How can you use contingency leadership to adapt to changing project requirements?

1 What is contingency leadership?

Contingency leadership is based on the idea that there is no one best way to lead, but rather, the effectiveness of a leadership style depends on the context and the characteristics of the followers. Contingency leadership theory suggests that leaders should match their style to the situation, taking into account factors such as the task, the environment, the resources, the expectations, and the needs of the followers. Contingency leadership also recognizes that different followers may require different levels of guidance, support, feedback, and autonomy, depending on their skills, experience, motivation, and personality.

2 How to assess your situation and followers

Before you can adapt your leadership style, you need to assess your situation and your followers. Various frameworks and tools, such as the situational leadership model, the Fiedler contingency model, the path-goal theory, or the leader-member exchange theory, can assist in evaluating the complexity, clarity, and urgency of the task; the stability, predictability, and flexibility of the environment; the availability, quality, and reliability of resources; and the goals, expectations, and standards of the project. Additionally, these models can help you assess the skills, experience, and competence of followers; their motivation, commitment, and satisfaction; as well as the relationship, trust, and communication between leader and followers.

3 How to adjust your leadership style

Once you have assessed your situation and your followers, you can adjust your leadership style accordingly. You can incorporate different dimensions of leadership behavior, such as task-oriented versus relationship-oriented, directive versus participative, supportive versus challenging, or transactional versus transformational. Depending on the context and the followers, you may need to adjust the balance between these dimensions. For example, you may need to provide more or less direction based on the clarity and complexity of the task; involve more or less participation based on the skills and motivation of the followers; offer more or less support based on the urgency and difficulty of the task; set more or less challenging goals based on the expectations and standards of the project; reward more or less performance based on the availability and quality of resources; and inspire more or less vision based on the stability and predictability of the environment.

4 How to monitor and evaluate your leadership style

Adjusting your leadership style is not a one-time action, but a continuous process that requires regular monitoring and evaluation. To do this, you can ask for feedback from your followers, peers, and superiors, observe the behavior, performance, and satisfaction of your followers, measure the progress, quality, and outcomes of the project, review the changes, risks, and opportunities in the environment, and reflect on your own strengths, weaknesses, and preferences as a leader. Doing so will help you make necessary changes to your leadership style.

5 How to develop your contingency leadership skills

Developing your contingency leadership skills requires practice, learning, and experimentation. You need to be willing to try different styles, learn from your mistakes, and adapt to new situations. To do this, you should seek out diverse and challenging projects and followers, expose yourself to different cultures, perspectives, and experiences, take courses or coaching sessions on leadership theory and practice, read books or articles on contingency leadership and related topics, and join or create a network or community of practice with other engineering managers. All of these activities can help you develop your contingency leadership skills.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?