Leadership and People Management: Foundations to Practice · Leadership Styles and Adapting to Your Team
Situational Leadership and Team Member Readiness
A complementary framework to Goleman's styles focuses specifically on matching leadership behavior to an individual's competence and confidence for a given task, offering a more granular lens for one-on-one leadership decisions.
Situational leadership theory, developed by Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard, argues that effective leaders adjust their specific behavior based on a team member's readiness level for a given task, a combination of their competence (skill and knowledge) and their commitment (confidence and motivation) for that specific piece of work, rather than applying a single fixed leadership approach to that person across every task they perform.
- Situational leadership theory matches leadership behavior to a team member's competence and commitment for a specific task, not a fixed general read on the person.
- Readiness spans a spectrum from directive (low competence) through coaching, supporting, to delegating (high competence and commitment).
- Misapplying too directive an approach reads as micromanagement to a ready team member; too hands-off an approach under-supports someone still building competence.
- Readiness should be reassessed continuously as a team member gains experience, not assumed fixed based on an initial impression.