The situational leadership model I've learned this years ago, and since then I've been applying it consistently. This is literally transformed the way I behave as a manager. It's extremely powerful. And what makes it so impactful is that it's simple, and that you will stick to it and you will remember it very easily. The situational leadership model is based on two fundamental principles. The first one is that every human being you meet anyone go through the same learning curve.

It's the set of situations where our motivation goes up and down through the progression of our skills. I'll show you this in detail in the illustration that is coming. Just remember for now, that every human being goes through the same learning process. What makes us different is the pace at which we go Go through it, of course. And that depends on the skill. So that's the second principle of Situational Leadership, assess people based on a specific skill.

This is so critical. Still today. I am, unfortunately observing that companies promote people based on their contribution based on their expertise, but they don't assess the level of skill and make sure that they're at the right level of preparation for the next step. How many people were super experts in an area and get promoted to the role of people manager people either and haven't been trained for being a people leader didn't have the chance you have right now to be in that course, and therefore failed, because they were so good that delivering on their own, but they never learned what it takes to the universe through others. Another example is simply to take the world Sports. You may have amazingly talented football players.

That doesn't mean that they would be great coaches. There's a whole world between playing football and coaching a team motivating people and defining strategies on how to win again, yet happens very often that we confuse both. Why? Because we simply say, Oh, he's so good. I've heard that so many times between managers, you know, we like to talk about our potentials and who is going to be the succession lead for what role and we classify people are as being good or bad having great potential or not. I think that we also need to appreciate that people are good in a certain thing, and we need to remember that when we put them in a different situation, learning a new skill, they will definitely need some support and some directions.

They are not Going to be expert straight. That's the second principle of Situational Leadership. So how does it work? Let's go through it in detail with this illustration. In this graph, you can see that there is this learning process. And it's based on four stages s one, s two, s three, and s four.

It's important to remember those names because this is going to help you by creating a standard definition and a standard vocabulary that you can start using with other people who are familiar with the situational leadership model. I also use it with my team. So this is something you can present to your team and then you can start having discussions with them using the same vocabulary. An s one is someone who is starting to learn a new skill. Do you remember when you learned how to drive? Have you ever started to play a new instrument?

This is exactly the situation of an S. One, you're motivated, you almost almost have this level of confidence and excitement that you're going to be able to do it. Oh, yes, let me see that the drivers place, I'm just gonna push the pedals and turn the wheel, it shouldn't be that hard, I can do it. So you have this high motivation, yet, you're probably not exactly conscious of how much you need to learn, you don't appreciate that there's a whole set of new skills that you need to acquire. So at this stage, you're going to experiment the new situation, a new skill, and very quickly, you will become aware of how much you have to learn and you will progressively jump into as to or should I say dive, because your own motivation through this is going down. You're starting to lose this excitement, this confidence because you realize that there's so much you need To learn, and you're start to asking yourself, how am I going to do this?

This is too complex. I'm not sure I'm the right guy. And I'm not sure I can make it. You continue to practice, and you continue to acquire more and more experiences. And progressively, you getting better and better. That's when you're starting to get into s3, your level of confidence is still very low, and you don't want to pronounce yourself as an expert.

So you're still unsure and you prefer to be cautious because it's been quite painful to go from s one to s two. So you keep it low profile at this stage. And your skills are ramping up. You're accumulating now more and more experiences and you start making decisions and they prove to be right and you start to take the lead on certain things, and you start to have results. So you ramping up and progressively the results. Give you a feedback that makes you feel more and more confidence.

And you starting to build back this level of certainty that you can actually do it. And that's when you get to as far as four is the state of the expert. You know, you can do it, you're highly confident and you're highly competence. This is as for remember, those four states only apply for one skill. So when you're an S four in playing guitar, if tomorrow I put you in front of the piano, Uranus, one that is the the trick of Situational Leadership. As a manager, you need to ask yourself all the time, where is my direct report on the learning process for that specific skill?

Remember this, this is really, really crucial. This is where you're going to make the most mistakes is assuming that people are innocent. Four or s ones in every situation or every skill. It sounds obvious now because I'm making it very clear, very clear and very separate. Believe me in the work environment, you will quickly forget about this. So stick to it, make reminders, and use this process on a consistent basis until it's becoming automated for you.

