2.3 A Perspective on Leadership
The Situational-Leadership Model
When you hear the word “leader” what immediately comes to your mind? What about when you hear the word “follower?” The words “leader” and “follower” bring up all kinds of examples (both good and bad) for most of us. We have all experienced times when we have followed a fantastic leader, and we have had times when we have worked for a less than an effective leader. At the same time, are we always the best followers? We will examine prevailing leadership theory, and then we will end the section discussing the concept of followership.
One of the most discussed models of leadership is Paul Hersey and Kenneth Blanchard’s (1969) Situational-Leadership Model (The Center for Leadership Studies, n.d.) The model is divided into two dimensions: task (leader directive behavior) and relational (leader supportive behavior). Hersey and Blanchard’s Situational-Leadership Model starts with the basic idea that not all employees have the same needs. Some employees need a lot more handholding and guidance than other employees, and some employees need more relational contact than others. As such, Hersey and Blanchard defined leadership along two continuums: supportive and directive. Supportive leadership behavior occurs when a leader is focused on providing relational support for their followers; whereas directive support involves overseeing the day-to-day tasks that a follower accomplishes. As a leader and follower progress in their relationship, Hersey and Blanchard argue that the nature of their relationship often changes. Figure 2.1 contains the basic model proposed by Hersey and Blanchard (1969) and is ultimately broken into four leadership styles: directing, coaching, supporting, and delegating (Hersey, Blanchard & Johnson, 2000).
Directing
Hersey and Blanchard’s first type of leader is the directing leader. Directing leaders set the basic roles an individual has and the tasks an individual needs to accomplish. After setting these roles and tasks, the leader then monitors and oversees these followers closely. From a communication perspective, these leaders tend to make decisions and then communicate them to their followers. There tends to be little to no dialogue about either roles or tasks.
Coaching
Hersey and Blanchard’s second type of leader is the coaching leader. Coaching leaders still set the basic roles and tasks that need to be accomplished by specific followers, but they allow for input from their followers. As such, the communication between coaching leaders and their followers tends to be more interactive instead of one-way. However, the ultimate decisions about roles and tasks are still ultimately the leader’s decision.
Supporting
Hersey and Blanchard’s third type of leader is the supporting leader. As a leader becomes more accustomed to a follower’s ability to accomplish tasks and take responsibility for those tasks, a leader may become more supportive. A supporting leader allows followers to make the day-to-day decisions related to getting tasks accomplished, but determining what tasks need to be accomplished is a mutually agreed upon decision. In this case, the leader is more like a facilitator of a follower’s work instead of dictating the follower’s work.
Delegating
Hersey and Blanchard’s final type of leader is the delegating leader. The delegating leader is one where the follower and leader are mutually involved in the basic decision making and problem-solving process. Still, the ultimate control for accomplishing tasks is left up to the follower. Followers ultimately determine when they need a leader’s support and how much support is needed. As you can see from Figure 2.1, these relationships are ones that are considered highly developed and ultimately involve a level of trust on both sides of the leader-follower relationship.
This section is derived from Interpersonal Relationships at Work in Interpersonal Communication – Simple Book Publishing Copyright © by Jason S. Wrench; Narissra M. Punyanunt-Carter; and Katherine S. Thweatt licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.
