We promote the value of adopting Situational Leadership as the preferred approach to leadership.  With differences in people, skills levels, circumstances and degrees of risk, comes a need for specific and relevant leadership style to achieve the best possible results.  Effective leaders will benefit from the full range of leadership styles in their repertoire allowing themselves the benefit of choosing the appropriate style after summarizing the situation.

We see all too often a default leadership style dominating approach regardless of the situation.  In times of stress this default style becomes even more dominant.  Time pressure tends to get leaders buying into the notion that there is simply not the time for “niceties” so they justify their default style and believe everyone should just understand and adjust their responses accordingly.

Standard repertoire could include those well-known and commonly accepted styles including Democratic, Autocratic, Dictatorial, Participative and Hands-off.

We’ve added one to the standard thinking… Energising.

Leaders need to accept that certain situations, people, tasks and projects will require copious amounts of energy to achieve desired outcomes.  Doubts, fears, problems, objections, resistance to change, a constant reactive approach requires energy to shift.  Inspiration, hope, belief, buy-in, alignment don’t just materialize.  It is one thing to develop these things in oneself and then to retain them – it is another to transfer them and keep them alive in the people around us.

Leaders are competing with the nature of media – negativity.  Bad news sells.

We would simply like to highlight Energising as a Leadership style.  Consider it.  Notice energy levels in your team.  We believe load shedding amongst team members is just as common as our experiences with ESKOM.  Keep an eye on your energy levels.  Do they keep up?  Can you replenish your stores at any time during a day and after leaving work, can you once again replenish before getting home?

If what we have covered here has merit, after your various reflections, then watch this space for some valuable tips on keeping your grid above the demands of each and every day.