Skills and Situational Theories

A leadership theory that has wide universal appeal and I feel has greatly influenced the modern take on leadership, is the situational theory of leadership. This theory dictates how one should employ their leadership styles in various situations, and that the leadership style should change according to that situation. I like the fact that this theory acknowledges that different styles of leadership can work across a wide range of situations, that there isn’t some sort of one-size-fits-all type of leadership. I have definitely seen this theory in action. From my own personal experience, my mom knows how to vary her tactics over different situations. For instance, when I’m confronted with some sort of school project that’s really intimidating me, my mother uses a more supportive style of leadership to encourage me, for she knows I’m perfectly capable of doing the project, I just need that support to succeed. But on another occasion, like if I’m home for the weekend and helping out around the house, then she employs a directive leadership style, in which she specifically tells me what to do and how to do it. Not that this is the most inspiring form of leadership, but it does get the job done efficiently.
Another appealing theory of leadership is the skills based approach, which emphasizes the skills that make a person a good leader. And what’s so lovely about this theory is that these skills can be learned. Unlike the trait theory in which you are either born a leader or you aren’t, the skills theory posits that basically anyone can be developed into a leader. Three skills that relate to different levels of (management) leadership in this theory are technical skills, human skills, and conceptual skills. I have seen these different skills in different levels of leadership at the movie theater I used to work at. The Team Leaders (the lowest level of management) had to have really excellent technical skills in how the theater was physically run, because they were the ones who trained all the new hires. They also had to have tremendous human skills, because they were constantly working with people both higher and lower than them, not to mention countless customers. They didn’t really need conceptual skills though. My General Manager (the highest level of management) definitely had those missing conceptual skills, he was always going on about the vision he had for the theater at our meetings. And he had great human skills as well; he knew how to inspire all of his employees into working harder. What he lacked though were technical skills. It was very entertaining when he would try his hand at the concession stand, or at ushering, and we all ended up realizing he knew little more than a new hire. But what this all has shown me is that leadership in a managerial context requires certain skills, or sometimes not, it just depends on the level of the job in question.