What Is Situational Leadership? How To Adopt This Style

Kindergarten and fifth grade are worlds apart—not just in curriculum, but in teaching style. Younger kids need hands-on, supportive environments, while older students often do better with more independence. Good teachers adapt to meet students where they are and guide their growth.

This is the basic idea behind situational leadership. A flexible leadership approach focuses on understanding your team’s needs and adjusting your leadership style to match.

Here’s how situational leadership can help your employees succeed at every level. Plus, learn key skills to develop and gain insights from Connie Steele, CEO of Flywheel Associates, a marketing and business strategy consulting firm.

What is situational leadership?

Situational leadership recognizes there’s no single best way to lead in all scenarios. Instead, you adjust your style based on the situation and the distinct needs and working styles of your team.

The situational leadership model relies on leaders to assess these needs. Situational leaders use observational skills, active listening, and emotional intelligence to evaluate their teams and choose the most effective approach. This style calls for flexibility, often requiring multiple different leadership styles as circumstances change.

Behavioral scientist Paul Hersey and business consultant Ken Blanchard introduced the concept of situational leadership in 1969. Their book, Management of Organizational Behavior: Utilizing Human Resources, created a matrix for measuring employee maturity and proposed four leadership styles for managing employees at different levels (telling, selling, participating, and delegating—covered below).

Situational leadership theory

In situational leadership theory, maturity—also called performance readiness—is defined by two factors:

• Task behavior. Skill level and capability.
• Relational behavior. Engagement and motivation.

These skills form the x-axis and y-axis, respectively, of a behavior matrix. Employees fall into one of four matrix quadrants based on the intersection of their skill levels:

• High skill set and high motivation. Often paired with delegating leadership.
• High skill set and low or variable motivation. Often paired with selling leadership.
• Low skill set and high motivation. Often paired with participating leadership.
• Low skill set and low motivation. Often paired with telling leadership.

You use this assessment to determine the most effective leadership approach for each individual.

Understanding the four styles of situational leadership

1. Telling
2. Participating
3. Selling
4. Delegating

Situational leadership styles each support employees at different development levels. You may choose one of these styles or switch between them based on the circumstances.

Connie employs a situational approach to leadership to meet the demands of today’s dynamic business environment. “Leadership in many instances has to be more fluid now because so many things are changing all the time,” she explains. “Not just within your own business, but maybe your own team or within the broader business dynamics in the industry that you’re in.”

Here are Blanchard and Hersey’s four leadership styles and when they might be appropriate:

1. Telling

The telling style, also known as directive or guiding leadership, is well suited to low-maturity employees with a limited skill set and little motivation. Telling managers provide explicit instructions and clear deadlines. Directive behavior leaves little room for misinterpretation and helps establish accountability.

“Are there times when somebody has to be authoritative? Absolutely,” Connie explains. “If a team doesn’t know what they’re doing, then I have to set a clear direction."

Creating structure sets clear expectations and helps disengaged team members understand the importance of completing their work. This style requires close supervision where leaders keep track of specific tasks and issue any necessary corrections.

To practice telling leadership, you could create an outline with a description of a specific task and a clear timeline. This can help low-maturity employees understand the project and remember deadlines.

2. Participating

Participating leadership is typically focused on engaged employees with a limited skill set or low task behavior. These individuals are enthusiastic and willing to learn but lack experience. Managers work alongside employees and provide direct instruction to promote employee development. A participating leadership style can help enthusiastic beginners develop skills.

For example, this style could be a good choice for a leader with three young employees who are new to the workforce. To practice this style of leadership, you might hold weekly meetings to brainstorm new initiatives. Providing a supportive environment by encouraging new ideas and giving gentle feedback would reward enthusiasm and provide strong work examples. Working through pitches together could help new team members understand the type of business ideas that succeed.

