THERE IS A rule that you can never expect people to do a good job at a task if they have not been trained thoroughly on how to do the task in an excellent fashion.
Paul Hersey, in his book The Situational Leader, revolutionized management and the understanding of how to work with different employees with his four quadrant method.
He taught that each employee has a certain level of skill and ability in a particular job, which dictates the leadership style that is most effective in eliciting the very best results from that person.
If the new person has limited knowledge or skill, or none at all, in a new job, this person requires a directing style of management. The role of the manager is to tell the person exactly what to do, to teach him how to do the new job, and to explain it to him in detail. This is leadership style number one, “Telling.” Hands-on management is essential.
The second leadership style in this model is “Selling.” The leader is still providing the direction, but she is now using two-way communication and both encouraging and motivating the individual to do the job.
The third leadership style is called “Participating,” and it’s when the leader invites questions and feedback about the job and the best way to get it done. Commitment to task accomplishment is in direct proportion to the amount of time the employee has to discuss the work in advance.
The fourth and highest level of management, “Delegating,” is when the leader is still involved in decisions, but the process and responsibility has been passed to the now experienced individual or group. The leader stays involved to monitor progress, but assigns the job and allows other people to do it.
The correct leadership style depends on the relative skill and experience of the employee. A key insight of situational leadership is that often, when a new person with previous experience comes into the company, the manager makes the mistake that the previous level of experience is completely transferable to the new job. Instead of using a directing style of leadership, the manager, as busy as he is, uses a delegating style of leadership—in effect leaving the new employee with no direction.
Some years ago, we went through our hiring process and chose a new receptionist for our fast-growing business. The new receptionist was to replace our old receptionist, who was moving on to a better position more consistent with her education.
We practiced the Law of Three and had multiple people interview this new woman. We were both impressed with her and convinced that she would do an excellent job. But after one day on the job, the previous receptionist, who had stayed on to train the new receptionist, came to us and told us that we had made a terrible mistake. The new person was completely incompetent. She could not do the job and should be replaced at once.
I was quite surprised. Then I asked her a key question, “Have you thoroughly trained her in every part of the new job, including how to use our telephone system, computer, and related software?”
She said, surprised, “No, I haven’t. I assumed that if she was being hired for the job, she would already know how to do it.”
I then asked her to go back to the new employee and patiently teach her everything she needed to know to operate our systems, which were quite new. The old receptionist reluctantly agreed to do so.
With one week of training, the new receptionist turned out to be absolutely excellent. She was easily the best and most competent person at that job that any of us had ever seen. But she wasn’t on the first day because she had not been trained in how to do the job properly. She stayed with us for several years, until she married and moved away.
What she needed was a “directing,” hands-on style of management until she learned the new job and acquired enough competence to be able to function on her own.
Remember, it costs a lot of time and money to go through the process of selecting employees and then lose them because you had not thought through the process of managing them correctly at each stage of their becoming familiar with the job.
1. Think about your employees and note where you might be experiencing problems and frustrations. Could it be that you are using the wrong leadership style based on the person’s level of competence and familiarity with the job?
2. Experiment with the leadership styles of “telling, selling, participating, and delegating” with different people. Remember, “Different strokes for different folks.”