Several years ago I attended the seminar about Leadership held by
the global HR consulting firm in Japan. There were hundreds people attended and
most of them were HR or people in the management position.
The speaker was a professor of the very famous MBA school in US.
He has been teaching leadership for many years, and has been involved in the selection
and development of CEO in the major US companies.
During the seminar, he introduced several leadership theories from well-known to neo-emerging. One of the theory he introduces is Situational Leadership theory developed by Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard in 1970-1980. I like it and utilize most personally. It says that the right leadership style will depend on the person or group being led. The Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership Theory identified four levels of maturity M1 through M4:
- M1 - They still lack the specific
skills required for the job in hand and are unable and unwilling to do or
to take responsibility for this job or task. (According to Ken Blanchard
"The honeymoon is over")
- M2 - They are unable to take on
responsibility for the task being done; however, they are willing to work
at the task. They are novice but enthusiastic.
- M3 - They are experienced and
able to do the task but lack the confidence or the willingness to take on
responsibility.
- M4 - They are experienced at the
task, and comfortable with their own ability to do it well. They are able
and willing to not only do the task, but to take responsibility for the
task.
Maturity
Levels are also task-specific. A person might be generally skilled, confident
and motivated in their job, but would still have a maturity level M1 when asked
to perform a task requiring skills they don't possess.
A
good leader develops "the competence and commitment of their people so
they’re self-motivated rather than dependent on others for direction and
guidance." According to Hersey's
book, a leader’s high, realistic expectation causes high performance of
followers; a leader’s low expectations lead to low performance of followers.
According to Ken Blanchard, "Four combinations of competence and
commitment make up what we call 'development level.'"
- D1 - Low competence and high commitment
- D2 - Low competence and low
commitment
- D3 - High competence and
low/variable commitment
- D4 - High competence and high
commitment
In
order to make an effective cycle, a leader needs to motivate followers
properly.
I used this theory for my day-to-day
management, and teach people as HR trainer sometimes. I believe it works
while it is old theory.
I don’t describe all theories introduced in his speech here, but I
enjoyed whole his speech very much. But most
interesting thing was, at the end of the speech, he mentioned that top of the
top, i.e. CEO level cannot be developed. It is a Given talent. 2nd level (CxO) leadership
can be acquired by the development programs based on the various theories, but CEO
level leadership is a Given. I think this is the honest feeling he got
through his long experience as a member of CEO selection in major companies. It seems
like the denial of his entire speech (he was laughing), but I understood very much what
he said, and agreed with him. Even through my limited experience to work with
such high level leaders, I feel it is true.. and it is true regardless of the nationality. In Japan we have similar saying that only the person who has "Utsuwa" (= a person of high caliber) should be the top. Utsuwa is not skills nor technique - it is more about personality or humanity. Each person has each size of Utsuwa, and should take appropriate level of responsibility based on Utsuwa.
Leadership is deep – no conclusion at this
point, but I would like to continue to think if it is given or acquired. It
is very interesting topic.
If you are interested in the Situational Leadership theory, you can see more details in the following link: http://situational.com/
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