Chapter 5 concerns the situational approach to leadership, which consists of both a directive and a supporting component. Directive leaders assist team members in reaching their objectives by providing instruction, defining responsibilities, creating timetables, and establishing criteria for success (Northouse, 2015). The opposite is true of supportive actions, which make everyone in the group feel good about themselves, their colleagues, and the circumstance. Directive and supportive behaviors have been later separated into four distinct groups based on the theory. Those leadership styles include directing, coaching, supporting, and delegating approaches (Northouse, 2015). This hypothesis is grounded in the relationship between a leader’s degree of guidance, the leader’s level of social and emotional support, and the followers’ level of maturity in completing a particular job. Established companies’ leaders and managers may use the principles of situational leadership by training and mentoring their employees. There is a connection between situational leadership and adaptive leader behavior, which may be seen as increasing the degree to which a manager modifies their leadership style to fit a given circumstance.
With regard to the text-to-self link, I have evaluated how well I can adjust to new circumstances as a leader. I successfully adopted a high-directive and low-supportive leadership style, for example, while dealing with followers in the first stage of growth. Leaders of all ages and backgrounds may benefit from the situational leadership model’s strategies for motivating employees to alter their behavior and so boosting productivity since these techniques cut through cultural and generational divides (Mulyana et al., 2022). Connecting theory and practice, I maintain that a leader’s success hinges on his or her capacity to accurately gauge an employee’s performance preparedness and employ the most suitable leadership style given the circumstances. A new recruit, for instance, might need more guidance than an experienced worker because of their lower levels of familiarity with the activity. In this instance, I recalled a manager who should have used a proper situational approach but instead gave a new hire limited direction. On the contrary, if the manager gave the worker enough information and guidance, they would feel like they had the tools they needed to do the job right.
After reading the chapter, I utilized a situational leadership instrument that presented me with four scenarios from the workplace and asked me to choose which leadership approach I would utilize in each one. The results of the Situational Leadership Questionnaire are discussed briefly to provide light on whether or not the respondent has the necessary flexibility and sound judgment to be an effective leader. It came as a pleasant surprise to see that my identification of the stages of growth and the various types of leadership was spot-on. Based on the percentage of times I got a question right, I can be considered an effective leader and a good diagnostician (Northouse, 2015). In addition, I can tell that my leadership is flexible because of the variety of options I have pursued. A situational leader can shift gears and adjust to meet his team’s demands, emphasizing flexibility. Using the evaluation tool, I was able to see how important it is for leaders to modify their approach depending on the level of maturity, expertise, and motivation of their followers.
And yet, I have also uncovered several prospects and advice for myself as a leader. Since I am a more demanding leader, the instrument results inspired me to adopt a more supportive management style. On the other hand, I am not as confident in using the situational approach to identify the best leadership style to employ at any given time. Individual variations only account for a small fraction of the total variance; consequently, a high level of competence is required to adapt successfully to a wide variety of settings. Because of this, a leadership style that works well in one context may be entirely ineffectual in another. I believe that as my practical experience grows, my ability to apply situational theory to real-world problems will also increase
References
Mulyana, A., Ridaryanthi, M., Faridah, S., Umarella, F. H., & Endri, E. (2022). Socio-emotional leadership style as implementation of situational leadership communication in the face of radical change. Academic Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, 11(3), 150. Web.
Northouse, P. G. (2015). Leadership: Theory and practice. Sage Publications.