A Tool to Become a More Effective Leader

 

In this last blog of my series on leadership and leaders, I want to share with you what I think is the most helpful leadership tool you can use, The Situational Leadership Model. Here is what it can do for you.

First, you can discover your preferred leadership style. The model identifies four:

1. Directive (often pejoratively called authoritarian)

2. Coaching/Encouraging. 

3. Participatory/Shared

4. Delegative

Depending on the source you use for this model, you will take a short survey of situations and how you would prefer to respond as a leader. I did an internet search on Google and easily found three surveys you can use. Taking one helps you identify your style. I have given my version of the questionnaire developed for church leaders to hundreds of Episcopal clergy and the vast majority lean toward the Coaching and Participatory styles.

I believe this is directly related to our education level that is bias toward Shared Leadership and toward our organizational culture that is unfriendly to both Directive and Delegative leaders. For example, in surveying church planters, I found that their preferred style is Directive. Unfortunately, most Commissions on Ministry (reinforced by CPE) see such leaders as having an “authority issue.”

Before I move on to the second dynamic, let me underscore a few important points:

No matter what your preferred style or how strongly you hold it, there is always a need    for us to learn skills to become more effective.

There is also a need to understand more clearly when our own preference is predictably better matched to a group.

We can also appreciate better the styles of other leaders. This is a great tool in clergy     placement.

Second, the model then puts alongside your preference the predictable developmental needs of any group. The model uses four “maturity levels” that can be determined by fairly simply questions. Here are some examples:

    How long has the group has been together?

    What is the experience of group members with their task?

    What is the working relationship of group members?

    What is the level of leadership skills of the individual members?

The key insight for any leader happens when you compare your preferred leadership style with the predictable needs of your group dependent on their maturity level. Over time the maturity level can progress or regress and awareness of this by the leader is crucial to our effectiveness. Here is how a groups maturity level can increase over time and with experience and the leadership style that best suits this:

Level one - Directive, level two - Coaching/Encouraging, level three – Shared level four - Delegative

I need to point out, however, the complexity of this model when compared to a congregation’s life. First, congregations, even small ones, are made up of several groups or ministries and larger congregations often have many. Second, these will have varying maturity levels. Third, many groups or ministries in a congregation have developed their own leaders and the longer these are in place, the more predictable the group will be resistant to change. This is why I advocate rotating such leaders the same as vestry members, every 3 years. Lastly, while canonically every rector or vicar is a member of each ministry, they may not be its leader and in many cases should not be its leader. This is why we should do more to teach clergy how to lead by delegating even if that is not their preferred style. 

Clearly, few congregational groups ever get to level four due to reasons such as the addition of new members, changing tasks, and challenges or crisis. Note that adding new members to a group also causes regression in the group’s maturity level. This is why I recommend that clergy always treat their vestry with its yearly rotation of newly elected members as a level two group until they start acting like a level three group. This movement can be enhanced by team building and better incorporation of new members, but few vestries ever bother to do this. Consequently, new vestry members have often told me that it took about a year for them to feel like a full member.

What would be a church example of a level four maturity group? I would mention the program staff of a large parish and the program staff of a diocese. This is perhaps why Bishops who have been rectors of larger parishes often do better at leading a larger diocese. Simply said, they have learned to delegate better. I should also point out that in many congregations, the Altar Guild is a level four group. Too many new clergy learn this the hard way.

After leading workshops on the Situational Leadership Model, this is my final suggestion for this blog.

“If you and your group are working well together, congratulations, your leadership style is matched to the group’s needs based on their maturity level. You can put this information into a file and just hold on to it until you come to a moment when you and the group members are struggling together. Then take out the model and ask yourself what has changed? Often, either the group has regressed, or you have failed to adjust your leadership style to their current maturity level. If you are working with a new group and you and the group are struggling, the same thing is true. Take out the model and adjust your style to meet their needs!”

Conclusion: effective leadership demands that leaders shift their preferred style of leadership to the maturity needs of any group. Effective ordained leadership is the willingness to be flexible as one moves from group to group and to attend to their further maturity.