Situational Leadership

We've already talked about the importance of the employees to keep a company going. In addition to this topic we've summed up some ways to motivate them because employers want full engagement and that isn't self-evident. Furthermore we've also focused on the importance of employers itselfs.


In my opinion everything starts with a good employer, a good leader. Indead motivating your staff is crucial, but I don't think a leader who hasn't got the right attitude will succeed in encouraging his personnel.
Shanna also has refered to the crucial question that comes in our mind when we talk about 'a good leader': What is a good leader? What characteristics does he need to have? When I think about the representation of a good leader in my view, it is a leader who knows how to adapt him to a specific situation. Moreover not in every business a good leader has the same profile. In the literature they talk about 'Situational Leadership'.


A good leader needs to find the right balance between relationship orientation behaviour and task orientation behaviour, depending on different situations. To give you an idea of those different types I've posted an image of  'The 3D Theory of Managerial Effectiveness' of William Reddin.
In blue we see the basic types. The second names (after the /) in blue are the terms used by Hersey & Blanchard in their theory. The terms in green and red are the eight leadership styles of Reddins vision. The style in red shows the less effective style, in green a more effective style for the particular basic type.

I think that for this blog-task knowing that there are different types, is sufficient. For a specific description of the types I refer to
http://leadershipchamps.wordpress.com/2008/03/06/knowing-switching-leadership-styles-for-managerial-effectiveness/


Yaël Claeys