Leaders and Situations

The whole point of this class is to show that there is not one single thing that defines a person as a leader but rather multiple ideas and attributes that manifest to make someone a leader. There are two men who argue that a leader will rise based on the situation they are placed in, Fred Fiedler and Kenneth Blanchard. They have created similar concepts about leadership involving the situation a leader is placed in but have two complete different views.

Fiedler has the Fiedler Contingency Model believing leaders are either task-oriented or relationship-oriented and no in between. He feels people do not change their style and depending on the situation that arises calls for either type of leader. He created a scale called the Least Preferred Coworker to help determine which type of leadership style an individual has based on how high or low he or she rated his or her least preferred coworker. Science and research have proven this to be a none effective way of recognizing a person's leadership views.

An example of Fiedler's Model in my life would be at my ranch when my trainer's new dogs attacked her livestock creating a stressful, chaotic and horrific situation. Myself and everyone present turned to her task-oriented leadership style to know what to do to handle the attack. She grew up on a ranch her whole life and none of us have been in this type of ordeal and had no clue. In conclusion many lives were lost that day but it was the only solution and if she had been relationship oriented I believe a terrible incident like that would have occurred again.

The Blanchard Situational Leadership Model takes a very different spin on this situation/leadership concept. He almost says the opposite of Fiedler. Blanchard thinks based on the situation the leader will change his or her leadership style to accommodate the situation presented. Another factor taken into consideration for the type of leadership displayed would be the ability and willingness of the followers. Depending on them would determine the most effective type of leadership whether it is directing, coaching, supporting or delegating. All of these are based on high to low task and high to low relationship.

I consider myself a more task-oriented leader but I have had situations where I needed to learn to change my style based on the person I was leading. I have done it many times in group projects depending on the level of involvement I have had with group members or in training a new person at my numerous jobs. But one being able to do this really relates back to the training of my horse. She was and still is a stubborn son of a gun and we would butt heads every day. She had a bad attitude and I'd get frustrated and be stubborn right back. I had to learn to understand her lack of ability and willingness to be trained because she was abandoned and trusted no one. I had to switch my leadership style to a coaching style involving direction and support. I ultimately had to be a combination of both task and relationship oriented leader for my horse.