Situational Leadership

Abstract

One of the four perspectives that comprise a project according to is people. People are a valuable resource inside the project and an external factor that can influence a smooth and successful management. Leadership can extract the most value of this resource and steer how the team will work together. Furthermore, being a leader, it is a broad concept and can be exercised by many functions, not only by management, although good leadership in management positions will cause a positive and more noticeably impact in the organization. Situational Leadership is a process that can enhance the impact that leaders have on others. It is based on a flexible style of leadership in function of the person development. Thus, this methodology will provide guidelines about approaches for different types of team members. Inside a project, having a good leadership can be essential for a healthy environment and the success of the endeavor. The classical organizations and hierarchical chains created a centralized way for decision-making which further influenced how superiors would leader their team, with top-bottom approaches that often would be exercised through micro-management and lack of trust in the employee. With the development of organizational studies and with the companies realizing the importance of creating a safe environment for the team to prosper and succeed in projects, a methodology of leading the team was needed. Thus, the so-called Situational Leadership was then developed by Hersey and Blanchard. Furthermore, this methodology was concerned about the amount of the development of the employee, considering its personality, behavior and past experiences.

Leadership is a the tool that can create empowerment inside the organization. Being important for leaders and also among the employers as self leadership is a point that needs to be developed . Situational Leadership is a tool that uses different types of leadership styles to be able to match the employee stage of development. This matching will produce a more natural and safe environment for the employee to produce and to grow. There are 4 styles of leaderships and 4 stages of development, each one of them can be seen below.

Big Idea

Project Management Institute defines leadership as one of the core skills of a successful project manager . One of the project management pillars explained by is people. Motivation inside the project team and stakeholders’ management are areas that will steer the management of a project and sometimes increase the likelihood of success. Situational Leadership has been applied in different projects as will be discussed in further sections and can be a powerful tool to boost one of the most important resources in project management: People. suggested that stakeholder management can make an organization outperform another. Some of the stakeholders inside a project that can be mentioned are: Project team, consultant team (participating in the project) and internal stakeholders (higher management and different departments). And those are stakeholders that are often being coordinated by different project managers and supervisors, which will impact their performance. supports the idea that mutual trust relationship is a strong foundation for a successful stakeholder management, and that shows that being a good leader and earning the confidence and respect of your employee as well as creating a healthy environment can definitely increase the productivity of your organization or your project when discussing a project management role. This is why the study of applications and theory of this methodology is directly related to the study of Project and portfolio management.

Application

Situational Leadership I

Situational Leadership is a methodology that was born in the Management of Organizational Behavior field, and it was first introduced as “life cycle theory of leadership” in 1969 by . Initially this work was intended for families in the process of raising their kid. This was done by suggesting different parenting styles through the different stages of growth (infancy, adolescence, and adulthood). Eventually the methodology evolved to be applied in managing employees in a workplace, especially in a classical vertical hierarchy structure. In 1996 the Life cycle theory of Leadership finally received the name of Situational Leadership and the authors suggested that this methodology would provide a managing and leadership style guide designed for people. This methodology is based on two variables: leadership styles and development stages. The leadership styles recommended rely on the behavior during tasks behavior and relationship behavior styles. This approach considers how that specific person will react to performing tasks and how it will react to the task handover. Based on it suggests a leader support ranging from a high support to a low support. This will indicate the amount of interaction with the employee, thus the amount of direct help and effort from the leader. The development stage relates to the maturity of the employee and his behavior during a tasks. In addition the his skills and experience acquired over the years also integrate on the leadership style recommended. So, the theory explains how the leadership styles match a maturity level (development stage) that represents level of knowledge, skill and confidence of the person being lead. This will ultimately lead to a healthier relation between leader and employee and even improve efficiency. The leadership styles and development stages on the first work of situational leadership can be seen in Figure 1 and in Figure 2 respectively.

Figure 1 - Leadership Styles of Situational Leadership I, removed from

.

Figure 2 - Development Stages of Situational Leadership I, removed

In the theory Hersey and Blanchard suggest that no leadership style is an optimum style to be always used but are only guidelines that the leader can use to base on his leadership style. The methodology should be adapted on the circumstance and on the leader experience. The methodology then recommends a leadership style for each maturity level which highly correlates to the type of task that is being performed, meaning that if a task is highly complex but that has been done before, a more experienced skilled person would feel more comfortable doing it, and it would feel more comfortable with more freedom, while a person with less experience would need more guidance a management. Figure 3 can show the progress of leadership styles correlated with the development.

.

Figure 3 - Situational Leadership I model. Development stages vs Leadership Style, removed from .

