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Situational Leadership

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Submitted By falconcoach90
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Jordan Greathouse
MSBA 5110
3/28/14
The Situational Leader Ken Blanchard, the author of Leadership and the One Minute Manager, states that to be an effective manager one must be a situational leader employing, “Different strokes for different folks” (Blanchard, 1985). Situational leadership suggests that there is no “best” style of leadership, but rather there is an appropriate leadership style for a particular individual, situation, or task. Blanchard proposes that successful managers are responsive, and able to adapt their leadership style to the maturity or development level of the individual or group. Development level speaks to the level of competence which is, “a function of knowledge and skills, which can be gained from education, training, and/or experience” (Blanchard, 1985), and commitment, “a combination of confidence and motivation” (Blanchard, 1985). As well as adapting to the individual it is important to choose a style fitting to both the individual and the task that needs to be accomplished. Blanchard stresses that it is the managers responsibility to properly diagnose the development level of the individual and the task or situation to decide which leadership style would be most effective for that person, task, or situation as well as to communicate with employees clearly to contract a mutual expectation and understanding of leadership styles and why I work with them differently than others or differently in different situations.
“For a long time people thought there were only two leadership styles - autocratic and democratic. In fact, people used to shout at each other from these two extremes, insisting that one style was better than the other. Democratic managers were accused of being too soft and easy, while their counterparts were often called too tough and domineering. But I have always felt that managers who restricted themselves to

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