Tag Archives: situational leadership

Situational Leadership II

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The Situational Leadership II model implies there is no one style of leadership. People should be managed according to the situation. Managers should diagnose the development level of their team members in relation to their work tasks and projects, then manage them using the appropriate leadership style. This model was first developed by Paul Hersey (late) and Ken Blanchard and has been updated by Ken Blanchard to Situational Leadership II. Below are the development levels and appropriate leadership styles.

20 - Situational Leadership II

VIRTUAL ACTIVITY: INTRODUCING SITUATIONAL LEADERSHIP – REVIEW, REFLECT AND CLOSE

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INTRODUCTION

This is the final post for the session on Introducing Situational Leadership. The previous posts on the session and where you can read them are below:

  • What is situational leadership (here)?
  • What is a leadership style (here)?
  • The four leadership styles (here)
  • The four development levels (here)
  • Matching leadership styles to development levels (here)
  • Reflecting on my team (here)

In this post, the session will be reviewed, participants will have a final reflection of what they learnt during the session and then the session will be brought to a close.

FACILITATION

SESSION REVIEW

  • Display the slide titled – SESSION REVIEW.

Slide18

  • Tell them that:
    • During this session we’ve explored what situational leadership is.
    • We also discussed the four leadership styles and development levels under situational leaders.
    • We also looked at how the leadership styles match up with the development levels.
    • The final activity is for you to think about what you will do differently as a result of your learning today.

REFLECT – NOTE – ACT

  • Display the slide titled – REFLECT – NOTE – ACT.

Slide19

  • Direct each person to the section in their workbooks titled – REFLECT – NOTE – ACT. Here is the template for this activity – reflect-note-act template
  • Give them 10-minutes to do the activity there.
  • When the 10-minutes is up, stop them and again ask for each of them to share one thing they are either going to start doing, stop doing or continue doing.
  • Listen to each of them without commenting.
  • When they finish, thank them for doing the activity and let them know you’ve now come to the end of the session.

 END THE SESSION

  • Display the next slide and end the session.

Slide20

VIRTUAL ACTIVITY: INTRODUCING SITUATIONAL LEADERSHIP – REFLECTING ON MY TEAM

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INTRODUCTION

So far in this session we have explored:

  • what situational leadership is (read it here),
  • what a leadership style is (read it here), 
  • the four leadership styles (read it here),
  • four development levels (read it here), and
  • how the leadership styles match up to the development levels (read it here).

In this section the participants will reflect on how to apply situational leadership to their own teams.

FACILITATION

  • Display the slide titled – REFLECTING ON MY TEAM.

Slide17

  • Then tell them that:
    • You are now going to do a self-reflective exercise to think about your team members’ development levels.
    • You will also think about the appropriate leadership style for each team member.
    • What adjustments you need to make to be more flexible in your leadership style.
    • Any skills and knowledge you need to be effective at being a situational leader.
  • Direct them to the part of their workbooks titled – REFLECTING ON MY TEAM, to do the activity (here is the template for the workbook activity –  Reflecting on my team template).
  • Give them 15-minutes for the activity.
  • When their time is up, stop them and get everyone’s attention. Ask each person to share one thing from the reflective activity. Each person has the choice of what to share.
  • Allow up to 15-minutes for the sharing and afterwards thank them for doing the activity and sharing.

All the learning activities for the session have now been completed. What is left now is to review the session and a final reflection from the participants. This will be in the next post.

VIRTUAL ACTIVITY: INTRODUCING SITUATIONAL LEADERSHIP – WHICH STYLE FOR WHICH LEVEL?

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INTRODUCTION

Previously we have explored the four leadership styles for situational leadership (see it here) and the four development levels (here). Next we are going to discuss how the leadership styles relate to the development levels.

FACILITATION

  • Once the participants are back from their break, welcome them and allow them to settle down.
  • Then tell them that:
    • We know what the leadership styles are.
    • We also know what the various development levels are.
    • Next, we are going to explore how to match the leadership styles to the development levels.
  • Display the next slide titled – WHICH STYLE FOR WHICH LEVEL?

