1. Situational Leadership
Source: Ken Blanchard & Paul Hersey

2. Overview What is Situational Leadership? Leadership Model History
Why is it popular among managers?
Leadership Behaviors & Styles
Development Levels
Practical Examples and Application

3. What is Situational Leadership?
This is a term that can be applied generically to a style of leadership, but that also refers to a recognized, and useful, leadership model.
In simple terms, a situational leader is one who can adopt different leadership styles depending on the situation.

4. Situational Leadership Self-Assessment
Activity
Situational Leadership Self-Assessment

5. Leadership Model History
Ken Blanchard and Paul Hersey created a model for Situational Leadership in the late 1960's that allows you to analyze the needs of the situation you're dealing with, and then adopt the most appropriate leadership style.

6. Why is it popular?
It's proved popular with managers over the years because it passes the two basic tests of such models: it's simple to understand, and it works in most environments for most people.
The model doesn't just apply to people in leadership or management positions: we all lead others at work and at home.

7. Leadership Behavior
Blanchard and Hersey characterized leadership style in terms of the amount of Direction and of Support that the leader gives to his or her followers, and so created a simple grid
S3: Supporting
Praise, Listen, Facilitate
For people who have:
High Competence
Variable Commitment
Able but Unwilling or Insecure
S2: Coaching
Direct and Support
Some Competence
Some Commitment
Unable but Willing and/or Motivated
S4: Delegating
Turning over responsibility for day-to-day decision making
High Commitment
Able and Willing and/or Motivated
S1: Directing
Structure, Control, Supervise
Low Competence
Unable and Unwilling and/or Insecure
High
Low
Supportive Behavior
Directive Behavior D3 D2 D4 D1

8. Structure, Control and Supervise
S1: Directing
Directing Leaders define the roles and tasks of the 'follower', and supervise them closely.
Decisions are made by the leader and announced, so communication is largely one-way.
Structure, Control and Supervise

9. S2: Coaching
Coaching Leaders still define roles and tasks, but seeks ideas and suggestions from the follower.
Decisions remain the leader's prerogative, but communication is much more two-way.
Direct and Support

10. Praise, Listen and Facilitate
S3: Supporting
Leaders pass day-to-day decisions, such as task allocation and processes, to the follower.
The leader facilitates and takes part in decisions, but control is with the follower.
Praise, Listen and Facilitate

11. Turning over responsibility for day-to-day decision making
S4: Delegating
Delegating Leaders are still involved in decisions and problem-solving, but control is with the follower.
The follower decides when and how the leader will be involved.
Turning over responsibility for day-to-day decision making

12. Finding The Right Style
Effective leaders are versatile in being able to move around the grid according to the situation, so there is no one right style.
However, we tend to have a preferred style, and in applying Situational Leadership you need to know which one that is for you.

13. Developmental Level: The Follower
Clearly the right leadership style will depend very much on the person being led - the follower.
The leader's style should be driven by the Competence and Commitment of the follower based on four levels:

14. D4: High Competence - High Commitment
Experienced at the job, and comfortable with their own ability to do it well. May even be more skilled than the leader.
Able and Willing and/or Motivated

15. D3: High Competence - Variable Commitment
Experienced and capable, but may lack the confidence to go it alone, or the motivation to do it well / quickly
Able but Unwilling or Insecure

16. D2: Some Competence - Low Commitment
May have some relevant skills, but won't be able to do the job without help. The task or the situation may be new to them.
Unable but Willing and/or Motivated

17. D1: Low Competence - Low Commitment
Generally lacking the specific skills required for the job in hand, and lacks any confidence and / or motivation to tackle it.
Unable and Unwilling and/or Insecure

18. Development Levels are Situational Too
I might be generally skilled, confident and motivated in my job, but would still drop into Level D1 when faced, say, with a task requiring skills I don't possess.
For example, lots of managers are D4 when dealing with the day-to-day running of their department, but move to D1 or D2 when dealing with a sensitive employee issue.

