Are you the coaching or the instructing leader? Both can hit the mark—or miss completely. Your leadership style must be adapted to the individual employee and the specific task at hand.
Af Lars Hemmingsen, CfL, Opdateret september 2022
Situational leadership is one of the world's most widely used leadership theories, and the core principle is that there is no one “right” leadership style. Instead, leadership must always be based on the individual employee and the task they face.
According to a study by Ken Blanchard, one of the originators of situational leadership, 54% of leaders use only one leadership style—and consequently, 50% use the wrong style.
Are you using the right leadership style?
Situational leadership is a leadership theory in which the situation and the individual employee are the focus. The philosophy was developed by Ken Blanchard og Paul Hersey in 1969 and has since been further developed.
When you apply situational leadership as your leadership tool, the starting point is to adjust your way of leading according to the challenge and the employee you face.
Situational leadership bridges the employee’s competence and engagement with the leadership style that the leader chooses to apply.
While situational leadership is referred to as a leadership tool, the underlying idea is that the employee is involved. In this way, you create a common foundation – or language – to achieve the best collaboration between leader and employee. Situational leadership views leadership as a partnership, where it is natural for employees to take joint responsibility for being led.
The essence of the situational leadership theory is that employees become more motivated and perform better if the leadership style is adapted to the individual employee and the specific task they face.
Depending on the employee’s developmental level—that is, their competence and engagement—the leader chooses whether the leadership style should be instructing, coaching, supportive, or delegating. For this purpose, four developmental levels and four leadership styles have been defined.
The top of the model illustrates the four leadership styles – Style 1 (Directing), Style 2 (Coaching), Style 3 (Supporting), and Style 4 (Delegating). These leadership styles correspond to the four development levels – D1, D2, D3, and D4 – shown at the bottom of the model.
Although many factors can influence a person’s ability to solve a given task, situational leadership focuses primarily on one factor: the employee’s developmental level. The developmental level is defined by combining the employee’s competence and engagement in relation to the task.
An employee’s competence and engagement can vary depending on the task at hand. The four developmental levels are:
De fire udviklingsniveauer ser således ud:
If an employee is faced with a task without prior experience, they will typically be enthusiastic and ready to learn (U1). After starting the task, they may find it more challenging or different than expected, leading to a drop in engagement (U2). As the employee acquires the necessary knowledge and skills, their competence increases, though they may still be uncertain of their ability (U3). With the right support, the employee gains confidence in their abilities, ultimately reaching high competence and high engagement (U4).
Based on the employee’s developmental level, the leader can now assess which leadership style is appropriate. An employee with low competence in relation to a specific task typically needs a high degree of instruction to develop their skills, whereas an employee with high competence needs little instruction.
Similarly, an employee with high engagement does not require much support from the leader, whereas one with low engagement does.
The four leadership styles correspond to the developmental levels (U1–U4) and are designated as S1–S4:
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S1 Low Competence – high Engagement |
Instructing An employee with low competence but high engagement. The leader must focus on instructing the employee, with little need for additional support. |
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S2 Low to some competence and low engagement |
Coaching An employee with low to some competence and low engagement. The leader provides a high level of instruction and support. |
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S3 Moderate to high competence but fluctuating engagement
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Supporting An employee with moderate to high competence but fluctuating engagement. The leader offers minimal instruction and instead focuses on supporting the employee. |
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S4 High competence and high engagement |
Delegating An employee with high competence and high engagement. The leader provides very little instruction or support, giving the employee the freedom to handle the task independently. |
Once you have mastered the four developmental levels and the four leadership styles, you have the basic tools of situational leadership at your disposal. To apply situational leadership in practice, there are three overarching factors you must be aware of:
There are many benefits to implementing situational leadership—for you as a leader, for your employees, and ultimately for your company’s bottom line. Here are ten good reasons:
One of the most important factors in situational leadership is the leader’s ability to identify the employee’s developmental level. We are all different, and an individual’s developmental level can be perceived and influenced differently depending on personality type. Therefore, it is a major advantage for the leader to have a basic understanding of the employees’ preferences and differences.
An effective tool for uncovering and understanding personality types and preferences is JTI, the Jungian Type Index.
JTI is a personality test that helps group people into 16 different personality types. The grouping is based on eight diametrically opposed preferences. As individuals, we each have a preference for one or the other, and when we know these preferences, the JTI test provides us with a type code that describes our personality.
A personality profile is neither right nor wrong. JTI describes the fundamental differences between people based on eight preferences, presented as mental opposites:
The slightly unusually large capital letters are due to the theory being developed in English, where “Judging” is translated from Judgement, “Perceiving” from Perception, while “N” is chosen from Intuition to avoid confusion with the “I” in Introversion.
With this knowledge, the leader has a better starting point for understanding how each employee is motivated, which tasks they thrive on, and not least how they prefer to approach a task – all of which affect the employee’s developmental level.
At CfL, our courses are based on Ken Blanchard’s further development of the tool, known as SLII Experience™.
There are several reasons why CfL has chosen to offer courses in this version. First, the tool is one of the most widely used and proven leadership tools in the world. Second, it is a tool that is easy to understand and implement, and finally, SLII® has a positive effect on the workplaces where it is implemented – both for leaders and employees.
A core philosophy at Blanchard is: People can and will develop. This is also what we believe at CfL.
CfL offers two courses with 100% focus on situational leadership. One is a basic course for leaders where you learn to use tools to lead situationally in your own leadership role. The other is a certification course for those who wish to teach others and disseminate the concept in their organization.
In addition to these two focused courses, situational leadership is also a cornerstone in our courses for new leaders, such as New Manager - Leadership toolbox
CfL offers the following courses in SLII®:
The course provides you with tangible methods to develop your leadership competencies, whether you are a completely new leader or already have leadership experience. You gain insight into your current preferred leadership style and the potential for further development.
You learn to switch between different leadership styles so that you can match the right style to the individual employee’s level of competence and engagement. This creates the best foundation for developing your employees’ skills, confidence, and motivation.
We train you on how to use your leadership resources optimally, so that together with your employees you can achieve your department’s and company’s goals. The course in situational leadership also focuses on how your company can develop its business and create results.