What is the right leadership style? This group got it right 86% of the time.

I conduct an assessment in a leadership training where participants are asked to select the right leadership style based on the situation.?Prior to the workshop, participants are only able to select the right style with less than 50% accuracy. What this means is that in real life they are likely over-supervising or under-supervising.?Yesterday, I had a group complete the assessment after attending my workshop and the results were outstanding.?Of 10 participants, 8 scored averaging 86% correct in their selections of the proper leadership style.?I’ll follow up with these participants in a month to hear them share actual actions they take with their employees and get better results.

The assessment I use is called the Leadership Behavioral Analysis II, which is part of the SLII program, Ken Blanchard’s model for helping provide the right leadership style based on the development level of individuals.?I was proud of the group yesterday, getting so many responses correct.?Why did they do so well??They learned the key skills of identifying a goal or task, assessing the development level of the individual, and then being flexible enough modify their leadership style based on that situation. Research shows that before attending the workshop, participants often misdiagnose development levels and don’t show flexibility in what style to use.?After the workshop, their diagnosing improves significantly, their leadership style selection does too, and when they talk with employees about this, everything gets better; people are motivated, clear on expectations, and the leader is perceived as significantly more influential.?

I really love the SLII program, and love even more seeing the results when leaders apply it.?Find out more about this program, which is part of our Influential Leadership Series content, at Leadership Development — Caleb Consulting Group (caleb-consulting.com)