19. Another Way to look at Follower Development is Readiness
Ability
Knowledge
Experience
Skills
Willingness
Confidence
Commitment
Motivation

20. Four Levels of Readiness
R1 - Unable and Unwilling or Insecure.
R2 - Unable but Willing or Confident.
R3 - Able but Unwilling or Insecure.
R4 - Able and Willing and Confident.
Several key points need to be made:
Readiness is the interplay between ability and willingness.
Just because a person is capable doesn’t mean they’re able. What is the difference?
My willingness for doing a task may well determine the degree of skill I will demonstrate. Can you give me some examples. May have someone who is able but doesn’t isn’t motivated or doesn’t show commitment.
Also my level of skill may well determine how willing I am to take the task on. For example in R1, I may be so new that I’m insecure doing the task. Give your personal example.
R2 Is not ready yet. Where most folks enter. Why? Have basic knowledge either from school or OJT at DFAS. But haven’t had the chance to demonstrate the skill.
R3 Ability is being demonstrated fairly consistently and at moderate to high levels . Lack some confidence in their ability or insecure about performing task with less leader involvement.
R4 is a high level of ability blended with confidence, commitment and a sense of ownership. Now let’s turn our attention to looking at each level of team/team member readiness.

21. Self-Assessment Scoring
Activity
Self-Assessment Scoring

22. Situational Leadership Types: Examples from Film
Six video clips:
What type of Follower Development / Readiness / Willingness do you see?
What type of Situational Leadership do you see - Directing, Coaching, Supporting, Delegating
Leadership Clips
1. Able , unwilling = participating 2. unable , willing = selling 3. Unable , unwilling = telling 4. able , willing = delegating 5. able , unwilling = participating 6. able , willing = delegating

23. Development / Readiness and Willingness Level
Film Examples
Development / Readiness and Willingness Level
Film
Leadership Style
Blind Side
Able, Unwilling
Supporting, Participating (S3)
Sister Act
Unable, Willing
Coaching, Selling (S2)
Gomer Pyle
Unable, Unwilling
Directing, Telling (S1)
School of Rock
Able, Willing
Delegating (S4)
McFarland, USA
Able, Unwilling
Supporting, Participating (S3)
Apollo 13
Able, Willing
Delegating (S4)

24. Where is this going?
Blanchard and Hersey said that the Leadership Style (S1 - S4) of the leader must correspond to the Development level (D1 - D4) of the follower - and it's the leader who adapts.
By adopting the right style to suit the follower's development level, work gets done, relationships are built up, and most importantly, the follower's development level will rise to D4, to everyone's benefit.

25. Individual’s Needs By Development Level
D4: Self Reliant Achiever
Listen to updates on work
More authority
Your opinion, when asked
New challenges
Acknowledgement of contribution
Autonomy
D3: Capable but Cautious Contributor
Sounding board
Your opinion about ideas
Encouragement, vote of confidence
Help looking at skills and results objectively
Good questions about the work being done
D2: Disillusioned Learner
To know WHY he/she is doing this
Reassurance mistakes are part of learning
Feedback on progress
Praise for making progress
Encouragement
To know who can help
D1: Enthusiastic Beginner
Clear Goals
Direction
Understand Role
Priorities
Training
Recognition for transferrable skills
Large amount of feedback on progress done

26. Scenario #1
As a growing software development company, you recently hired Mary as a new software engineer from the local university. She has experience programming JAVA and using Oracle databases and is a good fit for your next project. During her first week at work, she expresses excitement at the opportunity to work on your products. She is confident in her JAVA programming skills, and wants to learn everything she can as fast as possible. She wants to contribute.
Diagnosis
Goal/Task knowledge?
Transferrable skills?
Motivation?
Confidence?
What is Mary’s development level? D1

27. Scenario #2
Jim was a successful scrum master with the 4 person CRM development team. Due to his success with promoting Agile practices and Scrum with his team, Jim was transitioned to a new development team with 6 team members that he had not worked with before. His team is chartered with building a Data Warehouse to support Sales. Jim is excited at the opportunity to meet new people and work on a new project but he is concerned because he does not have experience with building a Data Warehouse.
Diagnosis
Goal/Task knowledge?
Transferrable skills?
Motivation?
Confidence?
What is Jim’s development level? D3

