The Benefits Are Many For Situational Leadership

Utilizing the principles of Situational Leadership is not just about being a strong leader for the sake of leadership. It is still about delivering results. Any leadership practice, framework, or theory ultimately should lead to effectively leading a team of people. This means having a group that is engaged, collaborative, innovative, and driven for performance. The best results are not ‘driven’ by constant pushing. Rather, they come from a team that is working together to maximize the collective potential of any situation or set of circumstances. That is the essence of situational leadership.

In that opening paragraph, I hit on many of the key benefits that come from leading through the situational leadership framework. Let’s dive in a little deeper to the many benefits that come from connecting with your team in a meaningful way by matching leadership style to individual needs.

Engagement

Having a leader who is focused on your success as a team member will almost always create real engagement. When that effort is positioned for what you need, when you need it, you know it as an employee. It can almost feel too good to be true. With that, you continue to provide your best effort, work together with your team, and stay connected to how your company overall is doing. That sounds like a perfect definition for engagement. Situational leadership brings all of those pieces to life. It is not just a framework for individual success, it builds the platform for a team’s and company’s success.

Take chances

Why do people avoid taking chances or risks at work? Fear. They are afraid they may get into trouble or lose time on something they have to get done. With that comes static progress, status quo outcomes, and in some cases, boredom. When you have a supportive leader who is encouraging you in the right places at the right times, there is safety in stretching beyond your normal comfort zone. This is where innovation occurs. Suddenly, the idea of ‘what if’ enters into the equation and people begin to try new things knowing that they have the backing of their leader. This can create new ideas, efficiencies, and yes, engagement. 

Innovative

One of the benefits of taking chances is innovative outcomes. New ideas and concepts come from places where people feel they can branch out and explore new ideas. It comes from being encouraged and supporting in learning new things, pushing boundaries, and leaning into untested processes. Places like Google and 3M are famous for allowing employees to dedicate time to new thinking and trying crazy ideas. From those, they have discovered many new ideas and opportunities for significant leaps forward in product development and services that might not exist otherwise.

Creates alignment

Working within the Situational Leadership framework not only creates a common language for all team members and leaders to speak, it allows everyone to know what to expect in all they do. This alignment ensures everyone remains on the same page. Expectations are clear. The support and follow up is expected and delivered for all parties. The vision remains at the forefront, employees know their role in supporting that, and receive the support they need to contribute at a high level.

Consistent performance

When you have a team that wants to do well, feels supported, and works collaboratively, consistent results will follow. I always like to take the idea of ‘results’ a little further and state that ‘positive, sustainable results’ will come. Regardless of what you do as a leader or a team, there will be a result. Everyone gets ‘results’. That doesn’t always mean they will be good results, the desired outcomes, or something that can be sustained for the long haul. All of those are critical for true success.

Situational leadership is a repeatable framework that can be used over time for changing environments. It will feel seamless to the participants, even to the point where they may not even realize they are working within a framework that cycles through based on circumstances. New projects begin, they move back to a D1 level, the leader supports with S1, and it feels natural and normal, so no one on the team notices. To everyone outside, it looks like a well-oiled machine that continually delivers on expectations.

One of the biggest benefits, and perhaps the most important, is the culture it creates for everyone: the team, the individual team members, and the leader. This becomes an environment in which people come to expect certain things. If there are gaps in those expectations, on any side of the equation, breakdowns can occur and inefficiencies can be created. I pulled this statement from the Blanchard website, and I think it is the perfect lead-in for the last big benefit that comes from leading through situational leadership:

Gaps between what employees expect from their leaders and what they actually receive from their leaders can create a breakdown in what a team can accomplish.

Left unaddressed, these gaps represent a drain on overall organizational vitality through lowered employee intentions to stay, endorse, and apply discretionary effort as needed.

Culture of accountability

Finally, perhaps the biggest benefit that comes from a framework like situational leadership is the culture it enables. I always define culture as true collective outputs of the team’s actual behaviors. Culture is not a statement. It is not defined on paper, it is what really happens among the team and with others. Situational Leadership allows for a culture of development, of growth, of safety, and trust. It is accountability. People do what they say they are going to do and consistently deliver those positive results. I have previously described what a culture of accountability looks like in using the Ten Steps of Accountability. This works hand-in-hand with situational leadership to foster the environment for everyone to thrive.

The benefits of situational leadership are many. It becomes a way of being, or leading, more than something that is specifically enacted. I believe becoming a situational leader will flow naturally with time and fully embracing the theory and framework that it represents. It will be less about what you do, and more about who you are as a leader. This makes situational leadership your own. The more you attempt to apply it in strict fashion or create rules for being a situational leader, the further away from the true benefits you will find yourself. 

Looking back across this series of articles, situational leadership is a concept of leading through observation and applying support when, where, and how needed that benefits the team member. It requires knowing your team and how they work. It demands that you, as the leader, are as engaged as you want your team. It ensures that your employees will get the hands on guidance they want, when they want it, but also the distance they need when that is most important. Everyone works differently, and when circumstances change, people may need different levels of support. Situational leadership bridges those gaps. 

And, remember, situational leadership is not a one and done approach for the team. It is constantly in flux based on projects, deliverables, experience, context, and timing. You can have the same employee move quickly from a D1 level to a D4 and back again depending on the changes around them or to the project work itself. I realize in retail that may not change as often as it might in other environments. However, you might be surprised as you expose your team to new ideas and as the retail world continues to evolve, that situational leadership is more necessary than you might believe. It is not just for new promotions, new hires, or changing locations. It can apply to different shifts, new processes or policies that are introduced, and even in changing customer demands. Situational leadership can be highly beneficial in almost any setting, in any business. Embraced, and applied aptly, it can make a huge difference for your team as well as you as a leader.

What other benefits can you see coming from the use of the situational leadership framework?

Previous Situational Leadership Articles

What is Situational Leadership?

Situational Leadership is Not Just Environmental; It Matches Leadership Support to Learner Needs

What Does Situational Leadership Look Like in Action?

What are the Qualities of a Situational Leader?

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