Much of the early research on leadership suggested that specific leadership traits (behaviour, self-confidence, intelligence, task-orientation) will work to be successful in any situation.
Situation can diminish or enhance the effects of our efforts being an effective leader. We need, therefore, consider the power of situation.
There are situations which directly affect our behaviour as a leader. Aspects of the situation such as formal rules, policies, expectations and business culture can directly affect a leader. Sometimes, these rules may indirectly affect the performance to increase or decrease it.
There are different situation which influence the leaders behaviour. A situation may act as an enhancer that affects leaders behaviour. If the leader does the task well, there are more changes of it being listened by others and successful completion of the task. If the leader has little knowledge of the task, his instructions will not have any effect.
Situations also can influence the outcomes, such as performance and satisfaction. If employees have an extensive training and knowledge the need for clarifying the tasks by the leader are reduced.
The Demands and Constraints
Each manager and leader has specific demands required, for example standards, targets, objectives and deadlines. We also have some constraints that limit what we can do, for example regulations and laws as well as availability of resources, technology we use or even psychical locations.
But we also have choices available. These are the opportunities to determine what to do and how to do it. Demands and constraints limit choices in a short run, but in the long run manager might have opportunities to limit the constraints and modify the demands. Generally managers have the choice on how they influence people and involvement in the targets.
The demands put on the leaders highly influence on how the time is spent and how much skill is needed. Different work patterns will also influence affect managerial behaviour. The amount of requests, whether the work is more repetitive or less repetitive, the amount of uncertainly at work, the required time to focus and attention and, of course the amount of pressure and deadlines. Some roles require more initiative and planning ( product manager, research manager, training manager) or more frequent responses (production manager, service manager).
Another aspect that influence our behaviour is the amount of responsibility and skill required. There is more exposure when decisions and actions are important and poor judgement can result in negative consequences, disruption or loss of profit.
Research also shows that even managers with similar jobs have different behaviour and it widely depend on their personalities. But is is known that the higher level of trust and communication enable us to resolve problems and conflicts more effectively.
One trade off that we all experience, however, is lack of time to do everything. This is the reason different people will do things in different ways. Leaders differ with their skills, values and role expectations and some of those may be incompatible with the situations and environment that they are in.
Another variable that can influence the leader's behaviour is the level of management. Higher levels of management are often concerned with a broader level of authority. They are making long-term plans, formulate policy, modifying the business structure and initiate new ways of doing things. Middle manager would be mostly concerned with interpreting the strategy and they usually have a moderately long-term objectives. Lower-level managers are concerned with coordinating the activities where objectives are more specific and issues less complex.
Research found that planning, strategic decision making and public relations are more important to higher-level managers, therefore they spend more time interacting with outsiders. Lower level managers tend to be more concerned with technical matters, scheduling work, staffing and monitoring team's performance. They also spend less time on each activity.
With this, comes another influential factor - the "span of control" or unit size. Generally, managers of larger organisations have more demanding work. Decisions are more difficult due to wider issues. Larger units also have more bureaucratic structures and managers must cope with more constraints. With more subordinates it is also more difficult to get them all together or consult individually with everyone. Such leaders, therefore use less participative style. Because of that higher-level managers may make more autocratic decisions and use delegation. Lower level managers also use autocratic style as the control span increase, but use less delegation. This could be connected to the skills and capabilities of their team. Managers of larger groups also have less opportunity to interact with all subordinates. But, larger units develop groups that the manager needs to identify and promote cooperation among them. Serious issues may arise if this is neglected.
External groups will also affect leader's behaviour. Coordination with different units is important as the interdependence increases. Units make mutual plans, schedules and activities. As the interdependence increase the managers external environment becomes more important. Managers gather information from other units, negotiate agreements and reaching joined decisions.
The crisis
Some of the greatest challenges for leaders arise from immediate crisis or disruption of normal operation. In these situations the expectations from the leadership roles also change. The leaders would be expected to be more assertive, goal-oriented and decisive. Those who express confidence and directive behaviour in this situations are known to be more effective. They are to be achieving resilience and be the catalysis for positive transformation.
Some organisations experience extreme events, unexpected disasters and unusual challenges. Many of them have not prepared and put little systems in place to stop from these events. Some organisations are well prepared for extreme situations and always need to be "on call" and be prepared. They would be dealing with common changes and need to be able to adjust to rapid changes. The development of skills would be very important here. Sometimes these extreme situations arising become "normal" for them. Exposure to such events allows learning the team refinement. That's where dynamic delegation occurs. These often happens in trauma hospitals where patients need urgent attention from nurses and doctors. The team's task is to stabilise, diagnose and treat the patient. These can be unpredictable and uncertain situations.
Some organisations focus on being highly-resistant. They try to avoid and prevent these events. The leaders are focusing on maintaining well controlled processes and have risk detection systems in place to avoid potential failures.
There are also critical-actions organisations who proactively engage in extreme events.
How can we cope with all of this?
The demanding nature of leaders makes their time management being one of the most important skills. We can manage time wisely and reducing constraints as well as handling role conflicts.
One of the most important points is to learn the reasons for the challenges and constraints. It is essential to learn how others perceive manager's role and what they expect. This involves judgements which are subjective. We need to take time to gather necessary information on which to base those judgements. We cannot assume that everyone will agree with us. We need to understand what they desire and able to see through other's expectations. This requires frequent face-to-face interactions, asking questions, listening to others, being sensitive to negative reactions and trying to understand their underlying values.
