Leadership Styles – Hersey and Blanchard

              There are a number of different leadership styles that can be effectively used, when leading groups in the mountains. Hersey and Blanchard (no date supplied, cited in Mind Tools, no date supplied) state that there are four main styles of leadership called telling, selling, participating and delegating. A leader should change between the styles, depending on the group’s maturity, experience and the task. The different styles place different emphasis on the task or the relationship with the leader, depending on what the situation requires (Hersey and Blanchard, no date supplied, cited in Mind Tools, no date supplied).

Recently I was leading a group on Bodmin Moor; during the day I used most of the leadership styles stated. At the beginning of the day I gave a brief as to what was going to happen, by using a telling method of leadership, where I told the students exactly what to do and how to do it (Hersey and Blanchard, no date supplied, cited in Mind Tools, no date supplied). However before we started walking I used a delegation style, where I handed responsibility to the group and monitored there progress (Hersey and Blanchard, no date supplied, cited in Mind Tools, no date supplied), by asking them to locate and plan the next leg. I then asked a group member to lead the leg, with them having the responsibility of getting to our first location.

The style of setting out a clear objective then delegating the responsibility to an individual on each leg worked well with the group, as it was easy to assess who needed help, and stopped a certain amount of following the rest of the group.

Certain aspects of navigation needed to be taught or refreshed. I tried to use a selling style of teaching, where I gave them the information needed but allowed for the group’s input. The aim of the selling style is to ‘sell’ the message to the group and get them on the side of the leader (Hersey and Blanchard, no date supplied, cited in Mind Tools, no date supplied). As the day went on this style worked better as the group started to know what I was teaching and could input more answers themselves.

The participating style of leadership means that the leader focuses on the relationship with the group and less on the direction of the task. In this style the leader works with the team and shares the responsibility of decision making (Hersey and Blanchard, no date supplied, cited in Mind Tools, no date supplied). This style wasn’t needed with the group on Bodmin Moor, as the aim was for the group to learn more navigation skills not to be friends with the leader, or their peers who they already knew.

On reflection if I was with a group for a longer period of time, more emphasis needs to be placed on the participation style, to allow for better understanding of the group members.

References

Cap Members (2000) Fundamentals of Leadership [online]. Available: http://www.capmembers.com/prof_dev_modules/cap_lesson_01/lesson1_html/lesson1.htm [date accessed: 14 March 2012]

Mind Tools (no date supplied) The Hersey – Blanchard Situational Leadership Theory [online]. Available: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_44.htm [date accessed: 14 March 2012]

Ordnance Survey (2012) Bodmin Moor - Bing Maps [online]. Available: http://www.bing.com/maps/?FORM=Z9LH4 [date accessed: 18 March 2012]