Situational Leadership/ Hersey-Blanchard model: CSRHub

Situational leadership, or the Hersey-Blanchard model, is a theory that can be utilized to better understand CSRHub leader’s effectiveness and practice. Hersey and Blanchard found that leaders must modify their leadership styles as their follower’s ability and willingness to solve a problem or complete a task changes. Hersey and Blanchard identified four leadership styles (S1: Directing, S2: Coaching, S3: Supporting, S4: Delegating), each one suits a different follower’s ability and maturity level. The ability to notice an employee’s task and psychological readiness, and adapting one’s approach and style, is key to an effective leader in this model.

The Hersey-Blanchard model is particularly relevant to CSRHub and the leadership I have observed. As I have stated in my organizational culture posts: CSRHub is a small, remote company. The CEO and CFO are very hands-on with the team members, and I have witnessed their leadership styles shift as they work with different team members.
CSRHub leader’s style adaptiveness makes the entire operation very effective. This effectiveness applies to both the projects that are getting done and also the evolution of workers’ confidence in their abilities. For example, the CEO, Cynthia Figge, utilizes delegating style, the first style of leadership identified in the Hersey-Blanchard model with my supervisor Ruth. Delegating style means allowing other team members to be fully responsible for tasks or leading others. Ruth has an abundance of experience in her user interface and marketing position at CSRHub and has a high level of maturity, meaning she is confident and capable of her abilities (which makes her a R4 follower on the model in this situation). Bahar Gidwani, the CSRHub CFO, utilizes participating style with Ruth. The projects that Bahar works on are primarily research and data-focused, he shares ideas and decisions with Ruth on certain projects that she might not have all the necessary data she needs to communicate the findings. In these situations, Ruth is a R2 follower, she is willing but does not have all the necessary knowledge to carry out the task on behalf of Bahar.

As an intern, I am a R2 follower in most new projects. Because of my willingness but lack of knowledge on any new projects, any leader that I am working with, Bahar, Cynthia, or Ruth, adopts a form of coaching or supporting leadership. This means they are working to increase my confidence and skill so that I can complete projects in the future individually and take responsibility for those projects. This form of leadership demonstrates an investment in me as an employee, as their current supportive will ideally result in increased skill on my part in the future. Situational leadership is key for CSRHub, as the different levels of skill employees have change on the range of different projects we work on. Being adaptive to the context is crucial for CSRHub leaders to effectively and successfully leader all their teams.