SITUATIONAL LEADERSHIP

Dilep Misra

Head Corporate HR & Executive Coach

 

Whether Situational Leadership is helpful or not?

In the present context there is no one leadership style which fits well. The situational leadership style is the most successful style practised by most leaders in many leading organizations across the world. It is a natural style of leadership based on the Task Behaviour, relationship behaviour and followers readiness/capability/maturity for performing certain task. It has a combination leadership style which the leaders choose to apply based on the situation. The Leader before choosing the style first seek to analyse the situation understand the Organization culture, Individual level of readiness their capability to do certain work.

These types of leaders are generally found to be successful and popular amongst their followers. They understand how to get the work done at different situation and at the same time others feel comfortable working with them. They choose to change their style based on the situation and readiness of individual. The change their leadership hat of Autocratic, Democratic, Delegative, Coach, Mentor, Motivator & Task master based on situation.

The Organization prefers to have them as their understanding about the situation helps in the growth of the organization. The people like them and find it easy as such leader makes them comfortable and assign them work based on their capability and help developing them based on their learning style.

What are some of the common Leadership Style?

There are many ways in which leadership can be categorized. Accordingly there are various types of leaders as given below.

·        Visionary Leader: These types of leaders have a long term prospective and they are mostly Sr. Executives, Directors &  Presidents of the organization.

·        Transactional Leader: These are the people who normally are chosen to lead teams based on particular task/Transaction for a fixed time period. They are mostly short term leaders.

·        Integration Leader: They are mostly medium-term leaders. They help organization at resolving conflicts and lead the organization to greater heights by developing & integrating best systems and practices. 

·        Transformational Leaders: They have a clear vision and sense of purpose. They can inspire people by giving intellectual stimulation and constructive feedback. They are the change leaders and can help transforming the organization for better growth. 

·        Charismatic Leader:  They mostly depend and believe on themselves rather than people/ Team. They can influence and carry the mass with them. Their personality and emotional appeal attract others towards them.

·        Autocratic Leaders: These types of leaders are task oriented. They take all decisions themselves and force them on others to follow. They are the extreme form of transaction leaders.

·        Bureaucratic Leaders: They are very bookies in nature. The follow rules line by line and expect others to follow them. They are very successful in the areas where safety, security & quality is of prime importance.

·        Democratic Leaders: Democratic leaders take final decision after listening to the others and team. He gives fare opportunity to others to raise their concern and ideas. They are also liked by others.

·        Laissez–Faire Leaders: They believe others are experienced and capable of executing the assignment independently. Such leaders give full freedom to others and delegate the assignment.

How easy/Hard is it for employees to adjust/follow such Leaders with varied Leadership style?

We all know that employees in an organization normally have different level of skills & capability. They are different from each other when it comes to their attitude, behaviour, learning style and level of Maturity. This makes them unique as an individual. This varied nature of differences amongst employees makes it difficult for a leader to manage them with a common leadership style.

Where as in case of a Situational leader have lot many flexibility in its approach to a work based on situation. This flexibility made them successful in managing to get work done through any employee at any situation. The uniqueness of it is here the employee does not have to change his/her style of working to suit the functioning style of the leader. The leader based on the employee skills & capability change his approach in managing them at work place.

The employees find it more comfortable on their part in to follow such leaders. Such leader with varied leadership style is found to be much liked by the people and have mass followers. Their approach not only makes the employee feel comfortable but also helps them to give their best at work place. These unique leaders with their flexible style of approach bring win- win situation within Employee, Employer and the leader himself.

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