Situational Leadership Style
Name
Institution
Situational Leadership Style
Leadership is an essential component in determining the success or failure of any organization or nation. Leadership determines how the organization is run either by managing employee behavior, motivation, and progress. Leadership styles are the different ways an organization is run to direct and motivate employees to believe and achieve the organizational goals. There are various leadership styles, including transformational, democratic, autocratic, transactional, situational, bureaucratic, and charismatic. This paper will look at the situational leadership style and its role in an organization’s success.
Situational leadership involves both directing and guiding through instructions and the ability to listen to employees’ needs. The leader in this leadership style should have the ability to be adaptable in listening to the needs of the subordinates and dealing with each issue differently (Ghazzawi, Shoughari & Osta, 2017). The idea is that the leader should respond to every situation with an open mind and a unique solution. The motivation, support, and direction should change to some degree when interacting with different employees depending on their situation. This leadership style Situational leadership allows for an open workplace where there is free communication between the leader and the subordinates (Ghazzawi, et al., 2017). This free communication and openness allow for employee development, and this may lead to organizational success.
The open communication between the leader and the other employees allows the leader to identify their traits, abilities, and motivation. Identifying these traits helps the leader assign roles that suit each individual according to their abilities. This move enables the company to run efficiently as the functions are done by people vetted to be optimal for the roles. Identifying employee characteristics also helps the leader treat the employees according to their temperaments, attitudes, and emotions. Every employee has their level of temperaments that need to be understood. Understanding these temperaments allows the leader to approach situations that might anger or irrational in a better way to avoid confrontations. Understanding employee emotions give the leader good emotional intelligence and help when approaching the employee on different occasions. All these aspects allow the leader to deal with every employee uniquely. This unique response makes the employees feel understood and helps in the motivation and satisfaction of employees. The general effect is the improved work relation of employees and the leader. These enhanced relations helps the employee performance to increase, leading to general organizational success.
Situational leadership also enables the leader to influence the behavior of employees. Due to the close and personal interaction between the leader and the employees, the leader can influence behavior. If it’s working hard in the company, the leader can lead by example by completing their assignments and effectively conducting their role. The leader can also maintain high standards of ethics and moral values according to the company’s rules and regulations. The show of commitment to the job and the company’s ethical values by the leader has a positive impact on the employees. The employees would be able to watch the leader’s actions and look up to them, which helps in changing employee behavior. The changing of employee behavior to what the leader wants helps achieve organizational goals as the leader can direct the behavior in this positive sense.
There is no unique or particular type of leadership to guarantee success in any organization. However, situational leadership provides a flexible and more adaptable way of leadership that provides room for success. A leader’s ability to adapt to every situation uniquely helps in employee satisfaction, which helps improve the performance of the employees. An improvement in employee satisfaction helps in attaining organizational goals.