> Knowledge hub > The historical background to situational leadershipThe training SL II®. Powering Inspired Leaders is based on Ken Blanchard’s Situational Leadership II theory. The roots of this theory go back to the 1960s, when Ken Blanchard and Paul Hersey described their Situational Leadership Theory in their bestseller “Management of Organizational Behavior”. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, however, the two developed their own, slightly different versions of this theory. This gave rise to the name Situational Leadership II by Ken Blanchard, later referred to simply as SL II.
In 1979, Ken Blanchard and his wife Marjorie founded the management training and consulting firm The Ken Blanchard Companies® (now Blanchard®) in San Diego, California. Since then, this firm has been dedicated to improving people’s lives by emphasizing human value in a company, increasing effectiveness in the workplace, and helping organizations become healthy, effective companies with highly motivated and skilled employees.
Blanchard® now has a successful international presence in more than 35 countries and continues to adapt its highly effective and successful training courses to cultural and economic change based on 35 years of research.
The Situational Leadership II® approach according to Ken Blanchard assumes that a successful manager must adapt their management style to the development of their employees so that the employee can continue to develop in a motivated manner, develop their skills according to their individual potential and develop to their best advantage.
To this end, employees are assessed in relation to a task or objective in four defined development stages in order to then apply the appropriate management style. An employee can therefore be at different stages of development depending on the task or objective.
Overall, these four development stages are defined on the basis of two variables: commitment and competence. In this way, both the psychological and task-oriented components of the employee are included, which are decisive for the employee’s performance.
Four leadership styles are defined based on the development stages. They are based on the two factors of relationship behavior and task behavior. If the focus is more on relationship behavior, the manager uses more supportive behavior, but if task behavior is required, the manager leads the employee with directing behavior.
If the employee is at development level 1, he/she primarily needs guidance on how to complete the task and achieve the goal. However, if the employee is already an expert in their task and is therefore at development level 4, they need neither supportive nor directive behavior from the manager, as they can already work very independently and on their own responsibility. A delegating management style is appropriate here.
The challenge for managers using this model is to identify the right maturity level of employees and to apply the appropriate management style correctly. If this is successful, situational leadership can also bring the desired success and be enormously helpful in achieving a wide range of goals.
Diversity, individuality, development, digitalization – these are the trends of the modern working world. Employees are demanding responsibility and freedom of choice, more security combined with flexibility, individuality and integration within the company. Can a manager even keep up with this?
Our answer: Yes it can!
With the help of the situational leadership model, managers learn the ability to flexibly apply different leadership styles as required. There is no such thing as the perfect management style; in today’s fast-moving and constantly changing working world, the right style is an appropriate adaptation to the respective development stage and needs of employees. By creating a common language, the diversity of employees can be recognized, confidently addressed and valued.
Situational leadership uses the clearly and simply defined model to create a clear framework that supports a uniform understanding among all those involved and thus ensures cooperative collaboration based on tolerance and appreciation.
| Criterion | Situational leadership | Transformational leadership | Conscious Leadership | Agile leadership | Coaching Leadership |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic principle | Adaptation to the maturity level, situation and needs of employees | Visionary leadership, inspiration and organizational change | Mindfulness, self-responsibility, awareness, clarity of thought and action | Flexibility, self-organization and iterative development | Development through targeted support and promotion of potential |
| Role of the manager | Flexible adaptation between guiding and supporting | Inspirer, visionary, driver of change | Role model in personal responsibility, emotional intelligence, conscious action | Framework provider, enabler, promotes self-organization | Coach, mentor, feedback provider |
| Participation | Depending on the situation and competence of the employees | High level of involvement through motivation and inspiration | High participation through authentic communication and trust | Very high level of participation thanks to self-organized teams | Employees are actively involved, own solutions are encouraged |
| Flexibility / adaptability | High, controllable depending on the situation | Medium to high, focus on long-term transformation | High, as focus on conscious perception and reaction to situations | Very high, iterative adaptation to changes | High, individual adaptation to development needs |
| Promotion of innovation / ideas | Possible, depending on employees | Strong promotion of innovation through vision and inspiration | Promoting creativity through openness, reflection and psychological safety | High capacity for innovation through cross-functional teams and experiments | Focus on personal development as the basis for innovation |
| Error culture / learning environment | Mistakes are used as a learning opportunity | Mistakes are considered a necessary part of change | Mistakes are addressed openly, responsibility is taken, learning is encouraged | Errors are understood as an important part of agile processes (Inspect & Adapt) | Mistakes are valuable learning opportunities for growth |
| Leadership style characteristics | Situationally changing management style, flexible in use | Inspiring, visionary, motivating | Self-reflective, mindful, responsible, value-based | Adaptive, iterative, self-organized | Development-oriented, supportive, questioning instead of instructing |
