Situational leadership - Hersey and Blanchard

Revision as of 18:27, 28 February 2021

Abstract

With the constant change in todays technology and evolving demands to the additional skills needed for that new technology, companies are also seeking added skills in leadership. While technical skills are core to project management, PMI’s Talent Triangle suggests that the core is a combination of technical, leadership, and strategic and business management expertise. [heimild-PMI Triangle] Looking at the leadership aspect of project management core skill set, leaders need to be flexible to be able keep up with the constant change in their teams' development. The Triangle defines leadership as the knowledge, skills and behaviours involved in the ability to guide, motivate and/or direct other to achieve a goal ^[1].

The Situational Leadership theory by Hersey and Blanchard helps project managers assess which leadership style is appropriate to their team members’ development level. It states that there is no single best leadership style, that it’s situational. In order to achieve effective leadership, leaders have to adapt their leadership style to the development level of a person or a team. Hersey and Blanchard developed a model that best describes the relation between leadership styles and development levels named The Situational Leadership Model. This article will describe the history, application and reflections on the Situational Leadership theory while also expressing the relation to Project Management and how it can be beneficial for project managers.

About Situational Leadership

The Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership is a theory designed to help leaders finding the most effective leadership style from different circumstances they find themselves in. The theory was developed by author Paul Hersey and leadership expert Ken Blanchard, first introduced in late 1960s as Life Cycle Theory of Leadership but renamed in the mid-1970 as Situational Leadership Model ^[2] . The theory was inspired by the changing leadership needed by parents as a child grows up from infancy to adulthood. An infant needs a different leadership style than as a young adult, so Hersey and Blanchard felt as the same logic held true for managing new, developing and experienced workers. ^[2]

In 1980s Blanchard made a number of changes to the original model which is now called Situational Leadership II or SLII ^[3]. (This article will focus on this new and improved Situational Leadership model, the SLII. ) The theory contains a flexible style, whereas the manager adapts their management style to situational factors in the workplace. By understanding, recognizing, and adapting to these situational factors, the leaders will be able to influence their surroundings and followers much more successfully than if these factors are ignored. The fundamental foundation of the theory is that there is no single best style of leadership and the most effective leadership varies on the project and the employees working on the project ^[4] .

Big Idea

SLII proposes that there are four primary leadership styles that are suitable for four different followers’ directive behavior, often called the four development levels. The leadership styles are Directing, Coaching, Supporting and Delegating. SLII helps the leader answer the questions on what the right form of leadership for this person is, in a specific context. The context is the task, and a task can be defined as a project from a project management perspective. Further on, this article will relate the SLII to project managers and why this technique is effective and important in project management. ^[5].

Leadership Styles

The model that Hersey and Blanchard developed contains four leadership styles. The updated model from SLII in Figure 1 shows how the different leadership styles is placed depending on its behavior. X-axis shows the degree of Directive Behavior that the leader must exhibit with each style of leadership, while the Y-axis shows the degree of Supportive Behavior.

The theory suggests that effective leadership is dependent on two behaviors: supporting and directing. Directing behaviors give directions, instructions and control the behavior of team members while supporting behavior include actions like encouraging, listening, and giving attention and feedback ^[5].

Figure 1: Situational Leadership framework (own figure based on The Situational Leadership Model II ^[6] )