Situational Leadership II

There is a second iteration of the methodology developed by , called Situational Leadership II, where some of the academic work done about the previous theory was taken into consideration. This is the methodology widely used today and has more trainings being applied. The main difference is on the development levels, where Blanchard describes the stage of development by competence and commitment, as being a combination of the skill acquired and the confidence in that development stage. In contrast the first theory that talked about maturity and skill, this one focus on commitment and skill. Thus, that new branch suggested that more naïve professionals arrive with more motivation and commitment to learn, develop, and execute tasks, while a more experienced professional will display a higher competence while still maintaining a high commitment. It also describes that the commitment is high in the beginning and will drop until the a high competence stage is achieved. This methodology views the performance of a specific task or role with a progressive development where you start with no knowledge until you are a skilled one. The development stages of Situational Leadership II can be seen in Figure 4. With those development stages Blanchard then uses the same leadership styles developed in the first methodology. So, it is the leader role to identify the stage and adapt the leadership style to it, as suggested in Figure 4.

.

Figure 4 - Situational Leadership II model. Development stages vs Leadership Style, removed from .

Limitations and Reflections

Having such a static methodology can sometimes be a limitation, specially when people management is involved. Here the main discussion will go around the fact that different stages of development do not summarize the intricacies of one person and that employee. Its personality, family history and other social and psychological characteristics can influence the productivity and the style of leadership needed.

One of the main limitations of this methodology that has also been a topic in studies is that is a theory that doesn’t have a lot of references or support research in its creation. Also, the further discussion of the combinations between leadership styles and development stages are not discussed in the development of the methodology. Meaning that all the 16 combinations of leadership and development are not discussed, and the application is not evaluated, which could be miss opportunity to increasing the efficiency of the methodology, as the methodology only discuss 4 combinations. Another limitation is that for academic purposes measuring the development stages and leadership styles even in a closed environment can be proven difficult and is something that has developed and changed over the years. The arguments above show that this methodology is not very supported inside academia, even though it is a methodology that had more than 3 million people trained.

Real Life examples

The study done in is an evaluation with Australian managers that have been trained in SLII method and would give feedback and comments on how they applied the methodology in their work. With that the goal of the analysis is to elicit the main problems faced by the managers in applying the methodology. The authors conducted 45-minute interviews with the managers using a standardized interview guide. All the respondents were trained in the SLII methodology maximum 1 year ago. This was a qualitative study and had shown an interesting result. Out of 17 participants all of them answered the frequency of use from average to nearly all the time. Furthermore, six respondents answered to be using the methodology consciously and 8 to be using it unconsciously. In addition, in the comments sections most respondents. This shows that in a practical environment the methodology is well accepted, showing a contradictory opinion by the academia as discussed in the previous section.

During this project it was also essential to try to collect data with industry experts. The author was able to schedule an interview with an senior Project Management with over 30 years of experience in to manage projects in different sectors, that have received training in Situational Leadership II. An interview structure was made, but some questions were also added during the interview as they fitted into the topic. The interview can be found in Annex I. The interviewed was Annette Noe, who has around 30 years of experience in Project Management both as a project team member and a project management. Who is currently working for Bang and Olufsen as a Senior Project Manager. The interview annexed is a powerful example of how an experienced project manager uses Situational Leadership as a tool during projects, what it thinks about it and what are the main limitations. Often, these practical application can highlight limitations in the theory and even show some new opportunities.

Annete, had training in Situational Leadership II, and that training was a result of her work to create and implement a project management methodology inside an IT organization. Situational Leadership II was one her favorite tools and that she implemented the most during her work. This shows that even when creating standards for Projects and Portfolio Management inside a development team, this methodology can be a powerful tool, improving productivity and increasing efficiency of communication. One of the aspects she most liked about the methodology was how it can guide her when motivating people in the beginning of a project. Thus, creating a connection with your team member which is the first step for success according to her. In addition the methodology can help understand how the person will deal with the project or task in hand, according to its development stages. In contrast, in her point of view, the methodology lacked how the employees' personality influence the most adequate leadership style, and how that relates to the style matching. In addition, the employees' environment and the life moment that the person lives, including its past experiences will also influence on the most adequate style, while also showing how to better interact and lead that person, according to her. Which also is something that the authors of the methodologytries to warn when they suggest the methodology application and comment on the need to be applied with flexibility by the leaders. To conclude one of the most important points was how she correlated the improvement of a Project Management with this tool. One of her main example was when dealing with senior employees, which can be hard to motivate, so having a different approach, with less directive and task related approach can be way more beneficial, creating a sense of trust and even using them to help more inexperienced employees.

Conclusion

Through this article was possible to observe that Situational Leadership is a theory that has evolved since its creation and its application is still being discussed today. It is a powerful tool to be added into the Project Manager toolkit and can really increase productivity and create a better environment for development as shown in and by the interview done in this article. To conclude, the methodology is not a rigid group of guidelines to be followed but suggestions to be taken into consideration when managing people. It is always crucial for the methodology user to add his understanding of the circumstance and past experience.

Annotated Bibliography

The work done by is an extensive review of the development of the Situational Leadership tool since its first publication. The text go over the details and explanations of how the theory was created as well as discuss its limitations and applications. It is a very useful tool to get a deep understanding about the topic for the first time, as it is thorough.

