May 17, 2015

Situational Leadership

I am pursuing a course in Courseera about "Fundamentals of Management" and when I came across content on Situational Leadership became much interested.

In todays’ more agile world, Leaders need to possess multiple personalities (both bad and good) to strive and keep producing results. Most important one is “Emotional Intelligence (EI)”, defined as ability to manage ourselves and our relationships effectively. Basic four fundamental capabilities of EI include self-awareness, self-Management, Social awareness and Social skill.
According to research of Hay/McBer, there are six  unique different styles of Leadership qualities.

  1. 1.       Coercive leaders demand immediate compliance.
  2. 2.       Authoritative leaders mobilize people toward a vision.
  3. 3.       Affiliative leaders create emotional bonds and harmony.
  4. 4.       Democratic leaders build consensus through participation.
  5. 5.       Pacesetting leaders expect excellence and self-direction.
  6. 6.       Coaching leaders develop people for the future.



The research also states that, any leader mostly would have performed most of the mentioned qualities.

Here in where   need of “Situational Leadership (SL)” arise. A Leader need not be educated in premier institute or to be in top level of organization hierarchy. At every level of the organization we need Leaders, who have following qualities
  • ·         Prefer actions or approaches depend on the variables of the situation
  • ·         Consider past experiences and options before choosing the course of action
  • ·         Be flexible
  • ·         Ready to roll up sleeves and get hands dirty.
  • ·         Think out of way to achieve results, irrespective of what history has predicted with sense of accuracy about performance.


Suggested readings on SL:

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