Notes #45 Situational Self-Leadership

In prior Notes, we covered the concept of Situational Leadership, which deals with how a leader needs to change their manner of leadership with a follower as the situation changes, and the concept of Situational Team Leadership, which applies the concept to the stages of Team Development (sometimes these are called the Team Development Model and the Team Leadership Model).  With this Note, we ‘complete the trilogy’, so to speak, by covering Situational Self-Leadership.  This applies the concept of Situational Leadership to “self leadership”.  This concept is covered by Ken Blanchard’s Self-Leadership and the One Minute Manager (2005) as well as in a chapter of his more recent Leading at a Higher Level (2006, 2009).

Notes #16 Situational Team Leadership

Teams are a big part of what we will deal with as leaders.  Much of what we will do will be as part of a team or leading a team, and we need to understand how teams work, how to be part of a team (sometimes called ‘followership’) and how to lead a team.  One of the main ways of dealing with teams is the application of Situational Leadership (covered in Notes #7) to teams, sometimes called Situational Team Leadership.  Of course, this entails several concepts.

First off, we need a better understanding of teams.  We are many times part of groups, large and small.  We may be part of various groups and orgs, such as local clubs or professional associations or the like.  Many of these groups may have subgroups, such as committees or subcommittees (these we covered in Notes #12).

Notes #13 Leading at a Higher Level

Ken Blanchard, who is a well know author of various leadership development works, including the One Minute Manager, Situational Leadership II, High Performing Teams (his term for the Team Development & Team Leadership Models), Situational Self Leadership and more, has a relatively new book out.

Leading at a High Level is billed as the definitive work by Blanchard on leadership, based on his 25 years of work in the area.  It has several chapters on leadership topics, co-written by members of his organization.  Several of these topics are, of course, covered in more detail in one of the several works from Blanchard & co, but this book brings all these topics together into one work, and does give additional information, sources, etc.   It doesn’t lose the style of writing used in these other books, or the great examples, but unlike them, you get footnotes and further sources.  Recently, a revised and expanded edition came out, with some new chapters and rearrangement of the others.  (the first version came out in 2006, the new one in 2010).

Notes #7 Situational Leadership

What may be a well known leadership concept is Situational Leadership (SL).  Despite what some on other forums claim, it’s a widely used leadership idea, NOT a "corporate management tool" or the like.  Many organizations include this in their leadership program.  I was fortunate to attend an "executive briefing" on Situational Leadership a few years back, given by the co-developer of SL, Dr. Paul Hersey.  Hersey provides training in SL thru his Center for LeadershipStudies. (Ken Blanchard, the other co-developer, does the same with his version of SL, called SLII, thru the Ken Blanchard Companies.  

While I am familiar with SL, I felt that going to such a presentation, given by a co-creator, would give some good insights into it.  I wasn't wrong.  Below are my notes of his presentation, with some additional comments by myself in brackets.