The Hersey And Blanchard Model As A Situational Leadership Model

The word leadership has a lot of meanings, but its meaning is unique to the person who is giving the definition. Leadership is the ability to guide, direct, and motivate others to accomplish a mission or task. It is the ability to make subordinates see their own potential in their abilities and supervisors recognize and respect it. Leaders are entrusted with building up those they lead to ensure the individual can one day assume the responsibility of leading others. It is for this reason that the situational approach style of leadership best describes my leadership style.

There have been numerous theories surrounding leadership, which attempt to explain which form is most effective in the workplace. A universalistic approach was once used to rationalize leadership and it was believed that successful leaders possessed certain common abilities and traits. However, today due to external factors such as globalization and advanced technologies, there has been an evolution towards a new paradigm of leadership. Subordinates want to feel empowered and engaged at the workplace and often the behaviors and relationships between leaders and their subordinates become important to understand in order to fully understand effective leadership. Contingency theories have been developed in which people began to look at the behavior of leaders in specific situations. Two such contingency theories are: Path-Goal and Hershey and Blanchard’s Situational Theory.

Delegation is widely acknowledged to be an essential element of effective management (Yukl, G. 1994). Delegation is basically a process of assigning responsibility, sharing authority, and producing accountability in organizations. It is a managerial instrument that allows managers to nurture subordinates to capitalize the subordinate’s potential and ability to meet organizational goals and objectives. As a form of employee involvement in decision-making, delegation describes a category of leader behavior that entails assignment of new responsibilities to subordinates and additional authority to carry them out (Yukl, G. 1998). Managers usually find it easier to speak about delegation of

Herschey and Blanchard, in their Situational Leadership theory, recommend that a leader adapts their leadership style on the basis of the maturity of the group or individual in dealing with specific situations. If an individual is new to the organisation and have a low level of expertise but a high level of motivation then a directing leadership style is likely to be most suitable, whereas an employee that has a higher level of skills but variable commitment may respond to a supportive style in order to build confidence.

Delegating is a personality trait that comes in handy when cooperating with others. Consequently, by holding this trait, it is clear to understand that a few tasks require additional opinions than just one in order to be executed. In addition, it is also used while problem solving, at times when it is required to be open minded with everyone’s points of views. As I grow up, I aspire to maintain the characteristic of being a delegator, as well as maintain a balance throughout the responsibilities that I take. On the other hand, there are a variety of people prefer to not keep their tasks organized, working with these people can be almost impossible to succeed with, and can lead to calamities.

Dr. Paul Hersey developed a leadership theory called situational leadership. Dr. Hersey’s theory suggests that there is not a single best style of leadership, that a successful leader will adapt the style best suited to influence, motivate, or educate the group or person they are leading. The theory also suggests that the style of leadership may change and develop along with the maturity of the group or person (Schermerhorn, 2013, p. 361-362). I understand this theory to mean, that if your group does not possess the maturity level in which a manager can consciously delegate authority, then possibly the participating and telling styles would be best suited to lead the group. As the group matures in their ability, the manager could tailor the management style

Using the Strength Finders 2.0 Assessment, I was able to identify my personal strengths, which would identify my personal leadership skills. My strength assessment results where Harmony, Consistency, Empathy, Achiever, and Belief. This paper will identify each strength, how they relate to my leadership style and approach to leadership.

This incident also made me realise that my leadership style was maturing more towards Hersey and Blanchard’s situational leadership style .(5) In the

Hersey and Blanchard’s 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 a task. This leadership style is an amalgamation of task-oriented and relationship-oriented characteristics that are employed depending upon the situation and the followers involved. According to the SLT, as followers increase in readiness the leader’s style is to adapt accordingly (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2009).

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

Before one can lead others, they must learn to lead themselves. The first step to developing your leadership abilities is identifying your strengths and weaknesses. A few of my personal strengths are, integrity, problem solving, and vision. Some of my weaknesses are priorities, decision making, and most importantly, influence.

Ken Blanchard and Paul Hersey: Stone and Patterson (2005), indicated that Blanchard and Hersey proposed a contingency/contingency theory advocating a leader’s use of differing leadership behaviors dependent upon two interrelated maturity factors: job maturity-relevant task and technical knowledge and skills, and psychological maturity- the subordinate’s level of self-confidence and self-respect (p. 5). I feel that Blanchard and Hersey leadership style is similar to Participative Leadership (Democratic) leadership style. The reason for this belief is due to Stone and Patterson (2005), indicating that Blanchard and Hersey believed that an employee who has a high level of job and psychological maturity requires little supervision, while an employee who had a lower level of job and psychological maturity requires hands-on attention (p. 5).

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

People have always asked if there is any style of leadership that is most effective. Nevertheless, numerous theories and models have been created to show that there is no style of leadership that is the best. Rather, styles of leadership need to adjust depending on the variables such as the leader, the situation, the subordinate, the task, the environment and other factors. Paul Hersey, Kenneth H. Blanchard, and Dewey E. Johnson noted that if the leader’s style of behavior is appropriate or matches the situation it is considered effective. If it is not appropriate to a given situation, it is deemed ineffective. The difference between the effective and ineffective styles is often not the actual behavior of the leader, but the appropriateness of that behavior to the environment in which it is used. In reality, the third dimension is the environment.

Blanchard, Zigarmi, and Zigarmi (1985) developed a leadership model using four leadership styles and four levels of subordinate development.