reading file. When it’s time for reading, the kids go get their reading files, come back to their desks, and continue to do their reading where they left off. If they have a question, they raise their hand, and one of us comes over and sees them.”
Our friend asked, “How is that working with our son?”
The teacher said, “Super. He’s one of our best readers.”
Our friend said, “Keep it up. You’re doing a great job teaching him reading.”
What leadership style were they using with this youngster in reading? They were using a delegating leadership style. He picks out his folder; he decides when he needs help. Why was it working? Because the kid was a self-reliant achiever in reading. He loved it, and he had skills.
Our friend said, “Now tell me what you’re doing with our son in math.”
The teacher said, “Over on the other wall we have a group of files for our math program. When it’s time for math, the kids go get their folders, bring them back to their desks, and continue to do their math where they left off. If they have any problems, they raise their hand, and a teacher comes to see them.”
Our friend said, “How is that working with our son?”
The teacher said, “Not very well. He’s falling behind the class.”
What leadership style were they using with the boy in math? They were using a delegating leadership style, the same style they were using to teach him reading. In fact, that was the teaching style generally used in this open school. The problem with using a delegating style with this youngster in math was that the kid was at a much lower development level in math than he was in reading. He was a disillusioned learner. He didn’t have the competency. He didn’t have the interest or the confidence. The teachers were leaving him alone.
Our friend knew all about Situational Leadership® II, so he said to the teacher, “Didn’t they ever teach you in teacher education that with the same kid on a different subject you need to use a different leadership or teaching style?” Then our friend asked all the teachers in this open classroom, “Which one of you has the reputation of being a traditional teacher?” An older woman smiled. She had been a teacher for 35 years in this school system. Our friend had heard about her. Her close supervision of kids had given her a reputation for being too tough. Recognizing that this was just what his kid needed, our friend asked her, “How would you deal with our son’s math problem? He’s not doing very well.” Before we tell you what she said, let us tell you a bit about this teacher. One of our associates had gone to the elementary school where this teacher taught before she moved to the open school. In this school, the teacher had 30 third graders all by herself. The kids had to eat lunch in the classroom, because the school wasn’t big enough to have a lunchroom. Our associate walked by her classroom one day at 12:15. The door was wide open, and 30 third graders were quietly sitting and eating their lunches while our teacher friend was playing Beethoven on the recorder. Our associate smiled when he saw this and said to himself, “That’s what I call control.”
Across the hall was the other third grade teacher. The door to the classroom was shut, but our associate could see in through a window. The place looked like a zoo. Kids were running all over the place, up on the desks, while the teacher was dancing and hugging them. It looked like a fun place to be. Would that teacher be a good reading teacher for our friend’s son? Absolutely, because the boy didn’t need a reading teacher. If you don’t need a manager, you might as well have a nice, warm, supportive one. Would this teacher be any good teaching the youngster math? No, she wouldn’t.
Now, back to the directive teacher’s response to our friend. She said, “It would have been a lot easier if I’d had your son from the beginning. I think he’s discouraged now, because it’s harder than he thought it would be, and he’s not doing well. So when it’s time for math, I would go over to him and say, ‘It’s time for math.’ Then I’d lead him by the hand over to his file. Sometimes I don’t think he even gets his own file—he gets absent kids’ files so he can goof them up. Then I would take him back to his desk, sit him down, and say, ‘Do problems 1 through 3, and I’ll be back in five minutes to check on you. If we work on this together, I know you’ll get better at math.’”
Our friend said, “You’re beautiful. Would you take over his math?” She did. Do you think their son got any better with her coaching style? You’d better believe it. Do you think he liked it? Not particularly. It is much easier to loosen up than tighten up. He had been used to working on his own. Even though working alone was not effective, he didn’t welcome the sudden shift to close supervision. Yet if people don’t know what they’re doing and are discouraged, somebody has to direct and coach them. Notice that our effective math teacher clarified expectations and goals, observed and monitored performance, and gave him feedback.
Luckily, there were only three months left in the school year. Why do we say luckily? Because it was difficult for this teacher to move from a directing/coaching style to a supporting/delegating style. She was great at start-up work, but once the kids got the skills, she had problems letting the students take responsibility for their own learning. After three months, our friend’s son was able to get out from under her. He moved on to a more humanistic, supporting teacher who could work with him now that he had the skills—like the warm, friendly teacher we described earlier. Teachers like these are absolutely super in their particular role, but you have to make sure they are working with the right kid at the right time. Both the directive teacher and the humanistic teacher would have been more effective if they could have used a variety of leadership styles. It’s the same with managers and leaders. You have to be flexible enough to vary your leadership style depending on the skill level of your people; otherwise, your effectiveness will be limited.
The Three Skills of a Situational Leader
To become effective in using Situational Leadership® II, you must master three skills: diagnosis, flexibility, and partnering for performance. None of these skills is particularly difficult; each simply requires practice.
