Book Review: “The Situational Leader” by Dr. Paul Hershey

How do you handle employees at each stage of their career development? How do you handle employees who are very experienced in some areas and then are taking on an assignment in an area much more unknown to them. Dr. Paul Hershey’s framework from 1984 is still taught in employee development programs for Fortune 500 size companies across the world. Finding an actual paper copy of this one can be a little tough, but if you can it’s a quick read loaded with great techniques.

What We Love About this Book

It really systemizes employee supervision based on the employee’s level of confidence and their skill level in what they’re doing. The framework allows directors and VPs to more easily break down employee issues with their managers and guide them through how to handle situations. Conversations like “Are they are R3 or an R4” become common and the management techniques in each situation start to flow naturally.

In addition, the book is only 125 pages with big print and diagrams. Ken Blanchard took this framework and wrote the “One Minute Manager” series, so if you’ve read those books this will look familiar.

Any criticisms?

It is a 40-year-old theory. Although we certainly still need to be more directive with very confident people that lack the skills to complete tasks, the book wasn’t written to address how to do that skillfully with today’s Gen Z and Millennials that might not receive that sort of direction well.