Leadership Style and
Mission Demands
Chapter Overview
1. Leadership Style and Mission Demands
2. Situations and Team Capabilities
3. Leadership Preparation
Chapter 8, Lesson 1
Lesson Overview
•
•
•
What are the two orientations to leadership
behavior?
What are the four leadership styles?
What are primary factors of the leadership
situation?
Chapter 8, Lesson 1
Quick Write
Write a paragraph on whether you think
a leader should spend more time
telling team members how to
accomplish a task or training them to
do it themselves.
Chapter 8, Lesson 1
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Leadership Behavior
• Becoming a good leader requires training and
practice
• It’s helpful to understand the difference between
leadership and management:
– Leadership is the art of influencing and directing people to
accomplish the mission
– Management is supervising the use of resources to achieve
team objectives
– In essence, you lead people, and you manage things
Chapter 8, Lesson 1
How Does a Leader Get People
to Accomplish a Mission?
• The leader must base his or her approach on the
situation
• Situational leadership is a leadership model based on
the concept that there is no single best way to
influence and lead people
• Two orientations on the leader’s part—orientation
toward people and orientation toward task—are key
to understanding situational leadership
Chapter 8, Lesson 1
Orientation Toward People
• Another name is relationship behavior—a
leader’s engagement in supportive, two-way
communication with his or her team members
• Such behavior includes listening, praising,
collaborating, and counseling
• A leader who practices such behaviors can
greatly improve followers’ performance
Chapter 8, Lesson 1
Orientation Toward Task
• Task behavior is the leader’s
involvement in defining the
duties and responsibilities of
an individual or a group
• Task behaviors include
directing team members on
what to do, how to do it, and
when to do it
Chapter 8, Lesson 1
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Four Leadership Styles
The Leadership Grid
Participating - S3
Selling - S2
High Relationship Orientation
Low Task Orientation
High Task Orientation
High Relationship Orientation
Delegating - S4
Telling - S1
Low Relationship Orientation
Low Task Orientation
High Task Orientation
Low Relationship Orientation
Chapter 8, Lesson 1
Telling (Style 1)
•
•
•
The leader provides specific instructions
Closely supervises team members as they
perform their tasks
High task orientation and a low relationship
orientation
Chapter 8, Lesson 1
Telling (Style 1)
•
Typical telling behaviors include:
– directing others what to do
– supervising them closely
– following up to ensure they complete
their tasks
Chapter 8, Lesson 1
Selling (Style 2)
•
The leader closely supervises task
completion and following up
•
Provides explanations and opportunities for
clarification from team members
•
High task orientation and high relationship
orientation
Chapter 8, Lesson 1
Selling (Style 2)
•
Typical selling behaviors
include:
– supervising closely
– following up
– explaining relationships
between tasks and team
goals
– encouraging questions
– supporting progress
Chapter 8, Lesson 1
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Participating (Style 3)
•
•
The leader helps and supports team
members’ efforts toward completing the
task by sharing ideas and responsibility for
decision making with his or her team
members
High relationship orientation and low task
orientation
Chapter 8, Lesson 1
Participating (Style 3)
•
Participating behaviors include:
– asking team members for ideas
– listening
– encouraging others to try out
their ideas
– allowing others to structure
their tasks
– sharing control and
accountability
Chapter 8, Lesson 1
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Delegating (Style 4)
• The leader turns responsibility for
decision making, problem solving, and
implementation over to team members
• Low relationship orientation and low
task orientation
Chapter 8, Lesson 1
Delegating (Style 4)
•
Delegating behaviors include:
–
–
–
–
–
–
setting task boundaries
letting others make their own decisions
allowing members to chart their own courses
of action
giving group members the freedom they need
to do the job well
providing help when asked
monitoring progress
Chapter 8, Lesson 1
Leadership Etiquette for
Successful Leaders
• Make decisions that will enhance the entire
organization rather than just themselves
• Realize that they also have superiors—everyone
is accountable to someone
• Serve as examples of fair play, integrity, and
dependability
• Listen to the needs, feedback, and suggestions of
all organization members—not just a few
Chapter 8, Lesson 1
Leadership Etiquette
• Understand that leadership is not a position of
glory and popularity, but of responsibility
• Roll up their sleeves and help other members
of the organization when the going gets tough
• Know that they cannot succeed without the
work, support, and dedication of all the
members
Chapter 8, Lesson 1
Leadership Etiquette
• Do not seek personal recognition but rather
share it equally with their followers
• Work for the success of the organization, not
for individual gain
• If the leader uses this power improperly, it can
be taken away and given to someone else
Chapter 8, Lesson 1
Primary Factors of the
Leadership Situation
• Leaders should approach each leadership
situation by considering four factors:
–
–
–
–
the mission
the people
the leadership style
the environment
Chapter 8, Lesson 1
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The Mission
• Most missions involve many tasks
• The team must complete each task to
fulfill its responsibilities
• The leader must define the mission and
set priorities for completing the different
parts of its tasks
Chapter 8, Lesson 1
The Mission
• The team members must be able to relate to the
team’s goals and adopt them as their own
• When possible, the leader must involve team
members in setting these goals
• A team cannot succeed without the dedicated
effort of each member
• Another part of the leader’s role is to set standards
of job performance and to communicate them to
the team
Chapter 8, Lesson 1
The People
• A leader must be sensitive to people
• People perform the mission
• A leader cannot get the most out of
people on the team unless he or she first
knows their abilities
• Ability has two main elements:
– training
– experience
Chapter 8, Lesson 1
The Leadership Style
• Successful leaders adapt
their leadership style to
meet the mission demands
and to reflect the abilities
and experience of their
people
• Good leaders also take into
account their own
individual strengths and
weaknesses
Chapter 8, Lesson 1
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The Leadership Style
• For example, if you can
communicate well with
people on an individual
basis but are uncomfortable
speaking to large groups,
use personal conferences as
much as possible
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Chapter 8, Lesson 1
The Leadership Style
• In addition to playing to your
strengths and avoiding
weaknesses, your leadership
style must correspond to team
members’
– knowledge
– abilities
– skills
Chapter 8, Lesson 1
Photo courtesy of Ilene Perlman
The Environment
• There’s no way to plan for every eventuality
• One way to prepare for the unexpected is to begin
by carefully considering the environment; what
works in one situation may not work in another
• Leaders must alter their leadership behavior to
accommodate changes in the mission’s environment
• The key is to stay flexible—and to adapt to the
situation!
Chapter 8, Lesson 1
Review
• Becoming a good leader requires training and practice
• Situational leadership is a leadership model based on the
concept that there is no single best way to influence and
lead people
• Orientation toward people, or relationship behavior, is a
leader’s engagement in supportive, two-way
communication with his or her team members
• Task behavior is the leader’s involvement in defining the
duties and responsibilities of an individual or a group
Chapter 8, Lesson 1
Review
• Four styles make up what’s known as the leadership grid:
– telling
– selling
– participating
– delegating
• Leaders should approach each leadership situation by
considering four factors:
– the mission
– the people
– the leadership style
– the environment
Chapter 8, Lesson 1
Summary
• What are the two orientations to leadership
behavior?
• What are the four leadership styles?
• What are primary factors of the leadership
situation?
Chapter 8, Lesson 1
Next
• Done—leadership
style and mission
demands
• Next—situations and
team capabilities
Photo courtesy of Goodshoot Images
Chapter 8, Lesson 1