── ── Mental model

Situational Leadership

Match your leadership style to each person's development level on each specific task — cycling through four styles (Directing, Coaching, Supporting, Delegating) as competence and commitment evolve. Introduced by Hersey & Blanchard (1969); formalized as SLII by Blanchard, Zigarmi & Zigarmi (1985).

How it works

Run the Development Diagnosis, then select and implement the Leadership Style.

1. Define the task precisely. State: "[Person] on [specific task]." If the task cannot be named, the diagnosis cannot run. 2. Assess competence on this specific task — Knowledge / Skill / Track record. Rate: Low / Medium / High. 3. Assess commitment on this specific task — Motivation / Confidence / Engagement. Rate: High / Variable / Low. Do not infer from behavior alone — ask directly. 4. Determine development level: D1 = Low competence + High commitment; D2 = Low-medium competence + Low commitment; D3 = Medium-high competence + Variable commitment; D4 = High competence + High commitment. Stop-rule: ambiguous level → default to lower (more structure). 5. Select and implement style: S1 Directing (D1) — clear steps, specific check-ins, no open-ended "how do you think?"; S2 Coaching (D2) — high directive + high supportive, acknowledge effort + give guidance; S3 Supporting (D3) — ask questions, explore confidence barriers, avoid deciding for them; S4 Delegating (D4) — assign outcomes not methods, check in periodically, express trust through reduced supervision. 6. Monitor, reassess, shift. Reassess when new responsibilities arrive, performance drops, or disengagement signals appear. Name style shifts explicitly: "I'm adding more structure on this new task — that's about the task, not my confidence in you."

When to use it

• user says 'my management style isn't working for this person', 'I don't know how much to delegate', 'my top performer is disengaged', 'my new hire is struggling without guidance', 'should I give him more autonomy?', or asks how to lead/manage a specific person on a specific task

Worked example

Google's Project Oxygen (2009)

In 2008, Google's People Analytics team launched Project Oxygen to answer a question the company's engineering culture resisted: do managers matter? The initial hypothesis among many Google engineers was that technical skill was sufficient and management was unnecessary overhead.