Kenneth Blanchard
With Paul Hersey, the originator of Situational Leadership which argues that the appropriate management style depends upon the situation, largely the maturity of the subordinates. They seem to have taken the work of Blake and Mouton and added the situational element, missing in the earlier work. There are four management styles in their model - Telling, Selling, Participating and Delegating - which form the maturity curve laid over the (fairly standard) four box model, created by a vertical axis of Supportive Behaviour and a horizontal axis of Directive Behaviour.
Subordinate maturity is analysed by answering questions such as "Is the individual or group able to set high but realistic goals?" and "Are they willing and able to accept responsibility?"
Blanchard is more famous as the main author of The One Minute Manager, a short but brilliant book published in 1982, that shows how situational management works in practice - praise people and set clear goals. He now runs a family consulting business with a turnover of about $40m.
The book "The One Minute Manager", which is basically a parable, demonstrates the sequence of setting goals and giving negative as well as positive feedback. It shows how to do this. Its emphasis is positive, however, with statements like "Everyone is a winner. Don't let appearances fool you." and exhortations such as "Catch someone doing something right." The importance of the latter comment is that most bosses check that people aren't doing things wrong, rather than seeking opportunities to praise people for getting things right.
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