Transformational Leadership vs. Situational Leadership
Effective leaders recognize the benefits of choosing a leadership style that allows them to achieve their strategic goals in the most efficient manner. Transformational leaders focus on establishing a vision, inspiring subordinates and motivating people to work in new ways. With enthusiasm and vigor, they promote the company's mission and long-term success. In contrast, situational leaders focus more on the current problems and challenges than the future, because neglecting conflict typically leads to poor employee morale, low customer satisfaction rates and diminished productivity. Leaders usually need to apply each approach, at different times, to achieve their goals.
When your company faces changes, adopting a transformational style helps you and your employees make the transition from one state to the next. According to psychologist Bernard Bass, transformational leaders influence their subordinates, inspire and motivate others with charisma, indicate genuine concern for people and intellectually challenge followers. Using this type of leadership, you encourage people to achieve the highest levels of performance.
When a company needs to make a strategic change, such as making new products, selling to different types of customers or providing new services, a successful transformational leader clearly communicates the new direction. She clearly communicates the vision to her subordinates so they can act. Instead of referring to specific situations, she focuses on the general strategy. Visionary leaders recognize opportunities and use their resources effectively to achieve their long-term strategic goals. Transformational leaders also typically help their subordinates develop their own skills and become leaders themselves.
Using the Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership Theory, you assess the current situation and change your leadership approach based on the people involved and the task at hand. This theory was developed by management experts Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard to help managers become more effective at assigning work. Using the telling style, you tell people what do. Using the selling style, you provide guidance but focus on convincing employees to do the work. Using the participating style, you focus on building relationships. Using the delegating style, you allow subordinates to take responsibility for the tasks but monitor progress over time.
Instead of focusing on changing the current environment, using the situational leadership approach, you deal with the current circumstances to get the best short-term outcome. By identifying the top customer complaints, product errors or service problems, an effective situational leader prioritizes work and thoroughly analyzes the situation before implementing a solution. She assesses the skill level of the personnel involved and if the team lacks skills and experience, consults with experts to devise solutions to problems.