Contingency Leadership Skills
Situational leadership is a model of contingency leadership theory developed by Ken Blanchard and Paul Hersey first described in their 1969 book called Management of Organizational Behavior. The general concept of situational leadership is that leading effectively requires different styles, behaviors, and actions depending on the situation. Over the years, the theory evolved and there are now multiple variations. The first step of effectively leading in a model of contingency leadership is to set effective goals. Leading is about going somewhere and influencing others to follow in the same direction. A leader must first define that direction or objective by setting detailed goals or objectives. Next, a leader must assess the capability and efficacy or motivation of their team members. Finally, the last step of effectively leading is to provide leadership actions and behaviors that are tailored specifically to the situation. Depending on a person’s abilities, energy, and motivation, different types of leadership behaviors will more effectively support an individual in achieving their goals.
Setting goals is a very common practice in a work environment, but it is important that the goal is well written, is easily understood, and is agreed upon between the employee and leader. The SMART methodology is a great way to assess how well a goal is written. Ken Blanchard defines SMART as specific, motivating, achievable, relevant, and trackable. Taking the time to ensure a goal is written in a “SMART” way will help ensure success over time in achieving the goal and receiving the support and guidance needed from your leader.
Once a goal is established, an effective leader will assess the employee’s abilities, energy, and motivation. When working to achieve a goal or task, a person’s ability level can be assessed by considering their demonstrated and transferrable knowledge and skills related to the goal or task. Additionally, a person will have a level of energy toward achieving a goal or task based on their quality of motivation and level of confidence. If either motivation is low quality or efficacy (i.e., confidence) is low, we would assess energy overall as low. This is all goal-dependent. In other words, the assessment of an individual’s level of ability and energy is specific to that goal, not the person overall. Someone may be very competent and committed to achieving one goal, but have low ability and energy on another goal.
The combination of energy and ability levels for a specific goal or task change over time through four discernable phases. Generally speaking, when starting a new goal, a person will have a low level of ability but a high level of energy. This is also known as the curious phase. This could be described by the following statement: “I’ve never done this before, but I’m excited to get started and confident I’ll be able to do it.” But, as a person continues to work towards their goal, their energy will typically drop. For example, the goal may be harder than expected and this could be discouraging. This second phase is called the confronting phase.
Over time, as the individual continues to practice and work on their goal, their ability and skills to achieve the goal or perform the task will increase, and energy will fluctuate. This is the third phase, called the cautious phase. In this phase, a person’s skills and abilities are moderate to high, but motivation and confidence will fluctuate depending on situations such as successes, failures, reaching milestones, or realizing setbacks. Finally, the fourth phase is called the achieving phase. It is defined by a person reaching a high level of commitment and competence. After much practice and experience, ability, skills, motivation, and confidence is consistently high.
Effective leaders become experts at assessing an individual’s level of energy and ability and will then provide leadership behaviors accordingly. These leadership actions are divided into two categories: focused and inspiring behaviors. Focused leadership behaviors correlate to a person’s level of ability. The less experience, knowledge, and skills a person has related to the specific goal or task, the more focused or directive the support they need. This focused support includes actions such as building action plans, providing step by step guidance, establishing timelines, clarifying priorities, and monitoring performance. Inspiring leadership behaviors correlate to a person’s level of energy. The lower a person’s motivation and confidence, the more inspiring or supportive a leader’s behaviors should be. Inspiring leadership behaviors include actions such as active listening, collaborative problem solving, encouraging, providing rationale, and building rapport. As a person progresses through the developmental levels, the type of leadership focus and inspiring will vary. Generally, a person will need less direction and focused support over time as their ability increases. However, inspiring leadership behaviors will fluctuate up and down as an employees energy level increases or decreases over time.
The importance of this concept, and one of the biggest benefits of understanding this type of leadership, is to improve communication. If a person is beginning a goal with a low ability and the leader does not provide any focused support, the person will struggle to achieve their goal. On the other hand, if a person has a high level of ability and the leader provides a lot of focused support, the person will likely feel micro-managed. A leader and their team members must be aligned and that takes open communication. A leader may assess that an employee has a low level of ability, but if that employee believes they are an expert, the same feelings of micro-management will be present. Think about your goals and tasks associated with your role at work. For each goal, do you have high, medium, or low levels of ability and energy? If you maintain open communication and have discussions to let your leaders know how you feel, they will be better informed to provide the right balance of directive and supportive leadership behaviors.
References
Blanchard, K., & Hersey, P. (1969). Management of Organizational Behavior.
Zigarmi, D., Lyles, R. I., & Fowler, S. (2011). Achieve leadership genius: How you lead depends on who, what, where and when you lead. IUniverse.