1. Starting with goals that are clear to both the manager and the people who will help accomplish them. Goal setting is all about making sure employees understand perfectly what their duties are, what is expected of them and that there are no surprises.
2. The manager should work with his/her people to diagnose their "competence" and "commitment" to accomplish those goals.
3. Decide what management style is most appropriate for the individual
4. Following through and provide reprimands or praisings based on that adopted style. The Praisings and Reprimands are simply managers acknowledging that the employees are doing there jobs or not and how to deal with the situation and how to convey it to the employee.
As always, I was quite stunned to find the content extremely useful and extremely simplistic. For those seeking to find additional leadership books I recommend How to Become CEO by Jeffrey Fox and two books by John Maxwell, Power of Leadership and The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader.
This book goes well beyond espousing the idea of "different strokes for different folks." Becoming a situational leader involves:
1. Starting with goals that are clear to both the manager and the people who will help accomplish them.
2. Working with her people to diagnose their "competence" and "commitment" to accomplish those goals. Diagnosis preceds effective management methods.
3. Contracting with each person on each of the tasks and jointly deciding which leadership style will likely be most effective.
4. Following through to provide the agreed-upon leadership style until either (i) enough progress or (ii) lack of suitable progress warrants a change in leadership style.
The book presents a practical model for diagnosing each person's level of development with regard to achieving each major goal.
One other note: Despite its "leadership" title, the book addresses one-on-one supervision methods. If you're looking for a book that addresses how to create and sustain a "vision" that will drive your organization forward, this is not that book. It is, however, the most practical presentation of situational management that I've read.