Hersey and Blanchard’s model is one of the best-known situational theories. First published in 1969, this model describes four primary styles of leadership:
• The telling style is characterized by telling people what to do.
• The selling style involves leaders convincing followers to buy into their ideas and messages.
• The participating style is marked by allowing group members to take a more active role in the decision-making process.
• The delegating style involves taking a hands-off approach to leadership and allowing group members to make the majority of decisions.
Later, Blanchard expanded upon the original Hersey and Blanchard model to emphasize how the developmental and skill level of learners influences the style that should be used by leaders. Blanchard also described four different learning styles:
• The directing style involves giving orders and expecting obedience but offers little in the way of guidance and assistance.
• The coaching style means giving lots of orders, but leaders also give lots of support.
• The supporting style is an approach that offers plenty of help but very little direction.
• The delegating style is low in both directions.
Transactional Leadership This style starts with the idea that team members agree to obey their leader when they accept a job. The “transaction” usually involves the organization paying team members in return for their effort and compliance on a short-term task. The leader has a right to “punish” team members if their work doesn’t meet an appropriate standard.
Transactional leadership is present in many business leadership situations, and it does offer some benefits. For example, it clarifies everyone’s roles and responsibilities. Because transactional leadership judges team members on performance, people who are ambitious or who are motivated by external rewards—including compensation—often thrive.
The downside of this style is that, on its own, it can be chilling and amoral, and it can lead to high staff turnover. It also has serious limitations for knowledge-based or creative work. As a result, team members can often do little to improve their job satisfaction.
Charismatic Leadership Charismatic leadership resembles transformational leadership—both types of leaders inspire and motivate their team members. The difference lies in their intent. Transformational leaders want to transform their teams and organizations, while leaders who rely on charisma often focus on themselves and their ambitions,and they may not want to change anything. Charismatic leaders might believe that they can do no wrong, even when others warn them about the path that they’re on.
Coaching Leadership This style has been part of the discussion for quite some time about whether or not it should be considered a style of leadership. It is, however, an effective leadership style, one that doesn’t lead directly, but indirectly. In this style, leaders are more like coaches or teachers when working with team members.
Coaching is a relatively modern leadership style that is being employed more often by many organizations. It comes with a bouquet of additional benefits such as boosting employee motivation, increasing their performance skills, grooming, and motivating team members.
Tribal Leadership The tribal leadership model, which is based on leveraging natural groups to build a thriving organization, is advocated by author Dave Logan and his associates. As they write in their book Tribal Leadership:
Tribes in an organization get work done—sometimes a lot of work—but they don’t form because of work. Tribes are a basic building block of any large human effort, including earning a living. As such, their influence is greater than that of teams, the entire company, and even superstar CEOs or managers. In companies, tribes decide whether the new leader is going to flourish or get taken out. They determine how much work gets done, and of what quality.
This leadership style, as discussed, is a clear road map for the reality of managing organizations, careers, and life, says Reid Hoffman,cofounder of LinkedIn.
Strategic Leadership Strategic leadership refers to the leader’s expression of a strategic vision for the organization in a way that persuades others to pursue that vision with the help of the right strategies and tools. Different leadership styles impact the vision and direction of growth and the potential success of an organization. To successfully deal with change, all executives need the skills and tools for both strategy formulation and implementation. Managing change requires strategic leaders who not only provide a sense of direction but also build ownership and alignment within their workgroups to implement change.
This leadership style leads to team members who are well trained and well equipped to deal with unforeseen risks and threats.
Servant Leadership A servant leader is someone, regardless of level,who leads simply by meeting the needs of the team. The term sometimes describes a person without formal recognition as a leader. These people often lead by example. Servant leaders have high integrity and lead with generosity. Their approach can create a positive corporate culture and can lead to high morale among team members.
“How you get the results is more important than the results themselves,” according to Art Barter, the author of The Art of Servant Leadership.
Supporters of the servant leadership model suggest that it’s a good way to move ahead in a world where values are increasingly important and where servant leaders can achieve power because of their values,ideals, and ethics.
The most effective leaders know that leadership is not a “one-size-fitsall” approach. They adapt their style to fit each unique situation. When you understand the different leadership frameworks and styles available, you’re better able to guide your team through challenging situations.
Organizational Culture
What Is Organizational Culture?
Culture refers to an organization’s values, beliefs, and behaviors. In general, it consists of the beliefs and values that define how people interpret experiences and behave, both individually and in groups. Culture is both a cause and a consequence of the way people behave. Cultural statements become operationalized when leaders articulate and publish the values of their organization. Cultural statements provide a pattern for how employees should behave. Organizations with strong work cultures—including reliability cultures—achieve higher results because employees sustain focus on both what to do and how to do it.
Behavior and success are key enablers in creating the culture. There is a circular flow of mutual causation among organizational behavior, success, and culture, as shown in Figure 2.1. When a change is accepted by the team members, it changes their behavior. They do tasks differently as required by the new change. Then, if this change allows work to get done more easily, they can see some success. This success makes them accept the change and leads to changing habits or routine work methods. Eventually, it becomes the culture to do the tasks a new way (Figure 2.2).
FIGURE 2.1 Organizational Culture and Success Flow
FIGURE 2.2 Change and Culture
Leadership’s Role in Creating and Sustaining Organizational Culture
Leaders at both the corporate and plant/factory levels must keenly understand the impact that reliability has on the bottom-line performance of the organization. The valuation of an asset-dependent organization is significantly affected by the effectiveness with which that asset is managed. Leadership is a key enabler in creating an environment to implement reliability strategies, which helps in fostering a “reliability”culture in the long run.
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