One Example Of Situational Leadership example essay topic

What can we say about leadership? Leadership is a concept, way of life, and aspect of continuous evolution. Trying to narrow down or pinpoint an exact definition to be applied to this term is non-existent. Rather you can only apply certain aspects of this term to better understand it. The area which I will go into is "how situational leadership coincides with empathy as far as generating a successful or non-successful leader". First let us look at what situational leadership is.

Situational leadership is seen as a leadership method according to the present situation you may be in. A true exceptional leader is not one who has a set method on how he / she leads, but rather an evolutionary method that situational leadership requires. Let me elaborate more on this. Let us say Roger Smith (a project manager from XYZ Construction Company) worked on a project down at Seattle for about a year and had to deal with the common problems associated with projects such as change orders, sub-contractor disputes, scope issues, and weather conditions. Roger Smith handled the Seattle project as he saw fit with prior experience and knowledge that he has about the industry. Now let us modify the situation.

Let's give Roger Smith the same type of project. Identical in size, cost, and scheduling but this time it will take place 4 years later along with the location being in China rather than Seattle. Will Roger Smith's way of leading that he used in Seattle be successful in China? The outcome points towards no.

Why would that be the case if the project is basically identical? For one, we have a different setting location. The labor issues, construction specifications, and laws are dealt with differently in China. Not only that, but the people he would be working with are raised and exposed to a totally different culture. With that, Roger can not approach or deal with people the same way. He would have to understand their culture to better adapt which is an aspect of empathy which I will get into more detail later.

That is just one example of situational leadership needing to be applied to succeed in a project. For an additional clarification, web defines situational leadership as, "In simple terms, a situational leader is one who can adopt different leadership styles depending on the situation". With those aspects at hand, someone can apply this concept in their progression of becoming a successful leader. Now let us take a look on how empathy is defined. Goleman, Boyatzis, and McKee argue that empathy is "the fundamental competence of social awareness" (2002: 50). They define empathy as "Sensing others' emotions, understanding their perspectives, and taking active interest in their concerns" (2002: 39).

In addition, Goleman states in What Makes a leader? , "Empathy is particularly important today as a component of leadership for at least three reasons: the increasing use of teams; the rapid pace of globalization; and the growing need to retain talent (Goleman p. 89). If we look at the business world as a whole, we are seeing an evolutionary need for the word "team". The ability of others is often more valuable then the ability of one single individual. A leader with that concept in mind should take advantage of it. The only drawback to this is, being as how a team is made of different types of individuals; the leader needs to be empathic to those that are within the group.

You may have people that are sensitive to certain actions or words that others may not be due to their background. What is an aspect of the world that is no doubt noticeable? The answer is how it continues to grow as a diversified home for many. You have many people from foreign areas moving to the US and having those people giving birth to their children with the US. In addition, vice versa is being applied. The world as we know it today is conforming to a standard where the original descendants of an area are in complete domination of that area.

What can we gave from this? First off, set views and cultures may need to be modified. This is the case because since you have different background, morals, and views living and working together, an empathic approach of, "the fundamental competence of social awareness", and "Sensing others' emotions, understanding their perspectives, and taking active interest in their concerns" need to be applied. Retaining talent is sometimes an action that companies have a hard time succeeding at. A constant occurrence is that people leave companies for the fact of being displeased with the attitude of their boss. Granted you may have some employees who are just lost causes, but there times where talented and people of value left the company due to empathy.

Let us think about this logically. To find a perfect environment to work in may be non-existent, but a workplace where you are at ease, happy, and motivated to work at is definitely obtainable. Do you think if a person were to work at a job with these conditions decide to leave? Your answer for the most part will be no. The only exception is if a person gets drawn in by a monetary offer to hard to pass up. The overall problem is that leaders, managers, and the company as an entirety do not provide an empathetic environment or aura if you will where bonding between employees and the company happens, rather than detachments.

Well, a leader is only as successful as the group that supports him. A star of a movie can't deliver the message or complete the movie without his supporting cast. One aspect that should be understood is that life is not a one person show and that the supporting cast of your life (or business) makes you better. In order to maintain your "supporting cast" you need to understand them and how they work.

What is one way to accomplish this? To be empathetic is the answer. web elaborates on the benefits of being empathic. Four aspects specified are: empathy connects people together, empathy heals, empathy builds trust, and empathy closes the loop. To better understand empathy, I will give an example.

We have a construction consulting company who has been successful in the past. The past few years has brought a decline in the economy along with a decline in available clientele. The company reaches a point in time where the owner decides to sell the company because he got a very hefty offer from one of his competitors. The whole process occurs, and the company begins transition with merging its resources and workers with its new owner. There is a current problem at hand.

We have a certain amount of repetitive jobs within the two companies. There was no need to have multiple of the exact job so that division needed to downside. Word got around where overall downsizing of the company may occur. Being worried about their jobs, the workers confronted the manager of a branch within the company and asked for some information. The manager took the wrong approach towards his workers. He told them that most likely, a number if not all of them are going to be fired.

That "uplifting" speech totally demoralized the entire branch rather than having the manager being empathic to the feelings of his workers possibly losing their jobs and rewording his speech to be helping prepare for the upcoming transition. An example such as this can be found within Goleman's article of What Makes a Leader on page 89. Now that we have situational leadership and empathy defined, let's apply them together to see how a leader can become more successful using these tools together. How can we see that Situational Leadership + Empathy = success? A time has come where problems have occurred within a company. You may be a new leader that has been hired by a company where you may have women feeling as though they are not accepted in the company; or you can have a race within the company feeling the same way.

Obviously, as a leader you need to "focus attention on the issue" at hand. Heifetz states that, "Getting people to focus their attention on tough problems can be a complicated and difficult task, particularly in large organizations or communities where, typically, ways of avoiding painful issues-work avoidance mechanisms-have developed over many years" (p. 154). The leader realizes that this company isn't the same as the one he previously worked for, so he will need to apply new leadership and managerial techniques since the enivornment is different (situational leadership approach). He / She holds a meeting with the group of people who have this complaint and hears their arguments.

He / She states that a solution will be attempted to be reached but obviously since this company has been like this for years, an adaptive approach will be needed to completely solve the problem. The employees feel that this is a problem that can actually be solved and have a feeling of relief and happiness that things may turn around. What caused this? The leader was empathic in listening to their problems and showing understanding of how they feel. In addition, he / she stated how a solution can be obtained if they work together showing how this problem is an issue and needs to be resolved. The final outcome that resulted was, the problem was resolved, new management was brought in, and the company's culture has been modified.

Leadership is changing with everyday that passes. To gain a tight grasp on this vital business concept is impossible. What can be done is to keep up to date with this evolving theory and apply the concepts to shape you into a better leader. Two aspects that are vital and aid to the bettering of your skills are situational leadership and empathy. You have to be able to adjust your methods according to time and situation.

In addition, being a leader involves working with and having a following of people. In order to develop them and keep them on your team, you need to understand how they work and what they go through. If you can apply these two concepts, then you will start to be on your way to a road of success as a leader. Neglect these and be assured you career as a leader will be short-lived in any industry you may be working in. Sources 1.

Leadership on The Line by Heifetz 2. web Goleman, D., Boyatzis, R., & McKee, A. 2002. Primal leadership. Harvard Business School Press. 4.

Goleman, D., 1998. What Makes a Leader? Harvard Business Review. 5. web.