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9/11/13 The Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership® Theory - Choosing the Right Style for the Right People

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The Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership® Theory

Choosing the Right Leadership Style for the Right People

What type of leadership do your people need?

© iStockphoto/oversnap

You've just finished training the newest member of your team. Now that he's

ready to start working, you give him the data he needs to enter into the

company's database, and you hurry off to a meeting.

When you return later that afternoon, you find that he hasn't done anything. He

didn't know what to do, and he didn't have the confidence to ask for help. As a

result, hours have been lost, and you have to rush to enter the data on time.

Although you may want to blame the worker, the truth is that you're as much to

blame as he is.

How can you avoid situations like this?

Management experts Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard argue that these things

happen because leaders don't match their style of leadership to the maturity of

the people they're leading. When style and maturity aren't matched, failure is

the result.

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In this article, we'll review the Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership®

Theory, and we'll explain how it's used in different leadership situations.

Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership Theory

The Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership Theory was created by Dr Paul

Hersey, a professor and author of "The Situational Leader," and Ken Blanchard,

author of the best selling "One-Minute Manager," among others.

The theory states that instead of using just one style, successful leaders should

change their leadership styles based on the maturity of the people they're

leading and the details of the task. Using this theory, leaders should be able to

place more or less emphasis on the task, and more or less emphasis on the

relationships with the people they're leading, depending on what's needed to

get the job done successfully.

Leadership Styles

According to Hersey and Blanchard, there are four main leadership styles:

Telling (S1) – Leaders tell their people what to do and how to do it.

Selling (S2) – Leaders provide information and direction, but there's more

communication with followers. Leaders "sell" their message to get people on

board.

Participating (S3) – Leaders focus more on the relationship and less on

direction. The leader works with the team, and shares decision-making

responsibilities.

Delegating (S4) – Leaders pass most of the responsibility onto the follower

or group. The leaders still monitor progress, but they're less involved in

decisions.

As you can see, styles S1 and S2 are focused on getting the task done. Styles S3

and S4 are more concerned with developing team members' abilities to work

independently.

Maturity Levels

According to Hersey and Blanchard, knowing when to use each style is largely

dependent on the maturity of the person or group you're leading. They break

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maturity down into four different levels:

M1 – People at this level of maturity are at the bottom level of the scale.

They lack the knowledge, skills, or confidence to work on their own, and they

often need to be pushed to take the task on.

M2 – at this level, followers might be willing to work on the task, but they

still don't have the skills to complete it successfully.

M3 – Here, followers are ready and willing to help with the task. They have

more skills than the M2 group, but they're still not confident in their

abilities.

M4 – These followers are able to work on their own. They have high

confidence and strong skills, and they're committed to the task.

The Hersey-Blanchard model maps each leadership style to each maturity level,

as shown below.

Maturity Level Most Appropriate

Leadership Style

M1: Low maturity S1: Telling/directing

M2: Medium maturity, limited skills S2: Selling/coaching

M3: Medium maturity, higher skills but lacking

confidence

S3: Participating/supporting

M4: High maturity S4: Delegating

To use this model, reflect on the maturity of individuals within your team. The

table above shows which leadership style Hersey and Blanchard recommend for

people with that level of maturity.

Leadership Style Examples 1. You're about to leave for an extended holiday, and your tasks will be handled

by an experienced colleague. He's very familiar with your responsibilities,

and he's excited to do the job.

2. Instead of trusting his knowledge and skills to do the work, you spend hours

creating a detailed list of tasks for which he'll be responsible, and give full

instructions on how to do them.

3. The result? Your work gets done, but you've damaged the relationship with

your colleague by your lack of trust. He was an M4 in maturity, and yet you

used an S1 leadership style instead of an S4, which would have been more

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appropriate.

4. You've just been put in charge of leading a new team. It's your first time

working with these people. As far as you can tell, they have some of the

necessary skills to reach the department's goals, but not all of them. The

good news is that they're excited and willing to do the work.

5. You estimate they're at an M3 maturity level, so you use the matching S3

leadership style. You coach them through the project's goals, pushing and

teaching where necessary, but largely leaving them to make their own

decisions. As a result, their relationship with you is strengthened, and the

team is successful.

Situational Leadership® is a registered trademark of the Center for Leadership

Studies [1].

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What members say...

rashidm wrote

Very simple and effective leadership style. Very interesting!

January 30, 2010

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1. http://www.situational.com/

2. http://www.mindtools.com/community/pages/article/newLDR_44.php?printFriendly=1

3. http://www.mindtools.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3848