When you recruit a new team member, what's your priority? Is it to focus on tasks by explaining the first year's objectives to them? Or, do you spend time understanding their strengths and interests so you can give them tasks that they'll enjoy? Show
No one leadership style is best for all situations, but it's useful to understand what your natural approach is, so you can develop skills that you may be missing. It's unwise to neglect either tasks or people. But, equally, a compromise between the two approaches will likely result in only average team performance, because you neither meet people's needs nor inspire excellent performance. In this article, we look at the Blake Mouton Grid, a popular framework for thinking about a leader's "task versus person" orientation. Click here to view a transcript of this video. What Is the Blake Mouton Grid?The Blake Mouton Grid plots a manager's or leader's degree of task-centeredness versus their person-centeredness, and identifies five different combinations of the two and the leadership styles they produce. It's also known as the Managerial Grid, or Leadership Grid, and was developed in the early 1960s by management theorists Robert Blake and Jane Mouton. The model is based on two behavioral dimensions:
Blake and Mouton defined five leadership styles based on these, as illustrated in the diagram below.
The Leadership Grid® figure from "Leadership Dilemmas – Grid Solutions," by Robert R. Blake and Anne Adams McCanse (formerly the Managerial Grid by Robert R. Blake and Jane S. Mouton). Houston: Gulf Publishing Company, Copyright 1991 by Grid International, Inc. Let's take a look at the five leadership styles in detail. 1. Impoverished Management – Low Results/Low PeopleThe Impoverished or "indifferent" manager is mostly ineffective. With a low regard for creating systems that get the job done, and with little interest in creating a satisfying or motivating team environment, this manager's results are inevitably disorganization, dissatisfaction and disharmony. 2. Produce-or-Perish Management – High Results/Low PeopleAlso known as "authoritarian" or "authority-compliance" managers, people in this category believe that their team members are simply a means to an end. The team's needs are always secondary to its productivity. This type of manager is autocratic, has strict work rules, policies and procedures, and can view punishment as an effective way of motivating team members. This approach can drive impressive production results at first, but low team morale and motivation will ultimately affect people's performance, and this type of leader will struggle to retain high performers. They probably adhere to the Theory X approach to motivation, which assumes that employees are naturally unmotivated and dislike working. A manager who believes people are self-motivated and happy to work is said to follow Theory Y. You can learn more about these theories in our article, Theory X and Theory Y. 3. Middle-of-the-Road Management – Medium Results/Medium PeopleA Middle-of-the-Road or "status quo" manager tries to balance results and people, but this strategy is not as effective as it may sound. Through continual compromise, they fail to inspire high performance and also fail to meet people's needs fully. The result is that their team will likely deliver only mediocre performance. 4. Country Club Management – High People/Low ResultsThe Country Club or "accommodating" style of manager is most concerned about their team members' needs and feelings. They assume that, as long as their people are happy and secure, they'll work hard. What tends to be the result is a work environment that is very relaxed and fun, but where productivity suffers because there is a lack of direction and control. 5. Team Management – High Production/High PeopleAccording to the Blake Mouton model, Team Management is the most effective leadership style. It reflects a leader who is passionate about their work and who does the best they can for the people they work with. Team or "sound" managers commit to their organization's goals and mission, motivate the people who report to them, and work hard to get people to stretch themselves to deliver great results. But, at the same time, they're inspiring figures who look after their teams. Someone led by a Team manager feels respected and empowered, and is committed to achieving her goals. Team managers prioritize both the organization's production needs and their people's needs. They do this by making sure that their team members understand the organization's purpose, and by involving them in determining production needs. When people are committed to, and have a stake in, the organization's success, their needs and production needs coincide. This creates an environment based on trust and respect, which leads to high satisfaction, motivation and excellent results. Team managers likely adopt the Theory Y approach to motivation, as we mentioned above.
Blake and his colleagues added two more leadership styles after Mouton's death in 1987, although neither appears on the grid itself, for the reasons explained below.
Applying the Blake Mouton GridIt is important to understand your management or leadership style, so that you can then identify ways of reaching the target position of Team manager. Step One: Identify Your Managerial Style
Step Two: Identify Areas Where You Can Improve and Develop Your Leadership Skills
Step Three: Put the Grid in ContextThe Team Management style is often the most effective approach, but there are situations that call for more attention to one area than the other. For example, if your company is in the middle of a merger or some other significant change, then it can be acceptable to place a higher emphasis on people than on production, to guide them and reassure them through a potentially difficult time. Likewise, when faced with an emergency, an economic hardship, or a physical risk, concerns about people may be put to one side, for the short term at least, to achieve good results and efficiency. Read our Privacy Policy
Chapter 4 – Behavioral Approach Assignments and Exercises
The style approach emphasizes the behaviors of a leader. This behavioral approach focuses on what leaders do and how they act. There are two types of behaviors in this approach. Task behaviors facilitate goal accomplishment, meaning that they help group members achieve their objectives. Relationship behaviors help followers feel comfortable with themselves, with each other, and with the situation in which they find themselves. The central purpose of the style approach is to explain how leaders combine two kinds of behavior to influence followers in their efforts to reach a goal.