28. Scenario #3
Tim is a QA team member on your Scrum team. You are working with the team to begin utilizing ATDD and automated integration testing with Fitnesse. At first Tim was open and willing to trying it. But after spending 2 iterations trying to setup the framework and working with Jennifer on writing scenarios and acceptance tests, he is frustrated and is now rebelling. He is saying, “This isn’t going to work! We can’t get it working. Our stories and tests aren’t making sense. I just don’t see how this is going to help us.”
Diagnosis
Goal/Task knowledge?
Transferrable skills?
Motivation?
Confidence?
What is Tim’s development level? D2

29. Scenario #4
Julie is a very accomplished architect in your group. She has been leading the technology transition to the next platform for your service. She has been teaching fellow engineers new technology concepts, driving significant improvements in design, and is the glue that keeps the group together. You can give her new goals and she delivers. And she has brought new goals and strategies to the team and delivered those as well.
Diagnosis
Goal/Task knowledge?
Transferrable skills?
Motivation?
Confidence?
What is Julie’s development level? D4

30. Leadership Behaviors
S4 – Delegating
Empowers the individual to act independently with appropriate resources to get the job done
S3 - Supporting
Leader and individual make decisions together. Leader’s role is to facilitate, listen, draw out, encourage, and support.
S2 – Coaching
Explains why, solicits suggestions, praises behaviors that are approximately right, and continues to direct goal or task accomplishment.
S1 – Directing
Provides direction about goals shows and tells how, closely tracks the individual’s performance in order to provide frequent feedback on results.
There is no “best” leadership style just the right one at the right time.

31. Scenario #1
As a growing software development company, you recently hired Mary as a new software engineer from the local university. She has experience programming JAVA and using Oracle databases and is a good fit for your next project. During her first week at work, she expresses excitement at the opportunity to work on your products. She is confident in her JAVA programming skills, and wants to learn everything she can as fast as possible. She wants to contribute.
Mary’s development level is D1.
What leadership style matches Mary’s level?
What do you do to help Mary? S1

32. Scenario #2
Jim was a successful scrum master with the 4 person CRM development team. Due to his success with promoting Agile practices and Scrum with his team, Jim was transitioned to a new development team with 6 team members that he had not worked with before. His team is chartered with building a Data Warehouse to support Sales. Jim is excited at the opportunity to meet new people and work on a new project but he is concerned because he does not have experience with building a Data Warehouse.
Jim’s development level is D3.
What leadership style matches Jim’s level?
What do you do to help Jim? S3

33. Scenario #3
Tim is a QA team member on your Scrum team. You are working with the team to begin utilizing ATDD and automated integration testing with Fitnesse. At first Tim was open and willing to trying it. But after spending 2 iterations trying to setup the framework and working with Jennifer on writing scenarios and acceptance tests, he is frustrated and is now rebelling. He is saying, “This isn’t going to work! We can’t get it working. Our stories and tests aren’t making sense. I just don’t see how this is going to help us.”
Tim’s development level is D2.
What leadership style matches Tim’s level?
What do you do to help Tim? S2

34. Scenario #4
Julie is a very accomplished architect in your group. She has been leading the technology transition to the next platform for your service. She has been teaching fellow engineers new technology concepts, driving significant improvements in design, and is the glue that keeps the group together. You can give her new goals and she delivers. And she has brought new goals and strategies to the team and delivered those as well.
Julie’s development level is D4.
What leadership style matches Julie’s level?
What do you do to help Julie? S4

35. Situational Leadership Grid
S3: Supporting Praise, Listen, Facilitate For people who have/are:
High Competence
Variable Commitment
Able but Unwilling or Insecure
S2: Coaching Direct and Support For people who have/are:
Some Competence
Some Commitment
Unable but Willing and/or Motivated
S4: Delegating Turning over Responsibility for Day-to-Day Decision Making For people who have/are:
High Commitment
Able and Willing and/or Motivated
S1: Directing Structure, Control, Supervise For people who have/are:
Low Competence
Unable and Unwilling and/or Insecure
High
Low
Supportive Behavior
Directive Behavior D1 D2 D3 D4

36. Summary What is Situational Leadership? Leadership Model History
Why is it popular among managers?
Leadership Behaviors & Styles
Development Levels
Practical Examples and Application