Situational Leadership Assessment Paper

Chapter four will define the plan of action to interview Chad Brake, the first shift Senior Supervisor for the Equipment/Component Preparation departments at Pfizer Corporation in McPherson, Kansas. The interview will be designed to pinpoint three key objectives based on the three leadership principles brought together in chapter two and chapter three. The purpose of the interview is to obtain responses from Chad Brake that will validate the importance of the objectives from a leader’s perspective. And lastly, this chapter will demonstrate the objectives that will be presented and documented as quantifiable analyses.

Situational and Authentic leadership are increasingly important skills to possess in today’s era of technological changes and availability and flow of information we have in this day and age. Leaders today must be able to adjust their leadership styles to the whatever situation arises as well as to the people who they are leading. Leaders are not limited to just use one style in one situation, being able to adapt appropriate styles to different situations will influence and help a leader succeed. A leader’s judgement, intelligence, cultural awareness, and self-control plays major roles in helping them choose the proper style and appropriate technique for the task at hand (Lau & Cronin, 1998).

Situational leadership focuses on adapting your leadership style or approach based on the situation and the amount of direction and support that is needed by followers. As Jesus trained and equipped his disciples from simple fishermen to fishers of men, who carried on his ministry after he ascended to heaven, he integrated different styles and theories of leadership that best served and supported his followers (Blanchard & Hodges, 2003). Depending on the level of competency and commitment of their people, leaders will adjust their style to provide the necessary support and direction. The core competencies of situational leaders are the ability to identify the performance, competence and commitment of others, and to be flexible (Paterson, 2013). From being highly directive, telling their people exactly what to do and how, to delegating, clearly stating the objective and allowing them to complete the task with little direction and support, situational leaders adapt their approach to the needs of their people and the particular situation.

Personality, experience, general operating style and learning of leadership are all contributors in determining what style of leadership an individual will adopt. To be a leader and decide upon a style, one must know their self and have an understanding of their own abilities, as well as having a knowledge base on their prospective followers (Sellgren, Ekvall, & Tomson, 2006). I will be discussing two leadership styles, situational and authoritarian. Situational leadership is a style of leadership developed by Dr. Paul Hersey, which is categorised under the core theory of contingency. This theory was first introduced as “Life Cycle Theory of Leadership”, which was renamed to “Situational Leadership” in the mid 1970s. This style teaches that there is no one particular style that is efficient for every situation and effective leaders adapt their style to accommodate the range of individuals within a group. An effective leader must have the ability to diagnose, adapt and communicate based on the readiness of followers and other situational variables. Dr. Paul Hersey describes the “an individual’s readiness level as their willingness and ability to complete a particular task. He proposes that a situational leader is able to change their leadership style depending on the situation and a follower’s readiness level. This is a significant element in ensuring the task gets completed successfully (Mujtaba & Sungkhawan, 2011). According to this style, there are four readiness levels. Style one is when the followers are unable and unwilling to perform the task. Upon identifying this, the leader is able to explain to followers what, where, how and when to do this particular task. This particular style is also known as “telling” and is optimal when attempting to influence followers with low readiness levels. Style two, also called “selling” is described as when

I believe that my general view of leadership has not changed over this course, however, before I had a very vague concept of what leaders do and how they act but not an in-depth perspective of the exact characteristics that they possess and how they use them to better themselves as well as their followers. Through this course I have been able to see how different people view leadership and the strengths and ethics that people feel are essential for the people to be successful leaders. This course has been very beneficial for me as a leader for several

Having worked in corporate, I have completed a vast number of professional assessments over the years, including the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), Strong Interest Inventory Assessments, DISC Profile Assessment, Gallup Strengths Finder and even the more comprehensive executive leadership assessments. In corporate, these are generally performed prior to a promotion or during integration of a merger or acquisition. Initially, my thinking was, these were worthless time wasters; so I put very little stock in any of the broad array of assessments, to which I felt subjected. Surely, proper evaluation had to be more than a game of twenty questions. Across the years, I have saved my results in a small moving box as we have relocated nationally and internationally. I gained a deeper understanding of, belief in and reliance upon the power of assessments. In the last three years, I have sifted through my individual results with a fine toothed comb looking for similarities, consistencies and an underlying foundation on which to strategize the next phase of my life based upon my foundational principles. Interestingly enough, my results across the board, have not changed throughout more than 20 years of completing these assessments. As a result, there were no surprises seeing the result of the MindTools (2015) Leadership Skills Assessment..

