Mastering Situational Leadership: Guide for Women Leaders

Mastering Situational Leadership: Guide for Women Leaders

In this episode of Leadership N-Sight, we dive deep into the concept of situational leadership, a model emphasizing flexibility and adaptability tailored to the task and team maturity levels. Learn about the four distinct styles—directing, coaching, supporting, and delegating—and how to effectively apply them. Discover the importance of adapting your leadership approach to meet your team's needs and avoid common pitfalls. Join us as we explore how mastering these skills can take your career and leadership capabilities to new heights.

00:00 Introduction to Leadership N-Sight

01:04 Understanding Situational Leadership

03:39 Directing: The First Style

06:10 Coaching: The Second Style

09:10 Supporting: The Third Style

10:57 Delegating: The Fourth Style

12:37 Situational Awareness and Flexibility

18:34 Limitations of Situational Leadership

22:01 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Transcript

Hello and welcome to Leadership N-Sight. Welcome everybody. Come on in. We are getting ready to start. It's going to be all about women and situational leadership.

What's important is that as an up and coming Inspiring leader, when you're already a leader, and you're working or walking through this journey, It's so important that you understand the different leadership styles that we have out here That's why we like to take some time out to make sure That you are introduced to different leadership styles and thus, that is exactly why we are going to go over situational leadership style.

Please don't forget to like and subscribe from whatever platform you are viewing this from. 

 Situational leadership is a leadership model that emphasizes flexibility and adaptability. This model suggests that the most effective leadership style depends on the task at hand and the maturity level of the individuals involved.

In other words,  There is no one-size-fits-all approach to leadership. Instead, leaders must be able to modify their style to fit the needs of their team members and the situation at hand. This approach is going to allow leaders to provide the appropriate level of guidance and support to your team members, helping them to be able to develop the skills and the knowledge that they need to succeed and so today, We are going to discuss the situational model, which consists of directing, coaching, supporting, and delegating.

We're going to follow that up by discussing some of the pros and cons that are involved in this particular style. Again, listen, it's so important that if you're a Firing leader or new at leadership, or you've been in this game for a while, you know how to flex in and out of different leadership styles because it's really going to depend who you're speaking with.

It's going to depend on this particular type of situation because you can't just take, or you shouldn't just take the lead. Any leadership style And just apply it to any situation because you may come out not looking good in the meantime while you're trying to fit a square inside of a heart shape or you're trying to literally fit into a wrong category.

So, it's so important to understand all of the different types of categories when it comes to leadership.  Now, I'm going to dive into the situational leadership model. We're really looking at four different things that we need to be thinking about. And the first thing is directing.  In this style, the leader provides specific guidance and closely supervises the team or individual to ensure that  They complete tasks correctly.

This style is best when team members are inexperienced or lack the necessary skills to complete tasks on their own.  Let's think about it this way. Suppose a new employee has joined a team. In this case, the leader can use the on their own. To provide detailed guidance and closely supervise the employee to ensure that they are completing the task correctly.

Now, conversely, think about your best performer who has been at your organization for a while. They know what they're doing. And then,  you, as the leader, come in, and you want to direct them. You want to direct them on something that they already do well.  Not the right style in that particular situation because you are going to bug the snot out of them.

We do not want that. That's why it's so important. Important. When I was thinking about this concept, it reminded me of doing different types of dance. So, for instance, maybe you do the tango, maybe you do, like maybe we're talking about different styles. Maybe we're talking about a jazz style. Maybe we're talking about a contemporary routine. 

In order to dance in all of these styles, you have to learn the different styles. You are not going to just go do jazz; you may, but perhaps you shouldn't. You do a jazz routine at a place where it should be nothing but a contemporary routine. So it's important. That's like the leadership styles and what we're speaking about today.

You need to know because directing has its place. If you don't know what its place is, you are literally going to infuriate your Employees or the people that you are just naturally working with. You are going to leave a really bad taste in their mouths, and that's not what we want for you. Our second point is going to be coaching and when you should use a coaching style. And that's something that we'll go into, not today.