Slide15

  • The displayed slide has information for a group activity that they will do to start exploring how to match leadership styles to development levels.
  • Read out the information on the slide and use it to set them up to do the activity.
  • Use the ‘breakout rooms’ feature to split them into small groups. None of the groups should have more than four people.
  • Allow them to do the activity for 15-minutes.

WORKBOOK INFORMATION – TIM’S TEAM

In your group read the information about the four team members in Tim’s team and then complete the activity afterwards.

You have 15-minutes to do the task.

Dhara

Dhara has been in the organisation and part of Tim’s team for 8 years. She is highly motivated and experienced. When Tim gives her a project or a task, he leaves her to get on with it because she will complete the task and come back to him with the results. At times, if she needs support, Dhara will ask Tim but that is the exception rather than the norm.

Adrian

Adrian started in the team almost the same time as Dhara. He is very experienced and for the most part can work by himself but Tim has noticed that Adrian is not as enthusiastic or motivated as he used to be. He will get on with the job but it almost seems as if he is bored of it. On a project recently he seemed quite negative and reluctant to contribute even though he has adequate experience, skills and knowledge to work on the project.

Bushra

Bushra started in the team just over a year ago. She is full of energy and very enthusiastic about the job. Since she came from a  different sector, there are still considerable gaps in her skill and knowledge but she has the willingness to learn and she is really good at following instructions. She still has to be shown quite a number of things but Tim believes that within the next six months she will be able to complete most if not all of her tasks independently.

Bello

Bello is new to the team. He was transferred from another department in the organisation. Since what he was doing in his previous team was different he has some skills and experience but still needs more development. That is not a problem since he can be supported to develop the necessary skills but Bello is struggling to get to grips with the job. He does not display confidence that he can complete tasks and gets demotivated when he makes mistakes.

Your task

Now that you have read about all of Tim’s team members, please complete the table below.

ST Table

  • When the time is up stop them.
  • To get feedback from them about the tasks:
    • Ask them for each person’s development level and why they chose the development level.
    • Ask them for the appropriate leadership style for each person and why they chose that leadership style.

FACILITATION (CONTINUED)

  • When the time is up stop them.
  • To get feedback from them about the task:
    • Ask them for each person’s development level and why they chose the development level.
    • Ask them for the appropriate leadership style for each person and why they chose that leadership style.
  • After their feedback display the slide titled – TIM’S TEAM and let them know that you will briefly show them the development level and leadership style for each person.

Slide16

  • Click on the slide once to display the development level for Dhara. Pause for about 3-seconds before clicking the slide again to display the appropriate leadership style for Dhara.
  • Click on the slide once to display the development level for Adrian. Pause for about 3-seconds before clicking the slide again to display the appropriate leadership style for Adrian.
  • Click on the slide once to display the development level for Bushra. Pause for about 3-seconds before clicking the slide again to display the appropriate leadership style for Bushra.
  • Finally, click on the slide once to display the development level for Bello. Pause for about 3-seconds before clicking the slide again to display the appropriate leadership style for Bello.
  • Allow them to read the information on the slide for about 2-minutes. After that ask them for any comments and or questions about the information displayed.
  • Listen to any comments or questions they have and respond appropriately.
  • Next tell them that:
    • We have now explored the most fundamental aspects of the situational leadership approach.
    • Summarily, the approach is about being flexible and not leading every team member exactly the same way.
    • We all tend to have a more comfortable way of leading people that we default to.
    • Situational leadership is challenging us to take the time to understand the needs of our team members and their development levels and then identify the appropriate leadership style to use to support a team member with their general development level or their development level in respect to a task or project.
    • For some of us this will require thinking differently and we are going to do a bit of thinking now about our team members and ourselves.

Next the participants will do a reflection activity to think about how to apply situational leadership to their teams.

