Theories in Action

Based upon my observations and interactions I’ve had both with colleagues and peers at Gamer-Metrics two Leadership theories come to mind. The first Leadership theory that comes to mind is Situational Leadership. Situational Leadership as discussed in my Theories and Models class is an interplay among three components. The first of which is the amount of “help”/guidance the leader gives, the second is the amount of support the leader provides his followers with, and the third is the performance readiness of the follower such as the ability or level of effort the follower has in order to complete the task. S pertains to the leadership style and R pertains to the followers willingness and ability. There are four “components to leadership style and go as such, “S1: directing (telling) high task low relational, S2: Coaching (selling) high task high relational, S3: Supporting (participating) low task high relational, andS4: Delegating low task low relational (Hersey & Blanchard).” There are also four components to followers willingness and ability and are “R1: Unable, insecure and/or unwilling, R2: Unable but increasingly confident, willing and motivated, R3: able but increased insecurity, loss of motivation, loss of certainty, and R4: Able and confident and willing (Hersey & Blanchard).” In this internship all of the interns have extensive knowledge in the game of baseball but however some of the interns are unwilling to do the work. Half of the interns are R4 (able and willing) while the other half are R3 (able but unwilling). As for our superiors they both more so fall into the S2 (high task high relational) and S3 (low task high relational) categories. It feels as though they are more so worried about the relational aspect of the relationship than the production of work. For example, it has been brought to their attention that some of the interns do not come to the peer meetings with high quality work. They unfortunately have not taken any steps to reprimand the intern and the cycle continues as they are more worried about maintaining the relational aspect of the relationship. I believe that they should be a more so S1 and S2 hybrid as all of the interns are highly knowledgeable in the game. The next leadership theory that comes to mind for me is Charisma. Charismatic leaders achieve high levels of work from their followers are they are able to express themselves clearly, eloquently, and provide a clear path for how to obtain goals. The followers internalize the leaders/organizations missions and goals and they get the best from their followers. They are also able to connect with them on an emotional level and as stated before push their followers to achieve their goals. Although some of the interns have not produced high levels of work, our superiors have pushed me and my fellow interns to be better, inspired us to be the best version of ourselves, produce high quality work, and provide clear and attainable goals.