Every leader has a natural style, but effective leadership often requires adapting our approach to different situations.
This is the core principle of Ken Blanchard’s Situational Leadership Theory, which suggests that there is no single “best” style of leadership. Instead, the most effective leadership style depends on the task, people, and situation at hand.
In the previous video, Alice introduced the ideas of ‘control’ and ‘support’ in relation to your leadership style and also introduced Blanchard’s model of leadership.
Blanchard’s model identifies four leadership styles:
- Dictator: High control, low support behaviour
- Coach: High control, high support behaviour
- Mentor: Low control, high support behaviour
- Delegator: Low control, low support behaviour
The previous reflection task will already have given you an indication of where you feel you naturally sit as a leader.
Now take a moment to reflect and decide if this still feels right after the explanations of each style.