3 Leadership Models to Build Your Business On

Among the several Leadership Theories that have gained currency of late, three stand out as key components of the new era of relational leadership: Servant Leadership, Transformational Leadership, and Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership.

To begin with the last, The Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership Model is a contingency theory that was developed as an extension of the Blake and Mouton Leadership Grid. Instead of focusing on the leader styles as did the Leadership Grid, the Hersey-Blanchard Model focused on the situation based on the readiness of the followers, and recommended leadership approach accordingly (Daft, 2008).

Whereas follower readiness could be classed as one of four categories (R1: unwilling and unable, R2: willing but unable, R3: able but unwilling, and R4: willing and able), the recommended leader approach would correspond (S1: Telling—providing specific instructions, S2: Selling—explanatory, S3: Participating—sharing and facilitating, and S4: Delegating—handing over responsibility).

This model of leadership was one of the first to recognize the ability of leaders to adjust their style to suit the circumstances and the importance of leader behavior in fostering a more productive team or organization. In this way, the Hersey-Blanchard model opened the door to the other two models discussed here.

Transformational Leadership says that leaders have the ability to transform their followers and their organization they work for. The primary way transformational leaders do this is by developing their followers into leaders through empowerment, follower-led motivation, and an emphasis on shared values (Daft, 2008).

The transformational leader stands in contrast to the transactional leader, who focuses on follower needs and desires and seeks to satisfy them as a way to motivate them to achieve his own goals. While transactional leaders are successful at maintaining a high-performing organization, transformational leaders are needed when an organization is in need of improvements in morale or productivity.

The third model we look at is Servant Leadership, a relational leadership theory first attested in the 1990s (Greenleaf, 1997). As the name suggests, Servant Leadership says that, in order to be successful, a leader must look beyond his own interests and serve others. The model is something of a culmination of the previous two models in that it emphasizes empowerment, participation, decentralized decision-making, and trust.

You can be a servant without being a good leader. But you cannot be a good leader without being a good servant. As G.K. Chesterton put it, “There is a great man who makes every man feel small. But the real great man is the man who makes every man feel great.” The key is making every man feel great, and one does this by elevating one’s aims from the personal and base to the universal and sublime.

Of the three models discussed, perhaps only the Hersey-Blanchard model can be considered practical with its highly functional diagnostic and decision-making framework. The Transformational and Servant Leadership models are aspirational in nature and are more useful in their descriptions of ideal leadership and contrast with styles that don’t work as well.

References

Chesterton, G. K. (1906). Charles Dickens: a critical study. New York: Dodd Meade & Co.

Daft, R. L. (2008). The leadership experience. (4th Ed.). Mason, OH: Thomson South-Western. ISBN13: 9780324539684

Greenleaf, R. K. (1997) The servant as leader. In R. P. Vecchio (Ed.) Leadership: understanding the dynamics of power and influence in organizations, (pp. 429-438). Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.