Introduction
The four approaches to leadership – trait, skills, behavioral, and situational – have been significant for understanding and explaining leadership. Although considering someone a leader based on their successes is easy, it is hard to determine whether someone will be an effective leader before their rise. Therefore, management experts and scholars had to bring foward various ways to explain and describe proper leadership. At the beginning of the 20th century, there were numerous studies about the topic; some were complimentary, and some were contradictory. Since then, scholars have brought forward many approaches to leadership – the chief ones being the four theories.
Trait approach
The first systematic approach to evaluating leadership, the trait approach, has an advantage: it offers a thorough understanding of the leader component in the leadership process. This approach suggests that leaders are predetermined and born with unique physical and psychological traits that make them more likely to hold influential positions. It is the first approach, and there have been many studies and research about this theory and its specifications for a great leader. Trait theory further says that innate characteristics and skills cannot be taught or learned. This approach provided clear standards for an influential leader. The critics, however, state that the possible leadership qualities of this approach do not automatically make a leader or are innate. Instead, these qualities are learnable behaviors, such as the ability to influence others and engage in problem-solving (Northouse, 2022). In addition, while theory suggests that tall, beautiful, and extroverted individuals make great leaders, many top leaders are young and old, attractive and unattractive, introverted and extroverted, short and tall, and so on. For these reasons, this approach is, in essence, not reliable.
Skills approach
In contrast to trait, skills leadership theory uses a set of skills rather than personality qualities to describe effective leadership. This theory says anyone can be a leader if they learn the skills required to become one. The proponents state that this approach judges the leaders’ accomplishments; they are judged solely on what they can achieve. In addition, it suggests that learnable skills make leadership more inclusive and accessible for future job progression. Nevertheless, the critics point out that the breadth of this approach extends beyond leadership (Northouse, 2022). For example, by including motivation and critical thinking, the skills approach more than just leadership. The model’s inclusion of two distinct forms of intelligence—general cognitive ability and crystallized cognitive ability—is another illustration of its range. Although both topics are extensively researched in the field of cognitive psychology, leadership research rarely touches on them (Northouse, 2022). Having so many components makes the skills approach less specific and more general in its explanation of leadership performance.
Situational approach
The situational approach to leadership, also called the contingency approach, suggests leadership behavior depends on the situation’s variations. It means that leading a marketing team in a top company requires implementing a different strategy than leading a Navy SEAL team. The situational approach to leadership has several strengths, such as reliability and effectiveness. This approach has been in the industries for decades, effectively utilized to train subordinates to become leaders within companies. Practicality and leader flexibility are additional advantages: this approach is easy to comprehend and apply in various settings. The theory stresses leaders’ need to find out about the subordinates’ needs and adapt their leadership style accordingly (Northouse, 2022). The situational approach can be criticized from the practical point of view. When it comes to group settings, problems can arise when a leader is unsure of whether he should adapt his style of leadership to the overall development of the group or to that of an individual.
Behavioral approach
The behavioral approach, also called the style theory, focuses on leaders’ behaviors. Unlike trait theory, this approach suggests that leaders are not born but made based on learnable behavior (Northouse, 2022). The behaviors of a leader are emphasized in behavioral theories of leadership; this theory contends that a leader’s behavior is the best indicator of how successful their leadership will be. This approach approach is effective because it highlights the key elements of leaders’ behavior rather than telling them how to act.
The main benefit of the behavioral theory for leaders is that it allows them to learn and choose the activities they want to take to develop into the type of leader they want to be (Northouse, 2022). It enables leaders to be adaptable and change course as necessary. This leadership approach also has the significant advantage of implying that everyone can lead. However, it takes trial and error to figure out which actions match certain situations, whether one is a leader or an employee. An influential leader could be a challenging test subject to approach, given the numerous deadlines and clients that they need to meet. In contrast, if they are willing to be open and vulnerable, they will learn more about themselves than before the evaluation.