3. Selling

Selling leadership motivates highly skilled employees with low commitment. These individuals are capable of executing tasks but lack the required motivation or have low confidence. Sometimes referred to as coaching or explaining, this style uses inspiration to spark excitement. Leaders “sell” employees on the merit of their ideas to boost engagement or dispel insecurities.

You might adopt a selling approach if you notice your formerly high-performing team is suddenly disengaged. A managing software engineer, for example, could introduce a new project by explaining its benefits for the team, emphasizing that creating a new feature will improve website performance and reduce the number of incoming bug reports that engineers are responsible for resolving. Underlining the project’s benefits for the team can help create a desire to do the work.

4. Delegating

Delegating, also known as monitoring or empowering leadership, is a hands-off approach designed for high-maturity employees. Knowing how to delegate grants autonomy to capable employees. Delegating leaders rely on two-way communication, soliciting employee opinions and incorporating feedback into future projects. This helps maintain motivation by showing employees you value their work and input.

Connie adopts a delegating leadership style once she’s built solid relationships. She notes that forming a connection and understanding each other’s working styles allows team members to share their perspectives. They can provide their perspective. Once trust has been established, she says, “You don’t need to be on them that much. You can say, ’OK, here’s the project. Go for it!’”

A new manager leading an experienced team might adopt a delegating approach to show respect for their expertise. For example, they might ask a marketing team member, “What can we do to increase email open rates?” By offering open-ended prompts and allowing team members to work independently, the leader empowers them to apply their experience without feeling micromanaged.

Qualities of situational leaders

A situational leadership style requires strong management skills. Situational leaders are constantly assessing employee strengths and weaknesses to determine their approach. Success depends on your ability to understand your employees’ needs and adapt accordingly.

Here are the key skills strong situational leaders share:

• Empathy. Empathy helps situational leaders understand employee emotions and individual needs. Demonstrating empathy builds trust and creates strong manager-employee relationships. “If you don’t understand their needs and wants,” says Connie, “then you’re not going to understand how to optimize your team.”
• Observation skills. Leaders use observational skills to monitor changes in employee behaviors or team dynamics. Keeping track of shifts in tasks and relationship behaviors helps you identify when to adjust your techniques. Connie says a great leader “can sense if something’s off-kilter. There’s a rhythm to how people work, and you should know when it’s off.”
• Emotional intelligence. This skill helps develop a comprehensive understanding of group dynamics. Emotional intelligence also helps you identify your own behavioral patterns and their impact on others.
• Communication. Effective communication is a core leadership skill. Clearly articulating expectations and providing context helps prevent misunderstandings and keeps teams aligned. At Flywheel, Connie practices direct communication to understand employee needs, prioritizing open conversations and asking about their goals. She says it can start with a simple question, like, “’Hey, what are ways that I could support you better or clarify what we’re working toward?’”
• Decision-making. Situational leaders take decisive action. Strong decision-making skills help managers quickly adjust their style to optimize group performance.
• Adaptability. Great leaders respond to shifting needs with adaptability. For example, if a previously high-motivation employee seems to be losing confidence, a leader could adapt by temporarily using a more supportive style to help rekindle their self-assurance.

Limitations of situational leadership

A situational approach is most effective in flexible work environments that grant leaders the time to implement and evaluate different management techniques. Situational leadership might not work at rigid companies or in high-stakes industries.

When health and safety are concerned, like in the healthcare industry, for example, a more consistent, structured approach—as provided by bureaucratic leadership, for example—can help mitigate risks. Taking a step back to analyze group dynamics in an emergency room setting could cause unnecessary delays.

Effective situational leadership requires strong managerial skills and significant emotional investment and may place too much responsibility on team leaders. “Good leadership requires a lot of emotional intelligence,” Connie says. Managers who lack this sense may not be able to effectively assess employee maturity levels.

Situational leadership emphasizes individual consideration. It aims to help employees at different skill levels produce high-quality work. If managers fail to find a balance between team needs and organizational goals, it could lead to poor group performance.