You Are the Leader, But Are You the Right Leader?

This month, our readers get the “professor” part of the author as opposed to the “safety director” side they are more accustomed.  Professor of course being a term used indifferently as the author’s first job is steeped in organizational safety leadership in the trucking industry.  

However, part of that employment is teaching others.  This safety director is also an adjunct professor in business and leadership development at a local university.  The two professions go hand-in-hand as the role of the safety manager, director, or VP is more judicious than ever before. 

Strategy in business and strategy in leadership must be aligned with executive goals in order for your business to succeed.  In preparing lesson plans, I usually run across a curriculum that is well-suited for the trucking industry, particular in the areas of executive leadership.  This month, I’ve decided to write a participatory article that you may find quite useful in leading your organization.  This is the same situation I outline for my students in associates and bachelors programs. 

You've just finished training the newest member of your team. Now that he or she is ready to start working, you provide the information that you want him or her to enter into the company's database, and then you rush off to a meeting.

When you return later that afternoon, you're disappointed to find that this person hasn't done anything. He didn't know what to do, and the person didn't have the confidence to ask for help. As a result, hours have been lost, and now you have to rush to enter the information on time. Although you may want to blame the worker, the truth is that you're as much to blame as the new person is in this situation.

How can we avoid situations like this?  Over the years, I have personally observed this leadership paradigm countless times in the trucking industry.  Our industry is improving however, due to increased education levels in our management, savvy strategic management, and the assumption that connecting to people first is the only way to operational excellence. 

Management experts Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard argue that these things happen because leaders don't match their style of leadership to the maturity of the person or company they're leading. When style and wisdom aren't matched, failure is the result (Hersey, Blanchard, 2012).

The theory states that instead of using just one style, successful leaders should change their leadership styles based on the maturity of the people they're leading and the details of the task. Using this theory, leaders should be able to place more or less emphasis on the task, and more or less emphasis on the relationships with the people they're leading, depending on what's needed to get the job done successfully (Hersey, Blanchard, 2012).

Considering the following leadership styles, look closely at each one.  Can you spot the operational factor within your company; perhaps even attach names to the different styles?  If so, then take a look at how that particular style should be matched to assist employees that person is attempting to influence. 

Leadership Styles in Situational Leadership

According to Hersey and Blanchard, there are four essential leadership styles:

• Telling (also known as Directing) (S1) – Leaders tell their people exactly what to do, and how to do it. [could this possibly be your dispatch personnel?]
• Selling (also known as Coaching) (S2) – Leaders still provide information and direction, but there's more communication with followers. Leaders "sell" their message to get the team on board.  [could this be your terminal manager?]
• Participating (also known as Supporting) (S3) – Leaders focus more on the relationship and less on direction. The leader works with the team, and shares decision-making responsibilities. [could this be your maintenance director?]
• Delegating (S4) – Leaders pass most of the responsibility onto the follower or group. The leaders still monitor progress, but they're less involved in decisions.  [could this be the president or CEO of your company?]

As you can see, styles S1 and S2 are focused on getting the job done. Styles S3 and S4 are more concerned with developing team members' abilities to work independently.

Maturity Levels

According to Hersey and Blanchard, knowing when to use each style is largely dependent on the maturity of the person or group you're leading. They break maturity down into four different levels:

• M1 – People at this level of maturity are at the bottom level of the scale. They lack the knowledge, skills, or confidence to work on their own, and they often need to be pushed to take the task on.
• M2 – At this level, followers might be willing to work on the task, but they still don't have the skills to do it successfully.
• M3 – Here, followers are ready and willing to help with the task. They have more skills than the M2 group, but they're still not confident in their abilities.
• M4 – These followers are able to work on their own. They have high confidence and strong skills, and they're committed to the task.

The Hersey-Blanchard model maps each leadership style to each maturity level, as shown below.

Maturity Level	Most Appropriate Leadership Style
M1: Low maturity	S1: Telling/directing
M2: Medium maturity, limited skills	S2: Selling/coaching
M3: Medium maturity, higher skills but lacking confidence	S3: Participating/supporting
M4: High maturity	S4: Delegating

To use this model, one would reflect on the maturity of individuals within your team. The table above then shows which leadership style Hersey and Blanchard find the most useful for people with that level of maturity.
 

For this leadership discussion describe one situation from your work place where you or someone else in a leadership role was trying to initiate change, but failed to correctly identify the "M" maturity level (as defined by Blanchard).   And as a result, incorrectly applied the wrong leadership style (S1, S2, S3, or S4) to the leadership situation which eventually resulted in the change initiative failing. 

Be sure you first understand the change initiative, and what maturity level should have correctly been selected along with what leadership style should have been utilized.  Perhaps it was training a new dispatcher, a new driver, someone new to your management.

This months’ article might be one worth printing and using during your next training session or within your company’s human resource development program.  My belief will be that if taken seriously and used properly, you may consider one or two contrasting leadership roles within your company. 

David W. Guess, MS, CDS
Director of Safety, Usher Transport, Inc.
NATMI Academic Advisory Board Chairman
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/david-guess-cds/39/722/b9a