The Situational Leader: The Other 59 Minutes

by Paul Hersey

This is a fairly popular book in the leadership training circles. The author recognizes that people are critical to the success of an organization, so leading and developing them is critical. Doing so is not a one size fits all proposition. Different situations call for different leadership styles. Hersey walks the reader through his leader model, which is beneficial. It’s a good little book written in an easy to follow format.

Genres: Leadership, Business, Management, Nonfiction, Personal Development

128 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Paul Hersey was a behavioral scientist and entrepreneur. He was best known for conceiving Situational Leadership. Hersey published Management of Organization Behavior, which is now in its ninth edition.

Reviews

[Lindy Booman-Van Kranenburg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Goede uiteenzetting van het model. Veel herkenning in waarom dingen werken en niet werken in het leiding geven aan iemand. Een extra motivatie om daar bewust mee bezig te blijven.

[Avolyn Fisher · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a great outline for creating a leadership plan. I think the author did a good job of pointing out key leadership tactics and mistakes that many leaders make and he explains leadership in a way that some may not have heard of before.

I did not care for the dialogue style and layout of the book. I think it's a bit hokey reading a self improvement/leadership development book that is laid out like Mr. Rogers or Sesame Street for leaders. I also thought that it was so brief that you really need supplemental material to go with it to fully grasp how this style would look on a grander scale. But overall it is not a bad introduction to Strategic Leadership.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

READ JUL 2013

Classic piece that many are familiar (whether or not they have read). I like the idea of assessing "readiness" (which is subject to change from time-to-time). Interesting quote, especially for those who "separate" leadership from management: "the key to being an effective manager is leadership" (p. 13).

[Tommy Kiedis · Rating 5 out of 5]

The seminal, if not junior volume (compared to Management Of Organizational Behavior) that explains the situational model of leadership. A great place to start to understand situational leadership and a worthy annual review. Why 5 stars? Are a million people using your model?

[Ryan Barretto · Rating 5 out of 5]

The situational leadership model will ALWAYS be needed - because nothing remains the same, especially in business.

What is great about the book is that the entire model is explained through a story, so understanding becomes easier, and application is much faster.

[Brandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love the “keep it simple” approach to this book about leadership. Considering its age, the fact that it is still relevant today speaks to the quality of its content.

[Zoffix Znet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short and sweet. At 120 of half-filled pages, this book can be read in a couple of hours.

I found the model the book describes pretty useful. It maps 4 leadership styles (based on amount of relationship giving and task giving behaviour) to 4 employee readiness types (based on the amount of skill and willingness/confidence). The model tells you how much task/relationship to give, based on how ready the employee is.

The book ends with a discussion on reward and punishment and how the 2-way communication, support, etc—the relationship things—can be used appropriately to reward/punish behaviors.

It's a quick read, so it's a recommendation from me.

[Travis · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent leadership book - the magnum opus of Situational Leadership. As with most leadership works, many of the points appear to be common sense. That said, in many organizations, common sense seems to be used only in rare circumstances.

Recommended for those who have any type of direct or indirect reports in any facet of life - business, volunteer, family, etc. Learn to lead people where they are, and adapt accordingly.

[Kundan Sarraf · Rating 5 out of 5]

Damn simple to read and understand!!

I suggest this book to read to everyone; it's for everyone: employees, managers, boss, entrepreneurs, parents, teacher, student — you name it...

As I started reading, with every page there was the curiosity to read next and next. The entire method of handling people to grow is structure and simplified by Paul Hersey.

[Doug DeWitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Situational Leadership is an intuitive and practical approach to leadership. In the Situational Leader, Paul Hersey very clearly lays out the model and the thinking and research behind the model. Leaders, aspiring leaders, and teachers of leadership need to have this seminal source on the bookshelf! It is a must read and a valuable resource.

[George Ung · Rating 5 out of 5]

Earlier in my career, I was a young manager who was trying to get stability under me. This book gave me a framework on how I should manage and when I can let go. Some individuals need more time and others did not. My thoughts have evolved, but if it wasn't for this book opening this thought to me I would be a very different person.

