Leadership in Teams
Teams can be of different readiness levels.
A summary of some Ken Blanchard works
on Management theories
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Situational Leadership
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S1
Directive
Coercive
Formative stages
Low supportive
High task behavior
Telling
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R1
Unwilling
Unskilled
Complies to the rules
with coercion and
directives
Needs direction
Sanctions/
punishments
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Situational Leadership
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S2
High supportive
High task
Two way dialogues
Selling
Coaching
Mentor role
Persuasive
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R2
willing
Unskilled
Complies to the rules
with willingness
Needs direction
Rewards for positive
behavior
Bargaining
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Situational Leadership
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S3
High supportive
Low task
Two way dialogues
Participating
Encouraging
Not much guidance
needed
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R3
willing
skilled
Complacency to the
rules with insecurity
Needs high support
Low task behavior as
the employee is past
that stage
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Situational Leadership
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S4
Low supportive
Low task
Monitoring
Available for clarification
Delegating tasks
Not much guidance
necessary
Overseeing
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R4
empowered
Takes decision to
some extent
Performing stage
Needs low support
Low task behavior as
the employee is past
that stage
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Power bases
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The energy required to bring changes
Coercive power adopts retribution as a
method of control
Substantiates S1 behavior for R1 level
employees.
Sanctions go with non compliance
Sanctions can be from a scornful look to
increasing order of difficulties
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Power bases
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Connection power is used in the phases R1 and
R2 levels
 Connection power can change an unwilling
employee into a willing employee, as the
connection power is influencing based on the
connection with sources
 Used when the followers want to escape
retribution or when they want rewards for their
efficiency
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Power bases
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Reward Power is used in selling behavior with
high relation and high task
 Provides positive energy including cash and
congratulations
 An employee from R2 level needs high
support and high task behavior. When
coaching behavior is used along with reward
power, there is a positive reinforcement
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Power bases
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Legitimate power is power to change behavior
owing to the fact that the leader is in a position
either bureaucratically or due to the fact that
the leader is in a position to lead the rest
 The power of the leader is legitimized by the
time employee transits from coaching to
participative level of leadership style.
 Involves high support and high to moderate
task behavior
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Power bases
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Referent power is effective when a leader is
role model providing charismatic influence on
the followers
 When the R3 level employees need support to
rekindle their interest in their work or to drive
away any feelings of insecurity, leader with
referent power can influence them to modify
their apprehensions into achievements
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Power bases
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Informative power is the knowledge about the
things that matter concerning the work or the
employees at work
 Highly effective in motivating to high levels of
readiness, R3 and R4 requiring a participative
and delegating style of leadership
 Information power helps in having access to
otherwise not attainable events
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Power bases
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Expert power is specialty the leader possesses in
guiding, directing, coaching, participating and
delegating of responsibilities.
 Follower of R4 readiness takes care of day-today routines quite easily. On special occasions
that involve expertise they need to emulate the
leader in his specialty
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Power bases
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Power bases as such enhance the leadership
styles and support each of the situational
leadership style in each situation
 Situational leadership uses appropriate power
bases in training employees from readiness 1
to readiness 4 to increase the probability of
success at each level of readiness
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Whale done
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Task level of training an employee has to
begin from a very light task to continuously
increasing the strength of the task
 Each step of advancement should be
appreciated by gestures and rewards
 Any behavior we don’t want to recur
shouldn’t be given much time
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Whale done
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Appreciation of positive aspects involves the
leader to accept their mistakes and correct it
 Accentuate positive aspects by redirecting
energy from using a negative energy
 Whale done philosophy lays stress on
concentrating on redirection from a negative
energy to a positive energy response
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High Five
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Team members need attention immaterial of
their skills
 There is no small or big task for the team
members
 Attention should be dissipated towards all the
members in the team in developing a team
spirit instead of concentrating on one specific
team-mate
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High Five
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We need to develop trust among team
members to taste success
 Achievement is a continuous process
improving from one level to the next in a
constant all round development
 We need to have trust in the team members
involved in training
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Putting OMM to work
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ABCs of management:
 Activators: prelude to performance e.g:
coaching, mentoring
 Behavior: readiness levels R1-R4
 Consequences: responses from the related
leadership styles
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OMM meets Monkey
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About the responsibilities people accept
without realizing the time it may take and
miss opportunities
 Managers implementing team techniques
should develop balance in giving attention to
details
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OMM meets Monkey
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Leadership progresses from being directive to
coaching to participating to delegating of
responsibilities, a transition of S1 to S4 levels
of leadership styles in prioritizing
 Responsibilities of subordinates/ colleagues
need discussing before accepting them or
taking over the ownership of the monkeys
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OMM meets Monkey
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We should realize the ownership of the
monkeys and limit our boundaries although a
manager might be able to see the sequence of
bringing up a monkey
 Manager needs to allocate the tackling of the
monkeys to the owners, direct them, coach
them.
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OMM meets Monkey
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Instead of taking over the responsibility of solving a
problem situational leadership focuses on the
readiness levels of guiding, explaining, encouraging
and delegating depending on the situations
Different strokes for different folks forms the basis of
situational leadership, that can be used in addressing
each of the problem an organization faces
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Gung Ho!
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The spirit that organizations can adopt to be
full of enthusiasm and dedication towards
work and empowerment of team with a
responsibility
 The spirit of the squirrel, way of the beaver
and gift of the goose form the crux of the
parable in this book to turn on people of any
organization
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Gung Ho!
Peggy Sinclair adopts the method of Gung Ho!
spirit from Andy Longclaw and introduces to
Walton Works #2 and brings in a totally new
organizational ethos into the atmosphere full
of enthusiasm and appreciation, hardwork and
empowerment
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Gung Ho!
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Spirit of the squirrel foresees the value and
worthwhile work in every little detail of the
organizational tasks
 Way of the beaver deals with the
empowerment of each employee in view of
the urgency a situation demands, it is
nimbleness, attention to urgency and
volunteering and taking up challenges
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Gung Ho!
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Work demanding the best of the employees
 Feeling of accomplishment
 Within the skill levels
 Challenging enough to expand boundaries of
one’s abilities
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Gung Ho!
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The gift of the goose deals with the
importance of appreciation in an organization
 Enthusiasm = mission * cash *congratulations
 Rewards are of two types, cash and
congratulations
 Congratulations can be active or passive by
empowering the team member and monitoring
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In summary
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Situational leadership forms the basis of
management within an organization and leads
an employee from a lower level of readiness
to higher levels, as much as empowerment.
 Teams involve learning within organizations,
in a gung ho spirit
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In summary
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Each member of a team is important for the
success
 Teams undergo stages of development as they
undergo training from one level of readiness
into the next
 Progress is possible sometimes in small steps
sometimes in spurs
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In summary
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In a learning organization where each member
of the organization is involved in training and
more training, the progress may be in small
steps initially and may take a while before the
results
 Once the momentum picks up the
development will be in spurs as and how the
involvement of the employees increases
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In summary
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Enthusiasm, worth while work, challenges
stretching the skill level lead to learning
organizations
 Teams can cross-train the members within the
organization and the zeal of the members in
organizations reflects the wellness of a
company
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