Flex Time Learning to be flexible in any situation can be the key to effective leadership.

When David "WhiteThunder" Trottier wanted to drum up in-line skaters' interest in a new skate wheel he planned to distribute, he dropped by the place skaters go near his St. Michael, North Dakota, three-employee company, WhiteThunder Inc. He didn't bring any wheels to show the four skaters he found there. Instead, he brought a supply of skater jargon and a tantalizing offer.

"I asked them, `Do you grind? Do you do any half-pipes?' " Trottier says. "The kids looked at me and asked, `How do you know all this?' I just said I wanted to give a kid a set of wheels to test for me. The next night I came back, and there were 20 kids waiting to see the wheel."

Trottier's interest-building ploy is a tactic of situational leadership, a model of leading that says there is no one right way to influence people. Rather, there are several ways, any one of which may be appropriate depending on the level of readiness and the ability of the people who are to be led.

Although it sounds simple or even obvious, situational leadership has been taught to millions of managers worldwide. The source of situational leadership's popularity is its effectiveness and ease of application, says Dewey Johnson, a professor of management at California State University, Fresno.

"The reason it works is that it puts the focus on the follower," explains Johnson. "You find out where the follower is as far as ability and willingness. Then, based on where the follower is in relationship to the objective, you see the right leadership style that goes along with it. The concept is elegant in its simplicity."

Situational Start

The situational leadership model was developed in the 1960s byan Ohio State University management professor named Paul Hersey.His research into the psychology of leadership was published in1969 in Management of Organizational Behavior (PrenticeHall), a textbook that has sold more than 1 million copies and isin its seventh edition. Hersey later founded the Center forLeadership Studies, a management training firm in Escondido,California, that has helped teach the model to people in small andlarge companies worldwide.

The situational leadership model assumes that the biggestmistake most managers make is using the same leadership style witheveryone. For instance, leaders may delegate too much authority toan employee who isn't ready or able to handle it. Or, they maymicromanage an employee who would perform better if left alone.

Situational leadership promises to help managers figure outwhere their followers are, then match their leadership styles tothe appropriate level. "Situational leadership introduces adiagnostic process to leadership," says Johnson, who, alongwith Hersey and management guru Ken Blanchard, co-wroteManagement of Organizational Behavior. "That is a bigplus."

The situational leadership model divides followers into fourreadiness levels, based on their willingness and ability. Thelevels range from R1 (the lowest) to R4 (the person who is mostready, willing and able to handle the task at hand).

Determining readiness levels can be tricky. Leaders may need totake into account a variety of factors, from the time available tocomplete a task to the organization's history and tradition.Hersey's model provides specific tools to help in the diagnosisas well as to evaluate and correct diagnostic errors.

"When you go through your diagnosis of the individual,sometimes you're going to miss," says Jim Bone, presidentof The Training Connection Inc., an Irving, Texas, company thatoffers training in situational leadership. "But when you miss,you're going to get some very predictable human reactions thatwill tell you where you went wrong."

Hersey also offers a chest of tools for increasingemployees' readiness, including, for instance, offers of moremoney.

Once the correct readiness level is identified, the leader hasto choose from four leadership styles. The leadership styles rangefrom S1 through S4, with S1 being the most directive and S4 beingthe style where managers turn over the greatest responsibility tofollowers.

Trottier's informal market research on in-line skate wheelswas designed to match the readiness levels of his intendedcustomers. Other test marketers might have merely handed out samplewheels or marketing materials with no explanation, but thesituational model said that the personal approach was a better wayto go in this case.

"In [rural areas], particularly where we were going tostart selling the wheel, the readiness of people when it comes to[new trends in] in-line skating is very low," Trottierexplains. "So we've had to apply the style level to thereadiness level to determine what we tell them about thewheel."

Situational Circumstances

Situational leadership works well whether you're a corporateexecutive or a start-up entrepreneur, according to Ron Campbell,president of the Center for Leadership Studies. "[In ourseminars,] we'll get the guy who's a manager at Big O Tiresdown the road or a printing shop with 10 people, and we'll havethat person sit side by side with the VP of human resources at aFortune 500 company," says Campbell.

The situational model works best when dealing with employees whodon't already have their minds made up to be uncooperative,Campbell says. Bone feels situational leadership is most usefulwhen it comes to new employees. "That's where you get theopportunity to exercise all the different styles the most," hesays. "With employees you've worked with for 10 years,most of the time you're using a style of justdelegating."

Situational leadership isn't the optimal tool for alloccasions, either. It functions well, for instance, in businesseswhere people are the key ingredients. It's less effective andappropriate in situations where the driving factors are processesor technology. "In an oil refinery, you can't decide thatone day you want to turn off this pipe and turn on anotherone," says Johnson. "There's a process you have tofollow."

Situational leadership may also be inappropriate inorganizations that have deeper underlying problems. Campbell saysthe center discourages firms whose practices and policies hinderleadership from using its programs. "You're not going toteach leadership skills that nullify the effect of dumbmanagement," he says.

Even under the best circumstances, you can go wrong trying tofollow the situational model. The main risk is making an incorrectdiagnosis of the follower's readiness level. This typicallyhappens when a leader tries to move too quickly or on the basis ofinsufficient or incorrect information.

Most risks can be avoided by keeping to the model's focus onfollowers more than leaders, says Campbell. "Don't worryabout the leader's behavior as much as diagnosing where thefollower is," he advises. "Be follower-driven."

Entrepreneurs who want to learn more about situationalleadership have a rich array of books, videos, audiotapes, seminarsand even an interactive CD-ROM from which to choose. Perhapsbecause it is so widespread, situational training is inexpensivecompared to many other leadership programs. A two-day seminar atCampbell's center costs $595. Many colleges and other trainingsources offer courses for $100 a day or less.

Situational leaders themselves say taking a training course is agood educational value, with broad applications in many areas oflife. "What situational leadership does for you is make youassess all situations better, not only in your role as a leader,manager and supervisor," says Trottier, "but as a humanbeing."

Mark Henricks is an Austin, Texas, writer who specializes insmall-business topics.