Situational Development Model: Blanchard's Situational Leadership Model

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Blanchard’s developmental models

Blanchard developed the above original model further with his Situational Leadership II, or SLII model. In the revised look of the theory, he suggests there are four developmental models within the situational leadership model. According to him, employees in organisations pass through a development cycle, as experience or changes in roles increase maturity and skillset of the employee.
As employee’s developmental levels vary, the leader must be able to understand these subtle differences and apply the right kind of management to ensure the employee can perform the tasks to the best of his or her ability and develop further.
The developmental model is similar to the maturity level of the employee, as they both …show more content…

The styles have the following characteristics:

Directing behaviours Supporting behaviours
• Providing specific instructions
• Controlling the behaviour of subordinates • Encouraging subordinates
• Listening subordinates
• Offering recognition and providing feedback

In terms of the four leadership styles:

• Directing is high on directing behaviour, but low on supporting behaviour
• Coaching is high on both directing and supporting behaviour
• Supporting is low on directing behaviour, but high on supporting behaviour
• Delegating is low on both directing and supporting behaviour

Again, the revised look at these different styles acknowledges there’s no superior style. Instead, the leader must match his or her leadership style to the developmental skill of the subordinate and the task being accomplished.
3 The qualities of a situational leader

Keeping in mind the above, what makes a good situational leader? Situational leadership requires the leader to possess a variety of traits and skills, as the leader has to be able to adapt to different situations and to respond to the subordinate’s needs.

Hersey’s four common leadership …show more content…

You need to be able to understand the situation you are trying to influence in order to pick out the best leadership style for the specific situation. In essence, you need the skills for identifying two core aspects:

• The task at hand and the requirements for completing it
• The maturity and development level of the subordinates responsible for the completion of the task

In order to improve your ability to diagnose and analyse the situation, you need to continue learning. Self-improvement is the key to situational leadership success and it involves anything from gaining more understanding of the industry, the organisation and of leadership theories and styles in general. If you continue to improve and enhance your own understanding of things, the better you’ll become in diagnosis and analysis.

Adaptation

You also need to showcase adaptability as a situational leader. An effective leader must adjust their behaviour depending on the requirements of the situation. Adaptation can be improved by enhanced knowledge, but you should also focus your energy on broadening your horizon. Instead of directing all the time, ask more questions and listening to your subordinate’s opinions. Asking and listening doesn’t mean you must do as you are told, but accepting different perspectives can improve your ability to adapt to

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