tags: #publish links: [[Management]] created: 2021-04-22 Thu --- # Situational Leadership - directing, coaching, supporting, delegating See also [[Five levels of delegation]] From Paul Hersey and Kenneth Blanchard. A detailed explanation: https://johnkwhitehead.ca/situational-leadership/ The idea is that for a given task or skill, people progress through needing different balances of support vs direction, depending what stage of role mastery they're at. - **Directing** - *I'll sit with you and show you exactly what to do.*: On starting work in a new area, person needs to be told exactly what to do, and can't necessarily be trusted to persist or succeed. - Later, though - once they get a clue about the task and feel like they should be trusted - you need to stop directing: this is the essence of [[Micro-management]] and people naturally feel it as constraining and lacking in trust. Because that *is* what directing is - guiding them until they learn! Learn when to back off. - **Coaching** - *Now you try, I'll help you improve.*: A little less directive but still keeping a close eye and correcting, building a supportive relationship, and reassuring that you're there to catch them. - **Supporting** - *I'm here if you need me, let's check in occasionally.*: They know what to do and have *some* independence, but maybe still a bit lacking in confidence or inconsistent. No need to get into the details of their tasks any more, just support and verify. - **Delegating** - *I'll leave it to you.*: They don't need your help or supervision, nor even your support or reassurance. You can trust them to own and get on with it. ![[Situational Leadership Model.jpg]]