Blake Mouton Managerial Grid - Leadership Training from MindTools. Balancing Task- and People-Oriented Leadership © iStockphotoanthonyjhall When your boss puts you in charge of organizing the company Christmas party, what do you do first? Do you develop a time line and start assigning tasks, or do you think about who would prefer to do what, and try to schedule around their needs? When the planning starts to fall behind schedule, what is your first reaction? Do you chase everyone to get back on track, or do you ease off a bit, recognizing that everyone is busy just doing his/her job, let alone the extra tasks you’ve assigned?
Your answers to these types of questions can reveal a great deal about your personal leadership style. Some leaders are very task-oriented; they simply want to get things done. Neither preference is right or wrong, just as no one type of leadership style is best for all situations. A popular framework for thinking about a leader’s ‘task versus person’ orientation was developed by Robert Blake and Jane Mouton in the early 1960s. Note: Fiedler's Contingency Model - Leadership Skills Training from MindTools. Matching Leadership Style to a Situation Do some leadership styles work better in certain situations? © iStockphoto/sodafish What is your natural leadership style? Do you focus on completing tasks or on building relationships with your team? And have you considered that this natural style of leadership might be more suited to some situations than it is to others?
In this article, we'll explore Fiedler's Contingency Model, and we'll look at how it can highlight the most effective leadership style to use in different situations. Note: With this theory, we are not using the word "contingency" in the sense of contingency planning . Understanding the Model The Fiedler Contingency Model was created in the mid-1960s by Fred Fiedler, a scientist who studied the personality and characteristics of leaders. The model states that there is no one best style of leadership. Leadership Style Identifying leadership style is the first step in using the model. Figure 1: Least-Preferred Co-Worker Scale Key Points. Six Emotional Leadership Styles - Leadership Training from MindTools. Choosing the Right Style for the Situation Find out how emotional leadership styles can affect your team's happiness. © iStockphoto/Kuklev Imagine that you work with a positive, charismatic leader.
She's excited about the future of the organization, and she shares this excitement with her team. She makes sure that people understand how their efforts contribute to this future, and this inclusion sparks loyalty and intense effort in the team. Generally, morale and job satisfaction are high, because team members feel that they're making a difference. However, some people in her team don't respond well to this style of leadership.
She could be more effective by varying her approach to leadership, depending on the situation; and she could do this by using "six emotional leadership styles", each of which is useful in different circumstances. In this article, we'll look at these six emotional leadership styles. ... for the complete article: Mind Tools Club members, click here. The Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership Theory - Leadership Skills from MindTools. Choosing the Right Leadership Style for the Right People What type of leadership do your people need? © iStockphoto/oversnap You've just finished training the newest member of your team. Now that he's ready to start working, you give him the data he needs to enter into the company's database, and you hurry off to a meeting. When you return later that afternoon, you find that he hasn't done anything.
How can you avoid situations like this? Management experts Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard argue that these things happen because leaders don't match their style of leadership to the maturity of the people they're leading. In this article, we'll review the Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership® Theory, and we'll explain how it's used in different leadership situations. Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership Theory Leadership Styles According to Hersey and Blanchard, there are four main leadership styles: Telling (S1) – Leaders tell their people what to do and how to do it. Maturity Levels Key Points. Leadership.
Welcome to the Art and Science of Leadership, a comprehensive collection of articles and activities for developing leadership skills and knowledge. Becoming a good leader is not easy, but by learning the correct leadership skills and knowledge, putting them into practice through quality learning activities, and then adapting them to different situations, will put you well on your way to becoming a leader. Leadership Manual This guide is divided into five sections: You can also use the Leadership Mind Map to select an article, or use the search bar at the top of the page. For a list of learning activities that help to develop leadership skills, see the Leadership Development Outline. Basics of Leadership Click image for a larger diagram Leadership Philosophies Team Leadership Advanced Leadership Skills Supporting Skills There is no such thing as a perfect leader, either in the past or present, in China or elsewhere.
Learning Activities Let's work together to solve this. . . Related Pages.