We can also focus on expanding the range of choices. Too many managers focus on constrains and fail to give considerations to opportunities to resolve issues and carry out jobs in different ways. It might be worth sometimes to step back to see the broader perspective. It is possible to be proactive and define jobs which allow more discretion. We need to continuously analyse the demands. Some tactics involve engaging with immediate boss to receive the support required. We may need to push situation awareness upwards. We use influence, experience, knowledge, communication and maintain a high professionalism at the same time.
We also need to know what we want to accomplish. We need to use our time wisely. When we know the objectives, we can plan and action them effectively.
It is also helpful to analyse on how we use our time. It might help to keep the log of the things we are doing and also planned in advance. Interruptions, too long meetings, searching for misplaced items, excessive use of social networks are common time wasters.
It is necessary to plan our weekly and daily activities. On a daily basis we make to-do-list and assign priorities to each task. We should be scheduling very important activities. It is more efficient to do a series of similar tasks then switching from one type of task to another. Peak efficiencies also arise in the certain time of the day for us that are good to used for difficult tasks.
We should avoid unnecessary activities. When we overload with non-important tasks we forget about the important ones. We need to be able to say "no". If this is not possible to delegate them we may want to leave them for slack times.
Procrastination can also be dangerous. The reason for procrastination is generally the fear of failure. Dividing tasks into smaller chunks can be less intimidating. When setting deadlines for very difficult times its wise to add some slack time. Such difficult tasks are also more likely to be get done in more productive times.
We should not, however, try and plan each and every minute of our day. When we are faced with unpredicted information we can view them as opportunities to gain more information, discover problems, influence others and move forward with our plans. Some presumably time wasting activities may turn to our advantage.
It is also important to make time for reflection and analysis. Some of tasks do require immediate attention but we might become too preoccupied with dealing with day to day activities. Many of the problems, can be avoided, however, through reflection and planning. It is desirable to set aside some time on a regular basis for this. This is our personal time. We can also schedule such time with peers and subordinates. We may encourage discussion of strategic issues.
We need to plan and prepare for extreme events. This is especially important for managers in organisations with extreme context. By preparing plans and training others on how to react in those situations can help to avoid in reducing terrible consequences.
Managing the constraints
There are some ways in dealing with issues such as Task commitment of team members, their ability and role clarity, organisation of their work, cooperation and mutual trust, resources, support and external coordination.
To reduce low task commitments it might be helpful to set challenging goals and express confidence in the team members that the task can be achieved. A strong vision may help to influence. Incentives are also proven to be effective.
To deal with low subordinate's task knowledge and skills it is helpful to make clear assignments, provide more direction, set procedures, instructions and coaching. Well developed plans to achieve these objectives is essential.
When there is little cooperation we may need to find ways to utilise the skills of members more efficiently. This also relates to use of other resources and equipment. Identify inefficient and unnecessary activities, provide clear direction and plan for success.
When we are dealing with inadequate resources to to a job we may need to find more reliable sources of resources or even request more resources from the organisation. It's important to identify where waste is created.
When there is weak external coordination we may need to develop better plans for the external cooperation. Try to improve the external relations and consult more with external units. It might also be possible to detect external coordination issues quickly.
Long Term actions
To eliminate constraints leader may take long-term actions. This is closely connected to long-term strategy and change management activities. It might be through:
Gaining more access to resources needed to cultivate better relationships with suppliers, finding alternative sources and reducing dependencies,
Gain more control over the demands by finding new customers, opening new markets, advertising or even modifying the product or services to be more attractive and acceptable to customers,
Initiate new activities for the work until we make a better use of personnel, equipment and tools,
Improve selection procedures ti increase the level of employee skills and commitment,
Modify the formal structure of the work to solve chronic problems and reduce demands on the leaders to solve short term problems.
Be Flexible and Adaptive
We need to understand our leadership situation and try to make it more favourable. We must identify the demands, constraints and motivations. Its good to find new sources, resources and assistance.
It is desirable to learn how to use different behaviours. These can be relevant to any situation or challenge. Identify the skills and approaches that are likely to be useful. Assess your current strengths and weaknesses. Identifying effective behaviours in different situations helps us succeed. The same behaviour used in the past may not be effective in the future.
We need to use more planning for complex and long tasks. When the relevant steps of a complex activities are known these are easier to achieve on time and within the budget. The environment can be made more predictive. These includes developing projects, design of new equipment, introduction of new systems or even execution of training. Identify the list of necessary activities, determine their sequence, estimate when each activity should begin, determine who should be responsible and identify the resources needed.
For people with interdependent roles a relevant level of direction is required. Interdependence increases ambiguity. Members may be confused on how to achieve mutual adjustments. It may need a close coordination. Teams with new members and new tasks are more likely to be more confused and needing the support. Direction may reduce these complex situations.
It is important to monitor tasks and unreliable persons more closely. When we monitor the situations we are likely to arrange for corrections. We may be able to detect problems before escalation. We also need to provide more instructions to unexperienced subordinates and be more supportive with someone with more stressful work. Emotionally upset people cannot perform well. Sources of stress are caused by unreasonable demands, uncontrollable problems, difficult interpersonal relationships and cause the risk of costly errors. People in those situations may require more emotional support.
Summary
The job of the leader is too complex to rely on the same set of behaviours. Effective leaders can continue read the situations and adapt their behaviour to it. They seek to understand the task, situational constraints and interpersonal processes to decide how to adapt to a given situation. Over time, leader can improve group performance through tactics and optimal behaviour to any situation.
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