I'm just giving you a little taste, a little flavor. But at some point, we'll even go into coaching a little bit more in-depth, just not today. In this style of coaching, the leader provides guidance and support but also allows the team or the individual to take on more responsibility for their work.

This style is more appropriate when team members are Developing their skills and need more direction and feedback, so it's still slightly different when we're talking about directing. We are telling the employee exactly what to do when we're talking about coaching. You're going to start filling the sweet spot out.

You're going to look. Do they need more direction? Is this: Do they need direction or feedback? Do we need to test their knowledge? Do we need to ask the right question to really see? And don't assume you all. We leaders sometimes, and it could be because we're caught in the moment, have to make quick decisions, and perhaps for some of us, we may be rushing.

And so we tend to sometimes lead with our own assumptions. That is not what you want to do. We really need to get more curious about every situation that we're in. And to be able to see don't assume that your employee needs feedback, find out, ask the right question to be able to determine,  yes, they need direction or, ah, yes, they need feedback, know the difference. 

For this, suppose a team member needs to develop new skills to take on additional responsibilities. In this case, the leader can use a coaching style to provide guidance and support, allowing the team members to take on more responsibility while still receiving that needed feedback and direction because they perhaps have not mastered the task at hand. 

Our third point is supporting, and support is always good. I'm still going to say that if you're supporting someone who is extremely capable, make sure your support doesn't feel like hovering because there's a difference. We don't want to hover. All right. So when we're talking about supporting in this style, the leader provides more autonomy to the individual or team.

However, they still remain available to provide guidance and support as needed. This style is best used when team members are competent but lack a little bit of confidence or Motivation. Suppose a team member is competent but lacks confidence in new challenges. In this case, the leader can use a supporting style, providing more autonomy to the individual while still remaining available to provide guidance and support as needed.

It's like making sure that you give enough room, just enough room where a person feels like, yes, I can make decisions. But if I need Miranda, Mary, or Joe, I can still go to them. And you can tackle, or you can ask questions to find out what it does and what they need from me.

As their leader, I want to be able to talk about delegation in terms of situational leadership. And yes, I know we hear about delegation all the time—we're going to hear about it again. In this style, the leader provides minimal guidance or supervision, allowing the individual or the team to take full control.

full responsibility of their work. This style is appropriate when team members are highly skilled and motivated and can work independently with minimal oversight. Suppose a team member is highly skilled and motivated. In this case, the leader, you would use this delegating style, providing minimal guidance or supervising and allowing that team member to take on that role.

Full responsibility. This gives them autonomy, your trust, and the proven ability to do the job. And when you give this team member that autonomy and help them by delegating, helping them build their skillset even further, you're expanding—expanding their knowledge and skill set.

It's such a win-win.  Now, I want to talk about some of the things that you need to look out for when it comes to situational awareness. Again, it's a never, and hear me when I say this: it is a never one-size-fits-all approach. Let's go back to the dancing.  You are coming to watch someone do this phenomenal jazz routine, and you show up. 

Now there's absolutely nothing wrong with hip hop. There's nothing wrong with a little crump here and a little crump there. However, if you have an audience that expects this fabulous jazz routine and you giving them hip hop, but they bought tickets for jazz.  And you're giving them hip hop and you don't know how to then transform into jazz.

You are going to lose your audience and have some unhappy customers. And that's what it's like when employees are working with leaders who are not willing to flex their leadership style. If they don't know about situational awareness, how will you impact your employees?

What's that negative connotation that's going to come? Are they going to be happy that they only get one side of you? Are they going to be happy that they Can't feel like they can be  100 percent themselves and that you trust them? This is how serious this really gets when you don't flex your leadership style, when you are unaware.

I want you all to be extremely aware. These things take practice. It's not going to happen overnight, but these are things that you can do. They are things. They are a skill set that is a learnable. Do not think that you can't learn this skill set. Now listen, I'm not asking you to be a mathematician. Okay. 

