Situational Leadership This is a leadership model that describes 4 styles of leadership which you use depending on the situation. Hence, it’s called situational leadership. These styles are based on two leadership behaviours. One is directional, so how directional you are and the other is how supportive you are, which is a combination of encouraging and challenging.

Situational Leadership High Directive & High Supportive Behaviour S2 COACHING High Supportive & Low Directive Behaviour S3 SUPPORTING Supportive Behaviour Low Supportive & Low Directive Behaviour S4 DELEGATING High Directive & Low Supportive Behaviour S1 DIRECTING Directional is telling someone how to do something in a very detailed specific way eg making a cup of tea. I’d like the large blue mug, make sure the water is boiling, leave the tea bag in for 5 mins, add lots of milk – strong and milky. Supportive is telling someone how to do something and supporting them in it. EG John Clark running. (Low) Directive Behaviour (High)

Four Basic Leadership Styles Style 1 - Directing Leader provides specific instructions and closely supervises task accomplishment Style 2 - Coaching Leader continues to direct and closely supervise task accomplishment, but also explains decisions, solicits suggestions, and supports progress Now I’d like to illustrate this with a recent work example. As part of the company Environmental Management System, I wanted to give one of my colleagues in the office the responsibility for recycling. First of all the team agreed that we needed 2 categories for the recycling. One for recycling and one for shredding of confidential material. Directing - So I told her how to categorise the financial and workshop materials. Eg anything that had a client or company name or address on, bank statements, financial details etc needed shredding, anything anonymous could be recycled, if in doubt shred it. Coaching – This seemed to be going well, but then I realised there was an extra box that different staff used differently and this meant she had to go through that material again and it was wasting time. When I pointed this out, she said that box had been there before she had arrived and one member of staff used it to put card in it when she was in a hurry, others put any paper in it. I explained that I didn’t think we needed the extra box and those bits of card could go straight into the recycling box. I explained that I would find it helpful if she labeled the boxes, one for recycling and one for shredding, so that it was clear which box was for shredding and recycling. I thanked her for putting labels on the boxes.

Four Basic Leadership Styles (continued) Style 3 - Supporting Leader facilitates and supports subordinates’ efforts toward task accomplishment and shares responsibility for decision making with them Supporting – now I need to support her to encourage everyone in the office to put the paper in the correct boxes and also when the Directors visit the office they do this as well. Praise, listen and facilitate. Delegating – she is already taking responsibility for how to get rid of recycling and reduced the cost by decreasing the number of times a month the skip we have is emptied. Style 4 - Delegating Leader turns over responsibility for decision making and problem solving to them

Development Levels and Leadership Styles Low Competence  High Commitment S1 DIRECTING Structure, control & supervise D2 Some Competence  Low Commitment S2 COACHING Direct & support D1 -Initially she had low competence and high commitment, she wanted to do a good job but didn’t know how, in terms of what needed to be shredded. D2 – Secondly she showed competence in the task but wasn’t bothered that she was going through the third box twice, she said she didn’t mind. D3 – She showed competence in the task and labeled the boxes and got rid of the third box. She finds it hard to get others to use the system – needs more support. Need to facilitate before next Board meeting. D4 – Then move on to delegate completely. D3 High Competence  Variable Commitment S3 SUPPORTING Praise, listen & facilitate S4 DELEGATING Turn over responsibility for implementation & decisions D4 High Competence  High Commitment

Situational Leadership High Directive & High Supportive Behaviour S2 COACHING High Supportive & Low Directive Behaviour S3 SUPPORTING Supportive Behaviour Low Supportive & Low Directive Behaviour S4 DELEGATING High Directive & Low Supportive Behaviour S1 DIRECTING (Low) Directive Behaviour (High)