Behavioral and Situational Theories--#4

Behavioral theory relies upon the notion that there are three main skills sets: human, conceptual and technical. These intelligences are essential to having a well-rounded team.

This theory allows a leader to assess the abilities of his employees (and himself) to create prime leadership situations.

When I directed a CW camp, I looked at who was volunteering for the event and assessed their abilities before giving out assignments. I knew Matt was very responsible, a hard worker, and good at being in charge, but he could come off as harsh and unapproachable. Because of that, I didn't want him to be a rotation leader or a counselor despite his experience in CW and the wisdom he would inevitably bring to the position. Instead, I put him as Head Cook where he could be of aid to the directors (a.k.a. myself) and be in charge of a big task.

On the other hand, situational leadership is composed of different styles of leadership tailored to individual situations.

I find this theory much more difficult to implement because it requires a leader to step outside the real-world framework of a situation and look at an issue more theoretically--something that is rather unnatural to do. Although it's important to be able to conceptualize the issue, it's also important to remember that we're working with real-world people. It's difficult for me to think about a scenario and decide how to handle it because it is inevitably going to be the people who work with me who ensure its success, not my handling of the situation in one manner over another.

I also think that a big part of leadership is assessing the situation as well as the abilities of the people. For example, Andrew invented a new kind of camp for CW and I am helping to put that camp on at the end of the semester. In choosing volunteers, I am going to choose people who are very versatile and who are hard workers over those who mostly like to have fun. However, I am going to leave some of the decision-making skills to those volunteers because I know they are intelligent human beings and have been volunteering for quite some time. Had I chosen volunteers who are very social and mostly like to have fun, I would still leave some of that decision-making up to them for the same reasons, I just might not have as much faith in it.