I don't know if everyone is going to be able to dive into physics or whatever. I can't even think I haven't been in school in a minute, y'all, but I'm just saying it does not mean that you can do the square root of pi divided by 360 times 890. No, it does not. I am telling you, learning these different leadership styles is learnable.

It is learnable. It's adaptable. It is not like learning again. For those who are super great in math.  Good on you. I am not the one. I can do enough math to get me to where I need to go to balance my books, and then I look at my husband to do the rest. No, I'm just joking. I don't look at him to do the rest.

But do you feel what I mean? You feel what I mean?  When it comes to the leadership, you can learn it. It is, it's like learning how to wash dishes. And I don't know, some of y'all may say, well, I don't know how to wash dishes. However, that's a whole nother conversation.

Situational leadership can be effective in environments that are categorized by change, where team members' development levels can fluctuate frequently. You'll use this leadership style when you have different levels on your team. This particular leadership style can be flexible, and you will be adaptive in your approach.

Situational leadership allows leaders to adjust their style to meet the needs of their team members regardless of how those needs might change over time. So what you get today may not Be what happens six months from now, but that's why situational leadership is so great: You can take it with you and switch on the fly regardless of your team's needs.

This is definitely a tool that you want in your toolbox by being adaptive by meeting your team members' needs. As a leader, you're going to help your team overcome. You are going to always be willing to be in a position to know when you need to give guidance, support, and direction, and it's what they need to be successful, even as the organization around them continues to evolve.

Additionally, focusing on individual development levels can also help you foster growth and development. That should always be one of the key factors that you're thinking about. It's never just about you. It's also about your team being able to grow and be the best versions of themselves.

While situational leadership. can be highly effective in many different types of situations. It does have a few limitations that I want you to keep in mind. We've discussed some of them already. For example, in environments where team members are highly experienced and have a Deep understanding of their roles and their responsibilities, too much direction and support from a leader can stifle innovation and hinder creativity.

If you hover over your highly experienced people and give them full-on  point A to point B, Z directions, you're going to hinder their ability to be creative because you are putting a lid on them. You are almost. If you could imagine gluing their lips sealed, you are sometimes creating a horrible environment for those who are highly experienced. 

In such scenarios, a more hands-off approach might be more effective. Similarly, in rigid organizational structures, where leadership styles are highly constrained, situational leadership may not always be feasible or practical. So, if you're thinking about an environment, maybe it's one that has lots of protocol, where it's already built in.

We must take this direct path. Okay. Understanding if we must take this only singular path. Yes, situational leadership and some constraints may not work very well because it could be an environment where we don't Have the ability to have so much adaptability And we don't have the ability to have as much innovation So those are just some of the things that you need to think about your Organizational structure the particular things that you're doing in within In that organization in such environments leaders may also be required to adhere to Those strict protocol those strict guidelines which may limit your ability to adjust In those situations.

So these are just things that you need to be aware of and it's hard to see speak to everyone's general dynamic in their work and environment. So it's clear to understand your own work environments and perhaps their limitation as well. Overall, while situational leadership can be an effective approach, it's important to consider the unique characteristics of your team. 

And organization to determine whether this particular leadership style is right for you and think about when you should be bringing this out and what areas you can bring it out in.  I want to wrap us up. Situational leadership is a leadership style that involves adapting one's approach to meet the changing needs of your team members.

When we think about situational awareness, we consider directing, coaching, supporting, and delegating. Each style is effective and in a specific context, depending again on your team members' levels of development. It's also crucial to adapt leadership styles to meet your team's needs and the project demands appropriately.

So that's what you're looking at. You're looking at your team's needs. You're looking at the organizational needs and you are adapting your style to that. And you are not forcing all of your employees only to adapt to you. The essence of situational leadership emphasizes the balance leaders must maintain between connecting with their team members, and personalities and guiding them forward. Join me next week for more incredible insights. You deserve nothing but the best. It's my goal to ensure that you move to your next level.

Let's take your career to new heights together.