Situational Leadership

Situational Leadership, developed by Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard, proposes that effective leaders adapt their management style to the development level of the employee for a specific task — moving fluidly between directing (high task, low relationship focus for low-competence/low-commitment employees), coaching (high task, high relationship for developing employees), supporting (low task, high relationship for competent but uncertain employees), and delegating (low task, low relationship for fully competent and committed employees). Its practical value is the explicit permission it gives managers to treat different employees differently based on their task-specific readiness — overcoming the false equity concern that consistent leadership requires identical treatment regardless of where employees are on their development arc for any given responsibility.