Case
Of the four approaches to leadership, the situational approach is the most effective in our case. This is because this approach is well-known and frequently used to instruct managers in organizations (Northouse, 2022). Since weak leadership is the sole cause of the high turnover and poor performance by subordinates, the leadership approach needs to be practical, flexible, and prescriptive, meaning it tells the manager what they do or should not do given the situation.
The situational approach is prescriptive, in contrast to many leadership theories that are descriptive. The situational theory was incorporated into the mix to acknowledge the part the environment played in the leader-subordinate dynamic (Hunt & Fedynich, 2019). It explains what leaders should and should not do in various situations. For instance, situational leadership suggests a directing style for you as the leader if the level of competence of followers is extremely low. On the other hand, the situational approach advises that leaders lead with a supporting style if their followers seem competent but lack confidence. These recommendations give leaders a helpful set of guidelines that can support and improve leadership (Northouse, 2022). In our case, the new leader should be more directive to make the supervisors more efficient in their approaches to their subordinate management. The supervisors’ turnover and inefficiency problems are caused by the lack of knowledge and proper communication. The newly assigned leader has to make Effective Leadership Sessions with the supervisors, clearly indicating the causes of their mistakes and how not to make these mistakes again to stay in the job and progress.
Furthermore, the situational approach to leadership focuses heavily on flexibility. The strategy emphasizes that leaders must ascertain the needs of their followers before adjusting their leadership style. Leaders cannot operate in a single style; they must be willing to adapt to the demands of the situation. According to this strategy, followers may behave differently at various stages of a single goal and when pursuing various goals. Effective leaders are those who can adapt their style even in the middle of a project based on the needs of the followers and the goals. Trust and constructive work intentions are positively correlated when followers perceive a fit between the leader’s behavior and their own need (Northouse, 2022). The new leader should build a good rapport with the supervisors to influence them better to move towards more effective management. Managers need to be groomed and trained for the challenging responsibility of leading organizations (McGiboney, 2018). They should make the superiors love their jobs to make them as productive as possible.
A leader can make a stressful, boring, difficult, or unsatisfying task that followers must complete more tolerable by communicating with a High Supportive and High Directive behavior (Situational Leadership – Google Zoeken, n.d.). Low self-expectation can result from this lack of commitment or confidence and lead to poor performance (Johnson Figure 1 & Hackman, 2018).
Leaders Situational Leadership – Manager Leadership Styles must be able to assess the context in which they operate and then decide will ‘fit’ the will ‘fit’ the situation best (Benmira & Agboola, 2020). The new leader should do their best to improve the working conditions so that people do not want to leave the workplace. Simply acknowledging a task’s difficulty and expressing gratitude for a follower’s efforts can boost motivation and satisfaction levels. They should teach the supervisors these simple but highly effective techniques.
Conclusion
Of the four major approaches – trait, skills, situational, and behavioral – situational approach is overall the most effective since it is prescriptive, practical, simple, and already popular and well-implemented. The trait approach, with its focus on certain leadership traits, is not efficient because it implies that leaders are predetermined and are born with the characteristics that make them successful. However, there is no one-size-fits-all definition for an effective leader. Although skills and behavioral approaches are inclusive and well-understood, they are not as efficient as the situational approach.
References
Benmira, S., & Agbula, M. (2020). Evolution of leadership theory. BMJ Leader, 1–3.
Hunt, T., & Fedynich, L. (2019). Leadership: Past, present, and future: An evolution of an idea. Journal of Arts & Humanities, 8(02), 1–7.
Johnson, C. E., & Hackman, M. Z. (2018). Leadership: A Communication Perspective, Seventh Edition (7th ed.). Waveland Press, Inc.
McGiboney, G. W. (2018). Leadership Theories and Case Studies (1st ed.). Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Northouse, P. G. (2022). Leadership: Theory and Practice Ninth Edition. SAGE Publications, Inc.
situational leadership – Google Zoeken. (n.d.). Web.