The work done in is the first time the situational leadership was presented to the academic world and it shows how Blanchard and Hersey suggested its use for family development. It is a historic paper to understand what was the original methodology, that evolved today to be widely used in a different scenario, employee management.

The work done by Blanchard in is called "The One Minute Manager" and is a book that provides practical and concise advice for effective management. The book is structured around a fictional story of a young man seeking advice from a wise manager, who shares simple but powerful secrets for effective management. It helps relate the theory of the method with real life applications and how communication is essential for productivity and efficient communication. This work was used by Blanchard in his second iteration of the Situational Leadership methodology

The book written by Blanchard and his wife Zigarmi where a second iteration of the Situational Leadership was developed. It goes through a discussion about his previous work with Hersey in 1969 and the suggested changes on the methodology. It is interesting so one can understand why the development stage is now related more deeply with commitment and skill.

The article . is an analysis of the application of situational leadership by managers in Australia. It starts with a good review of the methodology but then it evolves on study with a controlled group of managers that have been used the methodology in teams and employees. Then, the author registered the feedback of these managers and compare to limitations that have been previously cited in the literature. It is interesting to observe the conclusions and discussions that the paper makes, indicating that most of the managers are more comfortable in using a more supportive leadership style and that culture aspects may influence the application of the methodology.

Annex I

Interview

Interviewed: Anette Noe

Interviewer: Felipe Iglesias

• How long have you worked in Project Management?

"Around 30 years of experience in Project Management. I have experience both as project team member and project manager. I managed IT implementation projects and cross functional program management and transformation projects. Both in consultancy company and in corporate companies."

• Have you heard of Situational Leadership before?

"Yes, when I was working in IT department, I had the responsibility to define and train the project management methodology. As part of my own development, I participated in a course about change management. I was surprised when the instructor for that course recommended that one of best skills to learn as project manager was Situational Leadership II I convinced my manager of the benefit so I did the Situational Leadership II training course (in 2007) which goes into detail about the methodology. After that, I managed to convince my manager to try out the methodology in our department. In that experience I realized how important it was to implement that in a team and in myself to understand my development stage and what was the leadership style that I used the most."

• If yes which of the mainstream models have you heard Goleman or Blanchard and Hersey

"I have trained and worked with Blanchard and Hersey. So, Goleman is a new methodology for me, even though I heard about it before."

• What do you like the most about this methodology?

"One of my first learning was to think about the situation you’re in. To be able inspire and motivate people from the beginning is a challenge, so identifying their development stage is essential to motivate your team. This was one of the main learning from the course and what I found in practice, that being able to understand and learn about the person you are working with is essential to success. Being able to support a person that for example thinks he/she is super experienced but also needs support or can support a lot of inexperienced teammates sometimes is a challenge and important. So, to supervise/leader someone is to identify what is the best approach for some people, for example there are people that when you supervise too closely, they get demotivated."

• What do you think is lacking in Situational Leadership methodology?

"I think one of the things that the methodology does not consider (considering a leadership style perspective) is what type of personality is the leader and the employee. It is also hard to put someone in a specific box, people are hardly defined by one development stage and need one leadership style. A person grows up in a specific context, has feelings, experiences which creates the mix that a human is, and that may need different types of leadership style. Especially in project management because you are an informal leader without the “fire-hire” responsibility but the leader of a project team who together should achieve the project goals, there are other stakeholders that have more influence than you. Is not the project manager that decides the salary and your position in the organization, so you need to find other approaches that will help you gain their trust and motivation."

• How do you gain their trust even though you are not the main stakeholder as a project management?

"I try to look how can I build a relation with the employee, and a good way is to figure out what do we have in common, maybe some similar experience in the organization or just a small talk with the employee and be friendly and build a connection. And make sure to establish that we are in the project together and be very patient with someone, slowly starts sometimes give great results. Sometimes unknown people just setup an informal talk to get to know them like in regular day life. And align that I want to know their difficulties and bad news and that I am are there for those moments to help as well."

• What do you think Situational Leadership can improve in Project Management?

"If you have very senior people (which is the case in B&O) that must work with people that are not so senior, it’s hard to be a leader and motivate. An approach is to try to align how to connect those people and align how to work and help the project and the team. I am inspired by how we can do a strong combination between experienced people and combine that to support younger people. For that I use pictures of Legos and use the Lego bricks as analogy to show that you can always fit different pieces together and create new things. Using different types of leadership will get that Lego assembly and get the team motivated to reach the project’s goals."

• Do you think the development stages are correlated to what you found in practice?

"Yes, to some extent they do but I also think it’s super simplified. The methodology itself is a very good way to guide yourself, but humans are complex and don’t fit into boxes. I think it’s great for a first approach and guiding, but don’t get fixed restrict your critical thinking in those styles, try to read the situation and people, so you can react to that. I am also not so strict to follow methodologies perfectly, so for me is always trying to adapt and deal with each situation now. For me also my experience helps a lot, some experiences from different projects even from many years ago sometimes pops up in my head to help me with a specific situation."