Rising to the Occasion: Situational Leadership

 In my previous theories post, I mentioned that there were two main leadership theories that I used this summer. The first was Blake and Mouton’s Grid. The second one is similar: Situational leadership. Although my leadership style needed to be primarily relational based, I did need to take into account the level of capability my students had, specifically when trying to accomplish tasks. For example, when helping students pack their backpack for a backpacking section of our trip, my leadership style varied between S1, S3, or S4, depending on how capable the individual student was with packing their own pack and how much experience they had. Some students had never backpacked before, and so I would sit with them, work through the clothes they had brought to Alaska and decide piece by piece what they should bring. Other students had plenty of experience backpacking, and I was able to give them an overview of how many days we would be gone and what the weather was forecasted to be and trust that they would pack correctly. No one wants to be one night into a four night backpacking trip and realize they don’t have enough layers. 

Over the summer, I was able to transition from, when looking specifically at tasks, an S1 heavy leadership style to a mostly S4 style. As students learned the way in which grocery shopping needed to happen, meals were to be cooked, and camp needed to be set up, I was able to do less telling and more delegating. The students were able to take more ownership of their trip. For example, at the beginning of the first trip, I (or one of my co-leaders) had to be heavily involved in making meals. The students didn’t know where to find anything or how to make anything. They were willing (most of the time) but incapable. As the summer progressed, they became increasingly capable as they learned how to make meals the Overland way. One night towards the end of the trip, we were backpacking in Denali State Park. It was incredibly cold. I honestly can’t think of a time I was colder. It was so windy and cold that everyone hunkered down in their tents to wait out the afternoon and stay warm. All the students hung out in one tent and all the leaders made their way into another. At some point, the three of us leaders fell asleep. We didn’t realize we had done this until a student woke us up, saying, “Dinner’s Ready!” Although unintentional, our nap had allowed the students to rise to the occasion of making dinner all on their own. They demonstrated an R4 ability: able, confident, and willing. It was so incredible to see as a leader and to reflect on their growth from night one where they had no idea how to turn on the stove!