VIRTUAL SESSION: INTRODUCING SITUATIONAL LEADERSHIP – THE FOUR DEVELOPMENT LEVELS

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INTRODUCTION

We’ve been exploring situational leadership and in a previous post (here) we looked at the four leadership styles. In this post we will discuss four development levels. Each leadership style is appropriate for a certain development level. We will now discover what the development levels are.

FACILITATION

  • Display the next slide titled – EXPLORING THE FOUR DEVELOPMENT LEVELS.

Slide11

  • Use the information on the slide to set them up to do a group activity where they will read about the development levels and summarise them back to the group.
  • Give them 10-minutes for the activity.
  • When the 10-minutes is up, stop them and bring everyone back to the main room.
  • Then ask each group to present back their summary starting from the group in room 1 through to the group in room 4.
  • When they finish presenting their summaries, thank them for doing the activity and display the slide titled – THE FOUR DEVELOPMENT LEVELS.

Slide12

  • Tell them that:
    • To summarise what you’ve just spoken about, there are four development levels which are determined by a person’s level of competence and commitment.
  • Click on the slide once to display the first development level – D1. Tell them that:
    • The first development level is D1.
    • It is a combination of low competence and high commitment.
    • A person at this development level is low on skills, knowledge and experience in relation to the job role or task but high on motivation or confidence or both.
    • This is a characteristic you may find in people who are new to a job role.
    • They are excited and motivated about the role and willing to take on the tasks but may need a certain degree of direction and support to help them develop the necessary skills, knowledge and experience.
  • Click on the slide to display the second development level – D2. Tell them that:
    • People at this development level have low to some competence. They have some skill, knowledge and experience in relation to the job role or task.
    • They also have low commitment which means either low motivation or low confidence or both.
    • This can happen to people who are working on a challenging task for which they have some competence but have become demotivated because they are struggling with the task.
  • Click on the slide to display the third development level – D3. Tell them that:
    • People at this development level have moderate to high competence but their commitment varies.
    • They have a good level of competence and struggle with their commitment levels.
    • This can be a characteristic of someone who has been in the same role for a long time. They are highly committed but beginning to become demotivated because they are not challenged by the work anymore.
  • Click on the slide to display the last development level – D4. Tell that:
    • A person with this development level has both high competence and commitment.
    • They have a high level of skills, knowledge and experience and are also highly motivated with good self-confidence.
    • When a person is working on a task or project that they are highly competent in and are excited and enthusiastic about, they will operate at this development level.
  • Click the slide again to display an arrow beneath the development levels table indicating that the development levels go from developing to developed starting from D1 to D4.
  • Tell them that:
    • As you move from D1 to D4, the development levels move from least developed which is D1 to most developed which is D4.
  • Display the next slide titled – FACTS ABOUT DEVELOPENT LEVELS.

Slide13

  • You will need to click on the slide four times to display all the information. Each time you click, some information is displayed which you should read out to the delegates.
  • After that ask them for any questions and/or comments they have about what you’ve discussed so far.
  • Listen to any comments and/or questions they have and respond appropriately.
  • Then stop for a 10-minutes break.

In the next post we will look at how to match leadership styles to development levels.

VIRTUAL SESSION: INTRODUCING SITUATIONAL LEADERSIP – WHAT ARE THE FOUR LEADERSHIP STYLES?

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Previously, we explored what a leadership style is (read the post here). In this post the the activity will focus on what the four leadership styles under Situational Leadership are.

FACILITATION

  • Display the slide titled – FOUR LEADERSHIP STYLES.

Slide8

  • Tell them that there are four leadership styles which are shown on the slide.
  • Let them know that instead of you describing the styles you will let them discover what they are through a quick activity.
  • Display the slide titled – EXPLORING THE LEADERSHIP STYLES.

Slide9

  • Use the information on the slide to set them up to do a quick group activity where they will read the leadership styles and summarise them back to the group.
  • Break them into four small groups using the ‘breakout rooms’ function.
  • Give them 6-minutes for the activity.
  • When 6-minutes is up, stop them and bring everyone back to the main room.
  • Then ask each group to present back their summary starting from the group in room 1 through to the group in room 4.
  • When they finish, thank them for doing the activity and then display the slide titled – DIRECTIVE AND SUPPORTIVE BEHAVIOUR.

