The Leader's Window: Mastering the Four Styles of Leadership to Build High-Performing Teams

I have applied the Blanchard-Hersey Situational Leadership model for years with much success. The book I relied on, "Management of Organizational Behavior," was good but, being an MBA level text, was more theoretical than "how-to." The only other book I have seen on Situational Leadership is "Leadership and the One-Minute Manager," which was the exact opposite: Too simple. This book combines the textbook's rigor with "One-Minute-style," easy to understand case studies to bring the model to life. Further, it is a how-to manual, which teaches you how to lead effectively using the model. You will learn: The development and intervention cycles, how to avoid being a "Leave `em alone, the zap `em" style manager, and how to properly empower a team, keeping control while simultaneously freeing people. You accomplish this by carefully modulating your relating and task-oriented behaviors in response to your report's motivationand skill. A proper match between employee readiness and a manager's approach generally leads to a more productive, harmonious work place. This book is a classic. Along with the aforementioned text written by Paul Hersey and Ken Blachard (Of "One Minute Manager" fame), this book and Aubrey Daniels' behavioral modification how-to book, "Bringing the Best Out Of People" should be on every leader's bookshelf

Leadership styles, communication styles, coaching for performance, and situational leadership are very important philsophies in our Telcom Industry. We use The Leader's Window as part of our leadership development courses and find it very practical, application's based, and an effective training tool that aligns with our training programs. Even though it is dated 1994, the concepts are timeless.

This book is great reading for anyone who is trying to make sense of their role as a leader. It first sets out 4 clear leadership styles, and then marries the styles simply to 4 different types of business situations. What I loved about this book was the simplicity, which helped me do two things: first thoughtfully apply the concepts to analyze my past experiences, and second, to use it effectively in my interactions with my teams.