Leadership Judgement – The four styles illustrated*

PURPOSE OF THE Video Observation

• To provide leaders with the opportunity of a ‘real life’ example of leadership judgement in action.

• To gain a measure of consistency between leaders in their understanding of the four styles.

• To establish some consistency between leaders in their evaluation of the four styles.

THE SCENARIO

The four videos depict four versions of an overdue meeting between a new Sales Manager, in post for four months, and his Senior Account Manager, Mr Peter Boehme. The Sales Manager is conscious that Boehme’s motivation, a quality for which he was once renowned, is apparently on the wane. The Manager has been prompted to call the meeting because an important price harmonisation project has landed on his desk. He now wants to enlist Boehme’s active support, not least because of his long experience and knowledge of the industry. The issue is, how should he engage with Peter Boehme?

THE FOUR ‘EPISODES’

Available for viewing** on this website are four very distinct styles of engagement between the Sales Manager and Mr Boehme: Directive, Consultative, Consensual And Delegative.  These are illustrated at: http://www.formula4leadership.com/f4model.htm (open in a new browser window).

The four videos illustrate how the wrong approach, whilst entirely appropriate in other situations, can lead to very poor outcomes. However, the ‘right’ approach, if employed with wise judgement, can produce a result that is good for the Sales Manager, the Senior Account Manager, the Business and the rest of the sales team.

Before you view the four ‘episodes’ you should study the model of leadership decision making at http://www.formula4leadership.com/f4model.htm (open in a new browser window) and select what you believe to be the ‘best bet’ approach to adopt with Mr Boehme, given the scenario outline above. Do that now.

Videos one and four present the Sales Manager taking a ‘task’ orientated approach in attempting to remotivate Peter Boehme. Here, the Sales Manager wants little personal engagement with Boehme, really only desiring to get the price harmonisation project quickly underway, having little interest in the team dynamics side of things.

In the fourth episode, which depicts a more Delegative style, the Sales Manager is seen attempting to get Boehme centrally involved in the project, whilst retaining much of the glory for himself.  Thus, he is disinterested in Boehme as a person, in his troubles and problems within the team, and really only interested in his own agenda.

The first of the videos sees the Sales Manager taking a very Directive approach.  In fact, as the meeting continues, the Sales Manager becomes more and more domineering and autocratic. A lack of tolerance emerges and it becomes acutely obvious that he is only seeing the situation from his point of view. The outcome is perhaps inevitable, unless Boehme had been a very submissive sort of subordinate, which he is clearly not.

Both of the task orientated styles, therefore, fail in their attempt to enlist Boehme’s support in a full and co-operative way. However, ‘episodes’ three and four show the Sales Manager changing tack entirely. In the third video we see him operating from almost the other end of the participative continuum, displaying a highly Consensual approach, and so much so that power is given away almost entirely. Then, by becoming too accommodating, the Sales Manager essentially gives in to all of Boehme’s requests, and is open to all types of manipulation.

The second video is also ‘people’ orientated, being Consultative in nature. This is considered to be the ‘best bet’ approach to this particular situation for here we see the Manager retaining control in this important piece of dialogue, yet displaying constructive engagement with Boehme and remotivating him for the project.

The four streaming videos can be viewed by clicking on the links in the text above, or by choosing from the list below:

The Directive video
The Consultative video
The Consensual video
The Delegative video

On occasion, some company firewall software may not allow you to view the streaming videos using the links above. If you experience any problems whilst try to view the videos, please accept our apologies and try the links below:

Alternative link for the Directive video
Alternative link for the Consultative video
Alternative link for the Consensual video
Alternative link for the Delegative video

DUNCAN DUFF

Each video stars Duncan Duff.  Duncan is Scottish and, with his warm, calm and refined style, has a great feel for characters, as is well illustrated here.  Duncan is originally from Edinburgh and appeared as Lewis Cope in BBC Scotland's RIVER CITY. He also appeared in HAMISH MACBETH and the children's series BIG KIDZ.  More about him can be found at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0240375/

For more information about Formula Leadership, visit us at www.formula4leadership.com.