Slide10

  • Tell them that:
    • Each leadership style is a combination of Supportive and Directive behaviour.
    • Supportive behaviour is about listening, asking questions, facilitating, praising, and explaining.
    • While directive behaviour is about structure, organise, teach, and supervise.
    • Directive behaviour is about explicitly telling people what to do while supportive behaviour is about working with people and encouraging them to make more of their own decisions.
    • It is the combination of these two behaviours in varying proportions that helps to determine each leadership style.
  • Click on the slide to display all the leadership styles. Tell them that:
    • You can see how each leadership style is determined by the combination of both high and low supportive and directive behaviour.
    • But how do you determine which leadership style to use to support a team member?
    • According to situational leadership, the leadership style you choose will be determined by the development level of a person.
    • Next, let’s explore the various development levels.
  • Display the next slide titled – EXPLORING THE FOUR DEVELOPMENT LEVELS.

The activity in the next post will focus on the four development levels identified in Situational Leadership.

VIRTUAL SESSION: INTRODUCING SITUATIONAL LEADERSIP – WHAT IS A LEADERSHIP STYLE?

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In the previous posts I introduced a session titled, Introducing Situational leadership (read it here) and explored what situational leadership is (read it here). We continue the session in this post by exploring what a leadership style is.

FACILITATION

  • Tell them to write down their definitions of leadership style in the ‘chat’ window.
  • Give them 3-minutes to do that.
  • As they write their definitions read through them quietly.
  • After 3-minutes stop and appreciate them for doing the task and let them know that you are going to read out their definitions.
  • Read each definition so they can all hear and as you do so acknowledge each person. For instance, you can say that ‘Thank you Sally, you described leadership style as…., and Benjy you wrote that a leadership style is…thank you.
  • After reading their definitions, display the next slide tilted – WHAT IS A LEADERSHIP STYLE?

Slide7

  • Read out the definition on the slide.
  • Then tell them that:
    • What this definition implies is that, as managers the way we influence our team members to do their tasks and achieve objectives is our leadership style.
    • In situational leadership, there are four leadership styles that we can choose from.
    • We will explore each of these leadership styles next.
  • Ask them for any questions and / or comments they have about the definition.
  • Respond to any that they have appropriately.
  • Next move on to explore the four leadership styles.

In the next post we will explore what the four leadership styles are.

VIRTUAL SESSION – INTRODUCING SITUATIONAL LEADERSHIP: LEARNING OBJECTIVES

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FACILITATION

Session Learning Objectives

  • Display the slide titled – LEARNING OBJECTIVES.

Slide3

  • Tell them that – by the end of the session you will be able to:
    • define what situational leadership is,
    • describe the four leadership styles used in situational leadership,
    • describe the four development levels used in situational leadership, and
    • match each development level to the appropriate leadership style.
  • After sharing the learning objectives, ask them for any comments and/or questions. Respond to any they have appropriately.
  • After that move on to the first topic, which is to define what situational leadership is.

In the next post we will start to explore what Situational Leadership is.

VIRTUAL SESSION – INTRODUCING SITUATIONAL LEADERSHIP: ABOUT THE SESSION

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INTRODUCTION

Individual team members in any team will be unique and have different levels of development which means a manager cannot treat all team members the same way. This is where Situational Leadership comes in. It allows managers to think about what each individual team member needs and how a manager can be flexible to provide them with appropriate leadership support. In this session participants will learn about what situational leadership is and how to apply the concept in their teams.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

  • define what situational leadership is,
  • describe the four leadership styles used in situational leadership,
  • describe the four development levels used in situational leadership, and
  • match each development level to the appropriate leadership style.

KEY TOPICS THAT WILL BE DISCUSSED

  • What is Situational Leadership?
  • Four leadership styles
  • Four development levels
  • Matching leadership styles to development levels

In the next post we will open up the session by introducing the learning objectives.