Business Courses/Business 101: Principles of ManagementCourse
- AuthorEmma Harper
Emma Harper holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Michigan State University. She has extensive knowledge and experience in teaching and writing social sciences topics and articles. She has taught at Stanford University for more than six years.
View bio - InstructorSherri Hartzell
Sherri has taught college business and communication courses. She also holds three degrees including communications, business, educational leadership/technology.
View bio
Explore the characteristics of a situational leader. Learn about situational leadership style and find out how it works. See situational leadership examples.Updated: 11/21/2023
Table of Contents
- What is a Situational Leader?
- How Situational Leadership Works
- Situational Leader Characteristics
- Situational Leadership Styles
- Examples of Situational Leadership
- Lesson Summary
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the characteristics of situational leaders?
Situational leaders are flexible to enhance their leadership skills to the changing condition of the work environment. They are also insightful and trustworthy. This character trait is exhibited in their management skills of easily modifying to new conditions and establishing trust with the participants through close supervision and engagement.
What does a situational leader do?
A situational leader maintains a close connection with team members through constant communication and engagement. They evaluate and modify their leadership skills to satisfy the needs of participants for the organizations' success.
What is situational leadership style?
It is a leadership model whereby the leader's behavior depends upon the situation. This means a change in participants and their skills will prompt the leader also to change their leadership style to fit their needs.
Who is an example of a situational leader?
A sports team manager is an example of a situational leader. Every new season, new members join while others leave. In such a situation, the leader must adapt to the skills of the new and incorporate them into the team.
Table of Contents
- What is a Situational Leader?
- How Situational Leadership Works
- Situational Leader Characteristics
- Situational Leadership Styles
- Examples of Situational Leadership
- Lesson Summary
A situational leader is a leader who considers the uniqueness of every situation and the experience level of their followers when deciding upon how to lead them best. The leader's management skills are only partially critical in this form of leadership; instead, the leader's ability to adjust to the work environment to improve leadership skills is the most crucial aspect required. Additionally, a leader's ability to adapt to the team's needs allows the team and the leader to align on the same organizational goals. Close supervision and constant engagement practiced by the situational leader during interaction inform the leader of the organization's trend toward achieving success.
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Situational leadership is a form of leadership whereby leaders modify their leadership to fit the current work condition or the requirements of the team members. Situational management was produced by the contingency school of thought that argues that a leader's behavior is based on the situation. According to this model, a leader should modify the team or work environment requirements to enhance leadership skills. Moreover, according to the situational theory postulated by Blanchard and Hersey, leaders ought to adjust their behaviors based on the prevailing circ*mstances.
Adjusting to situational leadership operates through several skills, such as informing, selling, participating, and delegating. Leaders enforce the informing or telling skill when supervising the team's performance and constantly communicating their objectives. The selling skill is used when a leader wants to encourage a team to improve their performance. This skill goes in hand with the participating skill as it involves motivating employees to complete the tasks given. Delegation involves providing assistance on work done. The success of using the situational leadership model is subject to the effective use of the aforementioned skills to enable a leader to adapt accordingly in any given situation.
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Some of the characteristics of a situational leader include:
- They have direction-giving skills. The success of an organization in a team depends on the directions offered. An effective situational leader in the provision of directions promotes effectiveness through close supervision in the operation of an organization and completing tasks.
- They are flexible. Situational leadership is characterized by constant modification of leadership to suit the current work environment, which necessitates a leader to be flexible.
- A situational leader encourages participants. Through participating leadership skills, situational leaders identify areas of team competence where the team still needs to perfect the confidence and disposition necessary to complete the work. The leader shows them ways of activating their work completion skills. It is through encouragement a team can be independent and effective.
- They have delegation skills. A leader can identify each participant's abilities and delegate work for their independency to complete tasks. Delegation is enhanced through leadership modification as the leader carries out more contact.
- They can conduct constant coaching. As they try to suit the team's requirements and new working environment, situational leaders can promote the team's development and independence through continuous assessment of the team and new work conditions.
- They are honest about what they learn. Honesty assists in making their adaptation easier and more effective when guiding and delegating roles instead of focusing on a leadership style that is advantageous to them.
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There are various types of situational leadership styles, including:
- Directing: This leadership style is enforced on participants when a leader wants to understand how the management of an organization operates. It is also implemented when a leader identifies some incompetence in the team's operation due to reduced commitment and aims at motivating them.
- Coaching: It is also an explaining style and is mostly enforced in the initial days of management in a new work environment or team. The leader does not engage in close supervision but learns through engagement with the team. A leader may also employ a team in a new role without experience and observe their performance to give them feedback later while guiding areas they can improve.
