A one-size-fits-all leadership style cannot meet the needs of diverse people in an organization. Employees must be treated according to their skills and expertise. This blog will explore how situational leadership styles can be implemented in any professional situation.
Table of Contents
What Is Situational Leadership?
Have you ever wondered why politicians modify their speech according to the voters they plan to address? This is one example of situational leadership and modification. It involves adapting leadership style to unique tasks, work environments, and needs of a team.
As a matter of example, in welcoming a new employee to your team, good talent acquisition initiatives suggest that you show him or her how any assigned work is expected to be done, allowing a few days for observation and learning. Once done, and a tacit understanding is reached, you may change your leadership style to match his or her adjusted level of performance readiness.
Benefits of Situational Leadership In The Workplace
Situational leadership offers various benefits in the workplace. Some of them are discussed below.
Flexible Career in Finance
Situational leadership is flexible, as it enables the leader to adjust to different situations and various team members. In order to optimize this approach, the leader should have a unique relationship with each team member in order to understand their specific feelings and management requirements.
A leader might use a direct leadership style for a new hire but assign training tasks to the most experienced member. This method will also help in managing difficult employees.
Encourages Collaboration
When all employees are working together under a situational leadership model, this encourages collaboration among team members. There is a free flow of ideas, feedback, and communication. In the case of new hires, this expedites effective integration, especially when they are able to interface with an experienced member of the team.
Assesses Maturity Levels
A leader has to be both directive and supportive when assigning tasks to his or her team members. Situational leaders can connect to employees’ emotions and read their psychological state accordingly.
In both centralized and decentralized recruitment, understanding the maturity levels of the team members will allow managers to determine what training programs and professional support they may need to leverage. This aids in reducing negative attrition.
Enhances Work Productivity
In situational leadership, a leader can also use a transformational leadership style, wherein he or she works with the team members to evaluate what products or processes need improvements so that they can add more value to the process. This promotes constructive feedback, and ultimately, increased productivity.
Boosts Employee Motivation
A situational leadership style also reduces challenges facing HR, such as lack of employee engagement and motivation. When leaders are concerned about their team members, they begin to delegate tasks according to skills and expertise, and support each individual in achieving set goals. In response to this, employees are motivated to be more creative, they work more efficiently, and are often more engaged in their deliverables.
How to Implement Situational Leadership
Here are a few tips that can help you or your team to implement a situational leadership style:
Evaluate Engagement
Employee engagement not only refers to job satisfaction, it also refers to how punctual employees are and whether they are involved in workplace activities. It indicates that employees are invested in the company’s success. To evaluate employee engagement, you might consider establishing focus groups, tracking internal email engagement, or pulsing regular surveys in order to solicit earnest feedback.
Measure Ability
Measuring ability and performance for healthy working relationships and improved appraisal processes is important. Your team must be capable of performing the tasks assigned to them. You can measure the functional effectiveness of your employees through KPI analysis and self-assessment tests.
Understand Personalities
Try to get to know your team members and, by default, to get to know their individual personalities. This will help better motivate your employees and aid in reducing workplace conflicts.
Set Clear Expectations
Make sure that you provide concrete guidelines to employees about what is needed from them. Communicate organizational goals and relay realistic expectations of intended outcomes. Lay down concrete ground rules and always put your objectives in writing.
Offer Coaching
Ensure that your employees are well-trained and, whenever necessary, offer coaching and situational leadership training. It does not necessarily have to be done through formalized learning sessions. Constructive feedback is one of the best ways to educate employees.
Provide Instructions
A good leader provides a clear direction through proper instructions, especially when a team’s reach or capability is limited. Clear and concise direction is also useful when a team member requires close supervision.
Set an Example
Actions speak louder than words, and your behavior says much about your character and your own abilities. Listen to your team members and show appreciation when warranted. This will inevitably trickle down, encouraging a culture of mutual respect.
Conclusion
Situational leadership is not only about the skills of a team leader; what matters most is the leader’s ability to modify and adapt according to the changing requirements. It is a personalized approach to solving problems, which can help leaders understand and manage challenging situations and bring out the best in each employee. For that reason, companies should allocate a budget to situational leadership training in order to cultivate more comprehensive leadership principles within their organizations.
