Why Aren’t They Listening – Situational Leadership Explored

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.

In analysing the language and expression, the sentence in line 1 “the seminar was meant for managers” was unnecessary. It may be deciphered by other staff members as being boastful and breed ill-feelings. In line 2, “boss” can be better phrased with “higher management” in expressing the idea of a higher authority.

A1. Leadership Style Upon conducting research, it is clear that the definition of “leadership” is not agreed upon. It is fluid, based upon many perceptions, situations, and surroundings. According to Robinson (2010), adopting a specific style of leadership is rather futile as it is, “contingent on the personal traits of the leader, the people being led, and the nature of the activity.” Tools are available to help guide potential leaders in determining a preferred style of leadership. For example, utilizing the “Leadership Self-Assessment

Marie is the department manager at Verve, Inc. She has been working in the position for five years. Marie starts every Monday morning with a 60-minute department meeting where each member in the department gets five minutes to report progress, share stories of success and failure, and seek general input, advice, and information. Jeremy is responsible for sharing an anecdote, an

In creating three offsite meetings in Napa Valley, Kathryn was able to help her executive team move through the forming, storming, norming and performing stages of team development. First and foremost the team went through the forming stage. In this stage the groups was able to identify their leader as Kathryn and were able to look to her for guidance and direction. Moreover, Kathryn was prepared to answer a lot of questions, which became apparent in the scrutiny of the offsite meetings. During this time Kathryn was forced to go very in depth and make analogies in order to answer the variety of question she

Better communication needs to be created between mid and upper management. Proper communication will lead to a better understanding of the goals desired. Feedback is provided by upward communication, which makes employees feel involved and can help managers to get employees to understand their concerns (Thrilwall, 2012). Cooke and Peterson communicated scarcely and poorly. No regular meeting were scheduled. When the two did communicate there was no clear and actionable dialogue. Communication is only successful when both the sender and receiver understand the same information as a result of communication ( MindTools, n.d.) Both Cooke and Peterson should establish regular structured communication. This can be accomplished by setting periodic meetings, written updates via e-mail or memos. These meeting will provide downward communication that will allow information to be dispensed to the team working on the projects in question. These meeting will make Peterson and her team feel more involved in the direction of the project and it will also keep Cooke abreast of the attitudes and values of her employees. Cooke can defuse any potential problems

BEHS symposiums are designed to meet the needs of corporations such as CanGo that may require assistance with understanding quality leadership and customer focus. We also work with management regarding techniques to mitigate employee conflict, improve leader-/subordinate relationships and increase employee motivation through implementation of a sound appraisal and reward system.

Q3. What are the likely keys to success in motivating these individuals to cooperate and communicate as a team?

This research focuses on four leadership styles that have been used within the organization. These styles play apart in the success of objectives and tasks being accomplished.

For this reason, leaders are culpable for the perceptions of any potential alteration efforts. They should endorse the change as an occasion for employees to enhance their skills and offer guidance after implementation (Nelissen & van Sale, 2009). Not to mention if every meeting begins with communicating the vision of the company, it can advance ownership and pride that will lead to success.

Other forms of leadership styles that are known to exist derive from the Leadership Style Inventory (LSI) developed by Rowe, Reardon, and Bennis (1995). The inventory identifies four basic styles; commanding, logical, inspirational and supportive. The differences in style used by leaders are based on the following two questions: How adaptive are leaders when dealing with the issues they face? How do leaders communicate with, persuade, and energize employees in the process of change?

If managers cannot adapt a leadership style when required then staff will become unengaged and have low morale. Not recognising their own role in the organisation or the vision of organisation and where it wants to be.

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

Over the years, scholars and management theorists have cultivated several leadership styles that they have encouraged people to apply and try to implement. However, most of these theories have shown various short comings. Typically, none of these styles has proven to work best in diverse situations. In the late 1960’s, the Situational Leadership Model was developed. In this paper, I will discuss the details about the situational leadership model. In detail, the paper begins with a defined introduction of what the situational leadership model is about and an interpretation of its origination. An outline of the model will follow after which a discussion about the benefits and drawbacks of this model will shortly follow.

Although, Ms. Peterson communicated and fostered open, collaborative conversations with her team, she failed to communicate with her manager to ensure that she understood expectations for herself as the leader and for her team. Successful communication is only achieved when the sender and receiver of information have the same understanding of the information presented. (See Figure 1) For example, when Chris Peterson was assigned to lead her team in delivering new products that would appeal to larger districts within and outside of her designated region. She received the message as “ create/design new product offerings that would appeal to districts within the southwest region.