[Abayomi Agboola · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great insight into knowing where to meet subordinates based on level of competence and ability in task execution. Talks influence in that direction.

Could be better with insight on influencing and leading in the absence of hirarchy because organizations are becoming flatter in structure.

[Brenda · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were a couple of worthwhile passages. That's all the good I can say.

The dialogue format was unbearable at first, then turned ABSURD in post-epilogue, which was contrived to reveal that our narrator's persona is—gasp—a woman! lololololololollllllllz

[Anna-Claire Dennis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy read! The author lays out beneficial leadership styles for different types of followers. Author outlines appropriate leadership styles and how to best assess each situation.

[Morgan Lank · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really great book on how to lead different people in different situations! learned lots and can’t wait to implement things into my team.

[Luke Hatfield · Rating 3 out of 5]

My boss wanted me to read it.
Not a fun read by any means but there were a few nuggets of info in there.

[Jackie B. - Death by Tsundoku · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read portions of this book back in 2009 when I was training to become a Store Manager for Starbucks. That is when I received this specific version of the book. However, life led me elsewhere, and I recently took SLII training at my new company. They did not provide me with a book to read, but instead we used a workbook for classroom training. This sparked my memories, and I pulled this book out with the intention of reading it all the way through for a post-class refresher.

The majority of this book is duplicative information from the course I attended. I think that it's very useful and can be easily applied to leadership situations. However, it does require a lot of work on the part of the manager to use it successfully. In the course I recently took, it was suggested that the "follower" (as they are referred to throughout this book) learn about the process and provide their own assessments. I don't know how I feel about that; I know that as a follower I would be frustrated that I need to tell my manager how to work with me, but it does make some sense.

There was a section on power which I found interesting. This was not covered in the course I attended. The perceptions and actions one takes with power affects relationships. This is not new. But the book addressed how you can use power to encourage followers to follow more tightly. It's definitely a section I will review during moments of intense office politics.

Overall, I think this book was a bit dry and a challenging read. It was challenging since there was a lot of theory and little suggestion on how to apply it. I found my attention wavering. The ending of the book infuriated me, too. There was an Epilogue to the narration. Throughout, this book is portrayed as a conversation between Rogers, a newly appointed manager, and the General Manager of the company. Rogers is sharing everything they learned from the previous manager. The Epilogue ONLY exists to point out that Rogers is the last name of a female manager. Why does that matter? I am certain that when this was published in 1985, the idea was that women can be strong managers too. However, that dated thinking infuriated me. I had not applied sex nor gender to either of these characters. Why does it matter? So, I closed the book frustrated and angry.

Honestly, if I hadn't taken the class, SLII, and seen the value of this model in practice, I would have completely dismissed the book. But, it is good leadership theory.

I recommend this to anyone who is a newly appointed manager, or who is a leader struggling to comfortably lead their followers.

[Leah Hortin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This leadership style is something that has been discussed and utilized at my office so I decided to read the book that started it all. It is very dated, and a little hokey in the dialog BUT I think that it is full of really good ideas and examples and is something that is easily executable.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

I great leadership primer on why one size doesn't fit all

[Becky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Predecessor to "The One Minute Manager". Interesting to see where the Blanchard book came from, and it does have some parts not included in the second book. Quick 60-minute read.

[Huli · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book on leadership and how to avoid mistakes made my leaders.

[Aubrey · Rating 2 out of 5]

The majority of this book is a conversation between a General manager and a recently promoted direct report. Fast read that is a mix of common sense, graphs, and somewhat dated material.

[Petra Konečná · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesant

[Mukta Mohapatra · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very dry and tough read for me. Although the information was valuable, it was delivered in a way that bored me. I had trouble focusing on the material and getting through the book.

[Yiuyiuchung · Rating 3 out of 5]

Easy to read and understand.

[Jeroen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must read voor iedereen die leiding geeft

[Han Qin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Situational leader is a must-read for who is willing to care both people and results.

[Anouk · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked the writing style and all the examples! So useful for managers or all human beings.