How to Adjust Your Leadership to Different Employees and Different Situations

As a leader you can be challenged to develop your skills as a leader. What do you need to do to develop effective leadership skills? Ultimately the challenge is: how to develop leadership that inspires staff to do their jobs and at the highest level of quality

Leadership is situational: it changes based upon the employee. In this model we tailor our behavior as leaders to the employee. For a new employee, the manager's behavior is very directive. We're in training mode; we give the employee lots of information and direction. The aim is to move an employee to move through several stages to a point where we are the coach and mentor, and the amount of time and direction needed from us is minimal. At this point, the staff know their job and can do it in with minimal direction or intervention. But, we can't just jump from directive to coach. To transition, there are stages. After directing, the manager is still telling the employee what to do, but the level of telling and direction has decreased. The employee is able to do the task with some direction and feedback, versus total direction and feedback.

In the third transition stage, the leader is supportive and motivating. The employee is able to do the task with minimal intervention from the manager. The last stage is the target, where the employee is totally knowledgeable and empowered to do their job with the support and mentorship of the manager. In this stage the manager is the cheerleader, acknowledging accomplishments and the motivator.

Although, it would be easy to have linear maps of human behavior, this again is not the case. As the manager, you will have to move easily through the different phases and be able to step back if an employee needs greater assistance at some point. When a new task or responsibility appears the supervisor shifts back to directing Now, a new cycle of training and mentoring is started. The manager's purpose is to provide the support needed to complete the cycle once again, to the final stage of empowered action, in which the employee is capable of doing high quality work.

This article is based upon Hershey and Blanchard's situational leadership model, from their book: Management of organizational behavior: Utilizing Human Resources. (1982, Prentice-Hall, Inc.)

Copyright: 2006

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Donna Price, President and Founder of Compass Rose Consulting, LLC. Donna works with leaders and their work teams to be high performing and effective teams, closing the gap between the vision and implementation. Donna has vast background as a upper level administrator for 18+ years and team builder/developer. Donna is the creator of the “Business Builders Intensive”, a comprehensive tele-series focused on building business success and “Coaching Staff For Success”, a training program for managers to develop effective coaching skills for. Her innovative team development, coaching and other programs are great opportunities for business leaders seeking to improve their business results. Contact Donna at www.compassroseconsulting.com; coachingstaffforsuccess.com; dprice@compassroseconsulting.com; 973-948-7673

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