How to Coach Yourself and Others Influencing, Inter Personal and Leadership Skills | Page 97

Hersey’s and Blanchard’s Situational Leadership® model
The Classic Situational Leadership® model of management and leadership style also
illustrates the ideal development of a team from immaturity (stage 1) through to
maturity (stage 4) during which management an leadership style progressively develops
from relatively detached task-directing (1), through the more managerially-involved
stages of explanation (2) and participation (3), to the final stage of relatively detached
delegation (4), at which time ideally the team is largely self-managing, and hopefully
contains at least one potential management / leadership successor.
Hersey’s and Blanchard’s Situational Leadership® model

The aim of the leader or
manager is therefore to develop
the team through the four
stages, and then to move on to
another role.
Ironically this outcome is feared
by many managers. However,
good organisations place an
extremely high value on leaders
and managers who can achieve
this.
The model also illustrates four
main leadership and
management styles, which a
good leader is able to switch
between, depending on the
situation (i.e., the team’s
maturity relating to a particular
task, project or challenge.)