Situational leadership has very little in common with the other models mentioned herein. This model revolves around the leader changing leadership behaviors to meet the needs in relationship to the follower (Kouzes, 2003, p. 111). The difference between situational leadership and charismatic, servant, and transformational leadership is the lack of an organizational vision and the empowerment of the followers. Situational leadership uses followers based on their readiness level that relate to their ability and willingness to complete the task (Wren, 1995, p. 208). This aspect coupled with the leader’s task and relationship behavior is used in relation to the

This paper will address why situational leadership theory is useful and relevant in developing an effective leadership culture. In addition, it will also discuss the three theories of situational leadership and what is considered to be the strengths and weaknesses of each theory when leading staff in the organizational environment.

Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard first introduced the situational leadership model in the 1970s. Situational Leadership Theory (SLT) asserts that a leader’s effectiveness is dependent upon the readiness, or ability and willingness, of the leader’s followers to complete

"The people think of wealth and power as the greatest fate, But in this world a spell of health is the best state" - Suleiman the Magnificent. Suleiman the Magnificent, Nelson Mandela, and Queen Elizabeth all had one thing in common, they were all great leaders that will be remembered in history. They each had characteristics that made them great leaders for their time, and had leader qualities that really made each one of them unique, yet at the same time fantastic leaders.

From a situational leadership standpoint, I generally find myself able to adapt to the specific situation. A strength would be the ability to utilize supportive and directive when it comes to the goal at hand. A weakness that I have would be around which person I’m utilizing it with. I’m very aware of my audience and have a good handle if I should be directive in my communication or need to support that individual. Generally, this is with my immediate team. When it comes to anyone not on my immediate team I tend to always take the directive approach. I’ve always viewed the situation, and in some ways, created an in group and out group for specific tasks. There are the people that will be able to assist me and my team in getting the job done

Situational leadership may be the case when there are several different situations to handle under one position. There might not be specific tasks given since the roles could be dispersed to every other member. A leader in situations could be dealt with emotions, academics, work, and support with another student. At orientation, when leaders meet up with students, just to chat and to see how they are doing would be considered situational leadership because you are having a bonding relationship. Also, setting up for orientation team takes a lot, and more than one person. This type of leadership may benefit me because I am good at multitasking and communication skills. When there is a task that I need help with, I would ask for guidance how to

This paper will incorporate four of the self-assessment I completed (Leadership, 2004). They are as follows; social motives in the work setting, my leadership styles, emotional intelligence, and team excellence. I will also identify and discuss my leadership characteristics, strengths, and weaknesses. We must first understand what leadership means. To lead, nonetheless, is to excite, to impact, and to inspire. Successful leaders move others to draw in incredibleness, to stretch out themselves and to go past their perform work necessities by producing innovative thoughts. It has been said that directors are individuals who do things right and leaders are individuals who make the best choice." This refinement is to some degree exaggerated since successful leaders do a considerable measure of overseeing and compelling chiefs need to lead.

Situational leadership, developed by professor Paul Hersey and author and consultant Ken Blanchard. Their approach was based off of a 1967 article by W.J. Reddin called The 3-D Management Style Theory. In his article, Reddin discusses the need to have different styles based on the demands of the leader. A leader needs to be flexible in their approach to meet the needs of the job, their superior and their subordinates (1967). Hersey and Blanchard progressed this theory by introducing the Situational Leadership II model. Their model breaks leadership into four different styles, and how a leader must alter their approach in supporting and directing their subordinates based on a given situation. These styles are directing (S1), coaching (S2), supporting (S3) and delegating (S4). The model also focuses on the development level of the subordinates by categorizing them between low (D1), moderate (D2 and D3) and

The situational leadership model was developed by two authors, Ken Blanchard, and Paul Hersey in the year 1969. These authors based this model on the concept that leadership should adapt to different management practices and approaches to fit different situations and surpass any diversity of their encounters (Lussier & Achua, 2010). In particular, this model provides guidance on how to analyze a situation, choose effaceable strategies and adopt the most appropriate leadership style. Apparently, the two developers of the model researched and found that, given some case, leadership may fail to accomplish some goals due to adopting single