Introduction The HerseyBlanchard situational leadership theory is a leadership theory conceived by Paul Hersey, a professor who wrote a well

known book Situational Leader and Ken Blanchard, author of The One Minute Manager. The Theory was first introduced as "Life Cycle Theory of Leadership", later in mid-1970s "lifecycle theory of leadership "was renamed" as situational leadership theory". The foundation of the situational leadership Theory is based on the assumption is that, there is no single best style of leadership. Effective leadership is taskrelevant, and the most successful leaders are those whose leadership style varies, not only with the person or group that is being influenced, but it will also depend on the task, job or function that needs to be accomplished. The Hersey Blanchard situational leadership theory rests on two fundamental concepts; Leadership Style and the individual or group's Maturity level. Leadership styles Hersey and Blanchard exemplify leadership style in terms of the amount of task behavior and relationship behavior that the leader provides to their followers. Hersey and Blanchard advocate that most leadership styles can be broken down into four main types or situational leadership models which they have named as S1 to S4. (a) S1: Telling This type of model is described by one-way communication in which the leader identify the roles of the individual or group and provides the insight on what, how, when, and where to do the task. (b) S2: Selling This type of model is described as, while the leader is still providing the direction, he or she is now using two-way communication and provide the socio-emotional support that will permit the individual or group being influenced to buy into the process. (c) S3: Participating This model is process of shared decision making about aspects of how the task is to be accomplished and the leader is providing less task behaviors while maintaining high relationship behavior. (d) S4: Delegating This type of model is described as, the leaders is still involved in decisions; however, the process and responsibility has been passed to the individual or group. The leader monitors projects, but tends to step in only when needed. Maturity Levels

Hersey and Blanchard theorized that the style a leader chooses to employ should dependent upon the maturity level of the person or group that they are leading the followers. The Situational Leadership Theory identified four levels of maturity from M1 to M4: (a) M1 (Maturity Level 1): This is the bottom of the scale. Workers at this level lack the knowledge, skills, and/or confidence to work independently, and often need to be pushed in order to take on tasks. (b) M2: Employees at this level are considered to be willing to take on tasks, but still lack the knowledge or skills to complete them successfully. (c) M3: Group members at level three are not only willing to take on the tasks, they are most likely able to well, but they lack confidence to be self-starters. (d) M4: Followers at this level are confident in their position and highly skilled. They understand the task at hand and how best to execute it with little or no interaction from their supervisors. Conclusion No one of the styles is to be considered as optimal for all leaders to use all the time. Effective leaders require being flexible and must adapt themselves according to the situation.