- Supporting: Leaders implement this leadership style when the participants have appropriate skills in performing a particular task but cannot complete the work due to insufficient motivation and courage. A situation leader identifies the root cause of the issue and comes up with supportive measures to eliminate the problems and encourage them to improve their performance in the process.
- Delegating: This leadership style is most effective when a leader, through experience with the team, identifies their self-independent abilities and entrusts them with the freedom to complete tasks without supervision. This situational leadership style promotes trust and confidence between the team and the leader.
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One example of situational leadership occurs when a sports team acquires new members while others are leaving. The coach must adapt to the new members who join the team every season and modify the group's weaknesses and strengths that keep changing every season. The team manager employs close supervision to understand the new team's abilities and try to improve their capabilities to the level of the other groups.
Another example includes organizations that constantly handle emergencies, such as medical specialists and firefighters. Every unpredictable crisis comes with new variables that warrant new response conditions. Therefore, the personnel involved must adapt to the new emergency.
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Situational leadership is a type of leadership whereby leaders modify their skills to suit the current needs. The contingency school of thought produced situational management. A situation leader reacts to the situation and alters their leadership style to suit the needs of their members and that situation. The leader's personal skills are not necessarily important in situational leadership since it depends on engagement with the new team's experience. For example, a coach who gets new players of different age groups this season must apply situational leadership in deciding the instructions they give to members of varying age groups as per their learning abilities. The coach will change their style based on the situation and the needs of the participants. This is in line with the situational theory, which postulates that leaders should adjust their behaviors depending on circ*mstances. Leaders can know the success trend of an organization through situational leadership as they conduct close supervision while engaging in other leadership skills.
A situational leader should have several skills, such as direction-giving, flexible, insightful nature, good supervision, and motivational skills. Situational leadership adopts various leadership styles, such as directing, coaching, supporting, and delegating. Compared to other leadership styles, situational leadership is more practical and can be applied in diverse fields as that is the nature of its flexibility.
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Video Transcript
The Situational Leader
You like pot-a-to. I like pot-ah-to. You like tom-a-to. I like tom-ah-to. Pot-a-to, pot-ah-to, tom-a-to, tom-ah-to - who's to say which is right? Depending on your preference, I am sure you could easily argue one is better than the other, but is that always true in every situation? The situational leader would suggest not.
Situational Leadership Defined
The situational leader emerged out of the contingency school of management, which can be summarized as the 'it all depends' approach.
According to situational theorists, there are no universal behaviors or practices appropriate for all leadership scenarios.
They believe effective leader behaviors differ from situation to situation. A manager must choose the appropriate management style based on the leadership situation and the capacity of both the leader and his or her followers. Consequently, before the situational leader can make decisions, they have to first assess these factors. The situational leader will then adjust their style to accommodate any limitations that surround the situation, themselves, and the subordinates.
Situational Leader Example
To better understand situational leadership, let's take a look at this example.
Sanjay is a head nurse at a small hospital. As a nurse, Sanjay faces high pressure situations that require him to assess the surrounding circ*mstances on an individual basis. For example, when faced with a situation where a patient is receiving routine treatment, Sanjay can allow his subordinates to participate in the decision making and even allow them to make decisions on their own. Because the situation is typical and Sanjay's employees are well trained to handle it, he can be far more laissez-faire, or give the least possible guidance to subordinates. However, in a code blue scenario where a patient might be on the verge of dying, Sanjay must maintain a higher degree of control over the situation and decision making.
The situation is high risk, and while Sanjay's subordinates may have the necessary skills to handle the situation on their own, he does not allow room for error. Sanjay knows that he must offer direction based on what he feels is best for the patient. There is no time to discuss, collaborate or vote on decisions. Sanjay must quickly assess the situation for what needs to be done and who the best people are to do it.
Lesson Summary
Let's review. Situational theorists believe universal behaviors or practices do not exist, and effective leaders know how to vary their behaviors from situation to situation.
The situational leader will assess the leadership situation and the capacity of both the leader and his or her followers before choosing the appropriate management style for decision making. A nurse provides a good example of someone who needs to use situational leadership on a daily basis. The question I leave you with is how would you handle a leadership role under pressure? Would you maintain your traditional style, or would you accommodate the limitations that surround the situation, yourself and your subordinates?
Lesson Objective
After viewing this lesson, you should be able to define situational leadership, the school of thought from which it emerges, and explain the factors that are considered when evaluating leadership scenarios.
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