Leadership Skills & Theories

JLBC CADET CORPS Leadership Skills & Theories When being supportive, you ask for input, listen, facilitate problem-solving, explain why, and encourage.

In all four styles, the leader clarifies specific goals and expectations, observes and monitors performance, and gives feedback.

As a leader, you tie the developmental level to the leadership style by diagnosing the situation. This consists of looking at a situation and assessing your followers' developmental needs to decide which leadership style is most appropriate for the goal or task. In an ideal situation, you match followers in D1 to the S1 leadership style. So if your followers have low competence and high commitment to the task you need them to accomplish, you provide highly directive behavior and low supportive behavior. In other words, you take on a more autocratic leadership style. Once they start learning the task but before they master it, their commitment or morale may drop, signaling they're in D2. This is the time to adjust your leadership style to S2, remaining directive but being more supportive. D3 aligns with S3, and D4 with S4.

Some studies have yet to establish Situational Leadership as a functional model. It works well matching D1 followers with S1 leadership style, but better with followers/subordinates at the D3 or D4 levels. In simple cadet situations, however, it is a good way of approaching how you should interact with your associates in different positions.