Developmental Leadership
Learning to Shift Your Style
Marie G.
McIntyre, Ph.D.
All
material on yourofficecoach.com
is copyrighted to Marie G. McIntyre.
All rights reserved.
May
be reproduced for non-commercial use with copyright and attribution to
www.yourofficecoach.com.
Commercial use requires permission: email
mmcintyre@yourofficecoach.com .
Just as we each have individual
personality characteristics, each manager has his or her own leadership style.
You may not have given much thought to your leadership style, but
your employees could definitely describe it! However, successful
managers are not locked in to a single approach, but have learned to adapt their
style to the situation.
A.
Critical Leadership Behaviors
All managers must exercise
Control and encourage
Involvement. These
two factors may sound contradictory, but they actually are not. The basic
Control and Involvement behaviors are
described below.
|
Exercising Control
·
Setting goals
·
Clarifying expectations
·
Providing direction
·
Giving information
·
Defining roles
·
Answering questions
·
Organizing & structuring
·
Making decisions |
Encouraging Involvement
·
Listening
·
Asking opinions
·
Providing encouragement
·
Getting feedback
·
Trying new ideas
·
Facilitating discussions
·
Developing relationships
·
Sharing decision making |
Knowing when to use each of these behaviors
appropriately is one of the keys to being an effective manager. By using
different combinations of Control and Involvement
behaviors, you can easily learn to shift your leadership style.
B. Using Developmental Leadership
The Developmental Leadership
Model combines Control and Involvement behaviors into four different leadership
styles. All four styles are useful – the key is using the right
style, at the right time, with the right person. The four styles are shown
in the table below.
|
Leadership Styles |
|
High |
CONTROL |
Low |
|
INVOLVEMENT |
Consulting
Setting goals
Reviewing work Answering
questions
Advising on decisions
Active supervision
|
Participating
Agreeing on goals
Sharing perspectives
Discussing ideas
Discussing decisions
General supervision
|
|
Low |
Directing
Defining tasks
Giving instructions
Providing information
Making decisions
Close supervision
|
Delegating
Approving goals
Agreeing on results
Allowing autonomy
Delegating decisons
Little supervision
|
§
What Style Do You Prefer?
Rank the four styles according
to your level of comfort with each one. Give a 4 to the style with which you
are most comfortable, a 3 to the next most comfortable, and so on.
Then consider these questions . . .
-
Why do you think that
you prefer your highest-ranked
style?
-
When is that style
appropriate? When does it not work as well?
-
Why
do you
tend to avoid your lowest-ranked style?
-
When would
it help you to use that style?
C. Choosing
the Right Style for Each Employee
Successful managers know that
they must treat their employees both the same and differently! You want to be
consistent and not show favoritism, but at the same time you need to change your
leadership style to meet each employee’s individual needs.
Employees differ in the amount
of direction and interaction they want from their manager, so one factor
influencing your style may be the employee’s preference. A highly
interpersonal employee, for example, may want to
interact more frequently than someone motivated largely by achievement.
Another
critical factor in determining the appropriate leadership style is the
employee’s job maturity. This is the primary
factor used in the Developmental Leadership Model.
Matching Leadership Style & Job Maturity
To use the Developmental Leadership Model,
you must shift your style based on both the situation and the job maturity of each employee.
To determing the employee’s job
maturity, you must consider several factors.
|
Low Job
Maturity
|
High Job
Maturity
-
·
Extensive work
experience
-
·
Extensive job
experience
-
·
Familiar with
organization
-
·
Familiar with
assignment
-
·
Good
decision-making ability
-
·
Outstanding job
performance
-
·
Good work habits
-
·
Enjoys
responsibility
|
§
How
Mature Are Your Employees?
Use these questions to assess job maturity.
|
Is this person . . .
|
|
|
1.
Able to set appropriate work-related goals? |
1 2 3 4 5 |
|
2.
Willing to set high, but attainable goals? |
1 2 3 4 5 |
|
3.
Able to solve work-related problems? |
1 2 3 4 5 |
|
4.
Likely to be a self-starter? |
1 2 3 4 5 |
|
5.
Likely to stick with a task until it is completed? |
1 2 3 4 5 |
|
6.
Eager to take responsibility? |
1 2 3 4 5 |
|
7.
Able to work without much supervision? |
1 2 3 4 5 |
|
8.
Likely to prefer working independently? |
1 2 3 4 5 |
|
9.
Supportive of the objectives of the task or job? |
1 2 3 4 5 |
|
10.
Interested in the task or job? |
1 2 3 4 5 |
|
11.
Educated and/or experienced in this area? |
1 2 3 4 5 |
|
Total your
score to see which style might be best.
Low
Maturity
High Maturity
11
22 33
44 55
Directing -
Consulting -
Participating -
Delegating
|
D.
Coaching Employees through a Learning Curve
As a manager, one of your most important tasks is to help employees become fully competent in their jobs.
They need to acquire the skills, abilities, and knowledge necessary for success.
The
leadership style that you use can either help or hinder an employee’s development.
Using
Developmental Leadership can help you effectively coach employees through a learning curve.
When the job, organization, or
assignment is new to them, a Directing
or Consulting style may be needed.
Then, as they learn, you can gradually increase their autonomy by shifting to a
Participating style. Finally,
when they are fully competent, you can avoid micromanaging by adopting a
Delegating style.
By gradually shifting
from higher control and involvement to lower control and involvement,
you encourage employees to
become more independent and self-sufficient.
However, if problems arise or circumstances change, you
may need to move backwards through the style curve and become more
engaged.
Interested in Phone Coaching?
In a phone coaching session, you can discuss any workplace concern with
Dr. Marie McIntyre. Common problems include management challenges,
difficult bosses, frustrating coworkers, career concerns, and job search
skills.
If
you like, you can send a complete description of your situation before
the call. Marie will study it in advance, in order to make the
best use of your time.
Phone coaching sessions typically last 30 or 60 minutes.
The cost is $49 per half hour. If you do not find the session helpful, we
will gladly process a refund. For more information or to schedule
an appointment, just
send us an email.
All
material on yourofficecoach.com
is copyrighted to Marie G. McIntyre.
All rights reserved.
May
be reproduced for non-commercial use with copyright and attribution to
www.yourofficecoach.com.
Commercial use requires permission: email
mmcintyre@yourofficecoach.com .
|