The Ohio State studies were done by giving a questionnaire to people to analyze how people acted when they were leading a group. The Michigan studies were done by observing the impact of leasers’ behaviors on the performance of small groups. Their findings were similar in that the two types of behaviors listed by one mirrored the two types of behaviors listed by the other. So, essentially, they came up with the same basic ideas about leaders’ behaviors. However, the Michigan researchers thought that their two behaviors were opposite end of a single continuum while the Ohio State researchers thought that their two behaviors were not a part of the same continuum and that the degree to which a leader exhibits one behavior does not affect the degree to which a leader exhibits the other. The results of the overall research is unclear and inconclusive, although some of the findings suggested the value of a leader being both highly task oriented and highly relationship oriented in all situations.
Blake and Mouton’s managerial grid is similar to the Ohio State and Michigan studies because they all involve a concern for production or task orientation and a concern for people. However, Blake and Mouton’s grid ranks the concerns of a manager from minimum concern to maximum concern. The other studies did not go into specific detail about the levels of concern for different leaders. Instead, they simply talked about relationship behaviors and task behaviors as behaviors that leaders have, suggesting that they may vary, but never showing how they may vary. The managerial grid shows how they may vary.
There is Country-Club Management which is the 1,9 style, meaning that it has a high concern for people but a low concern for results. Then, there is Impoverished Management, designated 1,1, which has low concern for both people and results. Authority-Compliance Management is at 9,1 and has a high concern for results while it has a low concern for people. Middle-of-the-Road Management is designated 5,5 and is in the medium range of concern for both people and results. Finally, there is Team Management, designated at 9,9, which has a very high concern for both people and results.
The paternalism/materialism style is derived from both 1,9 and 9,1. This style is like that of a benevolent dictator who acts graciously in order to accomplish a goal.
This is a benevolent dictator. They regard followers as family. They act graciously for the purpose of goal accomplishment. This is the type of leader who cares about their followers and are very friendly and motherly. They are thoughtful and attentive. They award loyalty and obedience while punishing noncompliance.
Mother Teresa used this style. I would go as far as to say Jesus did as well.
I think that this type of leader would be very aware of their style
A paternalistic/maternalistic leader would score fairly high, if not extremely high on the Style Questionnaire.
Does the individual treat others as family? In a motherly way? Is compliance rewarded? Are they thoughtful? Is noncompliance punished?
The opportunistic style can use any combination of the basic five styles of leadership shown on the gird. Opportunistic leadership is adaptable, and the leader will shift his or her behavior to gain personal advantage, putting self-interest above other priorities.
Phrases that describe the behaviors associated with this style are ruthless, cunning, and self-motivated. Leaders of this type may even be adaptable and strategic.
Adolf Hitler may be an example of an opportunistic leader. I would also suggest the suggest Benito Mussolini was.
Yes, an opportunistic leader is aware of their style because they have to be able to recognize opportunities to move forward and take them. To be able to do that, they must be aware of their style.
I think that an opportunistic leader would score in the moderate range, either moderately high or moderately low, because their answers to these questions would vary depending on what benefits them the most in a situation.
Do their leadership behaviors vary? Are they consistent in their methods of leadership? Are they concerned the most for the organization? Are they concerned the most with themselves?
My scores suggest that I am more people oriented. I was the president of Key Club International’s chapter at my high school when I was a junior and a senior. As president, I was supposed to organize service projects for us to do. That was one of my many tasks. However, I knew many of my members did not like some of the projects that we had done in the past or they wanted to do some new projects in the future. So instead of performing my tasks alone and coming up with projects that I liked to do, I opened it up to the members. I listened to what they were passionate about doing and tried to implement their ideas to keep them happy and motivated to participate in the club for the betterment of our community.
I do not believe that this style is ever appropriate or desirable for an organization. The only thing that it results in is allow someone to keep the title of member of that organization.
The best leader I know is my youth minister back home. His name is Joe Baucom. The worst leader I know is the band director that I had my senior year. I think the style approach accounted for the majority of the difference between these two leaders. My youth minister always showed a concern for your well-being. He was very concerned about your life and your spiritual needs and helping you to grow in your faith (which was the goal). My senior year band director did not care to have a relationship with anyone. His relationship behavior was terrible because he was rude and demeaning to everyone he spoke to. He rarely said a nice word to anyone. So I think the style approach account for most of the differences between these two leaders. |