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Many leadership models and theories like to lump leadership strategies into just two or three categories and analyze them from there. While this can be helpful to get a general picture of how leadership works and what styles work under which circumstances, real life is usually more complicated than that. For this reason, a continuum makes a lot of sense because it covers a wider range of actual leadership approaches. The Tannenbaum-Schmidt Leadership Continuum is a great example of this line of thinking. The continuum runs the spectrum of potential styles, and leaves plenty of leeway to land somewhere in the middle of the spectrum. Rare is the leader who will find themselves completely on one end of the equation or the other – nearly everyone will fall somewhere in the middle depending on their experience, personality, and the tasks that they are leading.  Before getting into the details of the points along the continuum, it is important to understand the extremes that mark each ...

What is the difference between leadership and power? The answer to that question might not be quite as easy as it first seems. In fact, the more you think about it, the more likely you are of coming to the realization that leadership and power might be the same thing. In any situation where one person is deemed to be the ‘leader’, they are likely to also be the person with the most power to make decisions. If you find yourself in a position of leadership within your organization, it is safe to say that you have a good deal of power as well.  The ‘Five Forms of Power’ research was conducted by John French and Bertram Raven in 1959, and was important because it strived to determine what it is that makes someone powerful in a given setting. By describing each of the five types of power, you can assess your leadership capabilities. 1. Reward Power Is one of the more common types of power. The ‘reward’ can take many different forms, but it is typically financial when talking about...

Not only can leadership strategies vary from person to person, but the same person can often use different strategies in different situations in order to achieve maximum results. The leader who is stuck in only one way of thinking and never responds to the changes going on around them, is one who is unlikely to be a leader for long. The Lewin’s Leadership Styles Framework dates back many years – to the 1930’s, in fact – but it is still relevant today because it divides leadership styles up into three easy to remember groups. While these groups might not necessarily capture all of the subtlety that is contained within a given leader or manager, they do a good job of highlighting the overall approach.  Based on the situation, any of these three styles could be the perfect one for the job. At the same time, any of these three could be the wrong one for the job if used under incorrect circumstances. Pairing the right leadership style with the right situation is a task that every lea...

The Action Centered Leadership (ACL) model presented by John Adair back in 1973, is notable because it can help reconcile the various goals and desires of individuals. While still accomplishing the specific goals set out for the team and the project as a whole.  In its simplest form, the model can be described by how it divides leadership into the areas of ‘Task’, ‘Team’ and ‘Individual’. Each element plays an important role in the leadership picture, and only when all three are balanced properly will the leader be achieving success. Harmony among the three might not always be the easiest goal to reach, but it is the job of the leader to make it happen. By looking at each element in turn, you can understand how each of these three aspects is important. It all starts with a task Without a task, there is no reason to have a team made up of individuals, and no reason to lead them in the first place. Every leadership role is developed because there is a goal in mind, and someone ...

Developed back in the 1960’s by Fred Fiedler, Fiedler’s Contingency Model is an interesting look at leadership styles, and how different approaches can lead to very different results depending on the circumstances. As the term ‘contingency’ would indicate, this model is based on the idea that rather than having a single leadership style for all circumstances, the best approach is to be able to vary the leadership that is provided based on the group and task at hand.  Fielder argues in this model that a specific leader is only able to lead in one fashion, meaning that another person will need to be tasked with the job if a different leadership style is required. Right away, there are some elements of this model that make sense when you think about how they will be applied. Most people would agree that a ‘one size fits all’ approach is not going to be effective when it comes to leadership – rather, it will take a variety of styles and techniques to achieve success in the long run....

Right in the name of this leadership theory, you can get a great indication of what it is all about. The term ‘situational’ indicates that: Leaders should vary their approach based on the people they are leading, and the circumstances that surround the task at hand. Indeed, the Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership Theory is one that is based around variable leadership, depending on a variety of circumstances. When a leader is able to adapt to the situation as quickly as possible, everyone will benefit in the end.  Specifically, this theory has to do with the maturity of those who are being led. To those who have worked as leaders in the past, it is no surprise that maturity should be considered when working on finding the right leadership style. For example, Someone who is inexperienced in their field, will likely lack the skills or confidence to take on tasks that would be comfortable for a more experienced employee. Only when a leader is able to mold their approach...

It’s no secret that there are a variety of different management and leadership styles out there. In fact, you could argue that there is a different managerial style for each individual that serves in a leadership role. The Blake-Mouton Managerial Grid is a system that can be used to group leaders into categories, based on the methods that they use. While no organizational system will ever be perfectly complete, this grid is a great way to understand more about certain leadership styles and how they work. Dating back to the early 1960’s, this is a framework that has stood the test of time and remains relevant today.  The two dimensions of this grid quickly identify the priorities of the manager in question –‘Concern for People’ and ‘Concern for Results’. It doesn’t get much simpler than that, and it shouldn’t take long to determine where along this grid you fit as a leader. Concern for People. The leader who emphasizes Concern for People over Results, is one who is trying to...

The Dunham and Pierce Leadership Process Model doesn’t necessarily seek to define leadership, but it does the job indirectly. This model addresses all of the key elements that play a role in leadership, and helps the manager to understand how each part affects the other parts of the equation.  Leadership will never be simple, but using this model is a good way to ‘get your head around’ the various moving parts and hopefully bring it into better focus in your mind. According to Dunham and Pierce, there are four factors that play a role in the leadership process. Leader – the person in charge of a project or team, regardless of what their title may be. That person may be referred to as an owner, a manager, a V.P., or any other title that confers power and responsibility. The important thing is that they are the person who a group of others answer to, and it is their performance that we are worried about with this model. Followers – the people who are being led. Generally, these w...

Any time there is a leader being placed in charge of a team, it is a safe bet that there is a goal or an objective at stake. Whether that goal is short-term, such as creating a new product that will launch in three months, or longer term like developing a branding strategy over the next five years, the goal is out there to be reached. Without goals, teams would have no target to direct their activities and productivity would be almost impossible to achieve. At the same time, there is a path that leads the way to those goals. It might help to think of the path as the day-to-day reality of the process that is needed to reach the goal. Inevitably there will be roadblocks along this path – some small, and some large – so team members will need to be creative and agile in order to get around the blocks, and stay on course to reach the target. But what role does the leader play in this process? Trying to help a leader define their place in this equation, so that they can give the team the...