Diagnosis: The First Skill
As we stated earlier, to be an effective situational leader, you must determine the development level of your direct report. But how, exactly, do you do that? The key is to look at two factors—competence and commitment.
Competence is the sum of knowledge and skills that an individual brings to a goal or task. The best way to determine competence is to look at a person’s performance. How well can your direct reports plan, organize, problem-solve, and communicate about doing a particular task? Can they accomplish the stated goal accurately and on time? Competence can be gained through formal education, on-the-job training, and experience, and it can be developed over time with appropriate direction and support.
The second factor to look for when diagnosing development level is commitment: a person’s motivation and confidence about a goal or task. How interested and enthusiastic are your direct reports about doing a particular job? Are they self-assured? Do they trust their own ability to do the goal or task? If their motivation and confidence are high, your direct reports are committed.
Flexibility: The Second Skill
When you can comfortably use a variety of leadership styles, you have mastered the second skill of a situational leader: flexibility. As your direct reports move from one development level to the next, your style should change accordingly. Yet our research shows that most leaders have a preferred leadership style.2 In fact, 54 percent of leaders tend to use only one style, 35 percent tend to use two styles, 10 percent tend to use three styles, and only 1 percent use four styles. To be effective, leaders must be able to use all four leadership styles.
Partnering for Performance: The Third Skill
The third skill of a situational leader is partnering for performance. Partnering opens communication between you and your direct reports and increases the quality and quantity of your conversations. When we first started to teach Situational Leadership® II, managers would leave our training excited and ready to apply and use the concepts. Yet we found that problems developed, because the people managers were applying the model to didn’t understand what the managers were doing and often misinterpreted their intentions.
For example, suppose that you diagnosed one of your people as predominantly a self-reliant achiever. As a result, you decided basically to leave that person alone, but you didn’t tell her why. After a while—when she hardly ever saw you anymore—she could become confused. “I wonder what I’ve done wrong,” she might think. “I never see my manager anymore.”
Suppose another one of your people is new, and you decide that he needs, at a minimum, a coaching style. As a result, you’re in his office all the time. After a while, he might start to wonder, “Why doesn’t my boss trust me? He’s always looking over my shoulder.”
In both cases, you might have made the right diagnosis, but since your people didn’t understand your rationale, they misinterpreted your intentions. Through these kinds of experiences, we realized this:
That’s where partnering for performance comes in. This skill is about gaining your direct reports’ permission to use the leadership style that is a match for their development level. As you will learn in the next chapter, “Self Leadership: The Power Behind Empowerment,” partnering for performance also allows people to ask their manager for the leadership style they need. Since partnering for performance involves this kind of give-and-take between leader and follower, we will wait until you fully understand Situational Self Leadership before going into depth about partnering for performance in Chapter 7, “Partnering for Performance.”
Effective Leadership Is a Transformational Journey
We call Situational Leadership® II the integrating concept because it was on this theory that The Ken Blanchard Companies was built. Over time, we realized that situational leadership applied not only when you were leading an individual, but also when you were leading a team, an organization, and, most importantly, yourself. In fact, we have found that leadership is a four-stage transformational journey that includes self leadership, one-on-one leadership, team leadership, and organizational leadership.3
Self leadership comes first, because effective leadership starts on the inside. Before you can hope to lead anyone else, you have to know yourself and what you need to be successful. Self knowledge gives you perspective.
Only when leaders have had experience in leading themselves are they ready to lead others. The key to one-on-one leadership is being able to develop a trusting relationship with others. If you don’t know who you are—or what your strengths and weaknesses are—and you are unwilling to be vulnerable, you will never develop a trusting relationship. Without trust, it is impossible for an organization to function effectively. Trust between you and the people you lead is essential for working together.
The next step in the transformational journey of a leader is team leadership. As leaders develop a trusting relationship with people in the one-on-one leadership arena, they become trustworthy. This is great preparation for team development and building a community. Effective leaders working at the team level realize that to be good stewards of the energy and efforts of those committed to working with them, they must honor the power of diversity and acknowledge the power of teamwork. This makes the leadership challenge more complicated, yet the results can be especially gratifying.
Organizational leadership is the final stage in the transformational journey. Whether a leader can function well as an organizational leader—someone supervising more than one team—depends on the perspective, trust, and community attained during the first three stages of the leader’s transformational journey. The key to developing an effective organization is creating an environment that values both relationships and results.
One of the primary mistakes that leaders make today is that when they are called to lead, they spend most of their time and energy trying to improve things at the organizational level before ensuring that they have adequately addressed their own credibility at the self, one-on-one, or team leadership levels.
As you take time at each of the leadership stops along your transformational journey, Situational Leadership® II will play a major role. The next chapter examines how the model applies to the first step of the transformational journey: self leadership.