Now, the situational leadership model not only explains you, the state through which every of your direct reports go through, or actually yourself, but it's giving you a way to handle each situation in the most effective manner as a manager. So let's go through each one by one. The way to effectively manage an s one is to provide them a high level of directions, and low level of support. Those are going to be the two dimensions we use for Situational Leadership, the level of direction level of support. Direction means simply how much clarity and how much guidance do you provide to your people? Do you explain them clearly what they have to do, when they have to deliver it and how it has to be done?

And How frequently do you measure the progress and do you check on your people? Some people think that micromanagement is related to a negative connotation. In reality, a certain level of management is required. And the most amount of it is in essence, the level of support is the level of encouragement, of care and of motivation you're going to bring to your people. For as one You don't need to give much because the person is already pumped, already excited and already at their peak in terms of confidence. So give them directions, check on them regularly.

You don't need to cheer them up. When they get into as to, as you can imagine, this is where you give high guidance, high direction and high support, because this is where they needed the most. their confidence is now at the bottom, and they start questioning their ability, and they need their manager to continue to believe in them. And to continue to give them a strong level of motivation and comfort. And through their directions, they will start progressing on the learning curve. So you really push them here to move forward and you push them through encouragements.

You get to s3. In s3, this is where you start shadowing your people. So you're still providing a high level of support. Because their their motivation, their confidence is not there yet, but they're getting better and better in terms of skills. So you can start decreasing The level of guidance and checks that you're doing. So if I were to give you a metaphor, imagine that you're guiding somebody through the woods, and that their eyes are closed, and they cannot see in front of them.

In estou situation, you would take them by the hand, and you would say, follow me. In an s3 situation, they're getting confident, they know how to anticipate what's coming, and they know how to find their ways. So you're probably just gonna still be there to hold their shoulders in case therefore, but you probably going to be behind them. And you will tell things that like, like, I'm here to support you, in case you fall. Or I'm right there behind you. And I'm here in case it doesn't work.

So you're here as a presence, but the person is already doing it on their own. And this is bringing them to the f4. And the f4 is a state where as a manager, you delegate Yeah, you need to check on them. Very less frequently, you don't need to give them guidance. And we in some cases and in Mike is frequently, I'm really thrilled to see that, as far as in my team's no better than me. They're better experts, they can do the work better than I could.

This is fantastic as a team. Yeah, that means everybody's really contributing to their maximum potential. So you don't need to provide guidance to somebody who knows their job and knows their skill and how to do it. See how I corrected myself between job and skill. Remember, this principle is really critical. And you don't need to motivate them because they're highly confident.

Now, just to stretch this model a little bit, think about the impact of providing a delegating style. So low direction, low support in, say, an s two. how destructive would that be? Or imagine that you provide high direction high super high support to an f4. We talked about that frustrating, right? So in one case for these two adults, it would be triggered.

The person needs both support and directions and they have none. And the manager may think they're doing a great job because they've learned that the best way to lead a team is to delegate and that's their style. Wrong. the right style of a manager is a style of many styles. You want to adapt based on the level of skills, and the individual. That's what Situational Leadership is reminding you.

So let's recap. People go through four stages as one to four. And the level of confidence motivation is going from up to down back up, and the level of skills is progressively increasing. As a manager, you have two dimensions on which to focus in order to manage your team effectively, how much guidance and checks Do you perform? And how much support do your people need from you? This is it.

I told you it was simple. And I told you it was impactful. Here's a tip for you. You can use this on your own. And like I said, you can also present this to your team. If you do so people will understand why sometimes you behave in a certain way, and why sometimes you behave in a different way.

Even better, what I do is my direct reports is because they know the model, we can have a constructive discussion of where they think they are. So when I think they're stealing this too, and they may think that they're actually in s3, we can have a constructive discussion and say, Okay, tell me what you need best for me. I'm your manager. I want to support you. So how much guidance do you need? How much checks do we perform together?

How frequently Do you want to review your progress and it's really good behavior. And I always get amazing value from this type of discussions. I even had once a manager in my team who loved this so much that he was starting to train his own team on that. So starting to replicate the model even further into the organization. Consistent vocabulary, great techniques for managers. So good.

Enjoy, apply it. This is worth it.