Situational Leadership | Meaning and Definition

What is the meaning of leadership?

Leadership is the act of leading an organization or a group of people. The person entrusted with the responsibility of leadership is termed a leader. Leadership is best defined as the ability of a group of people or an individual to positively influence and act as guidance to the subjects/followers or other members within the company. The leader has the responsibility for inspiring confidence and trust in the other members. For instance, a store manager acts as the leader in leading the team for more sales.

What is Situational Leadership?

At a workplace, the leader is entrusted with the responsibility of meeting the expectations and managing the team. The leaders ought to have their own types of leadership skills for guiding the rest of the team and positively influencing them with the goal of progress.

The style of leadership in which a manager (the leader) of a department or the whole organization adjusts their styles to adapt to a situation or a particular task of the ongoing work environment to meet the requirement of the team is termed situational leadership.

Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard studied and developed the style of situational leadership in 1969. They are of the opinion that there is no existence of one size that fits everyone’s kind of leadership style. Every employee develops in a certain manner which is different from the rest to adapt with which the leadership style also has to develop consistently.