1. Starting with goals that are clear to both the manager and the people who will help accomplish them. Goal setting is all about making sure employees understand perfectly what their duties are, what is expected of them and that there are no surprises.

2. The manager should work with his/her people to diagnose their "competence" and "commitment" to accomplish those goals.

3. Decide what management style is most appropriate for the individual

4. Following through and provide reprimands or praisings based on that adopted style. The Praisings and Reprimands are simply managers acknowledging that the employees are doing there jobs or not and how to deal with the situation and how to convey it to the employee.

As always, I was quite stunned to find the content extremely useful and extremely simplistic. For those seeking to find additional leadership books I recommend How to Become CEO by Jeffrey Fox and two books by John Maxwell, Power of Leadership and The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader.


The Best of the "One Minute Manager" Series   July 28, 2001
Philip Hamilton (Austin, TX USA)
38 out of 38 found this review helpful

Don't let the title or the number of pages fool you. This small volume packs substance. Situational management was not a fad. As recently as 1999, Peter Drucker (in his book "Management Challengers for the 21st Century") emphasized that despite the apparent hunger for learning "the one best way to manage, one such method does not exist." Producing desirable results is the goal of management; how to manage varies tremendously according to differences in situations.

This book goes well beyond espousing the idea of "different strokes for different folks." Becoming a situational leader involves:

1. Starting with goals that are clear to both the manager and the people who will help accomplish them.

2. Working with her people to diagnose their "competence" and "commitment" to accomplish those goals. Diagnosis preceds effective management methods.

3. Contracting with each person on each of the tasks and jointly deciding which leadership style will likely be most effective.

4. Following through to provide the agreed-upon leadership style until either (i) enough progress or (ii) lack of suitable progress warrants a change in leadership style.

The book presents a practical model for diagnosing each person's level of development with regard to achieving each major goal.

One other note: Despite its "leadership" title, the book addresses one-on-one supervision methods. If you're looking for a book that addresses how to create and sustain a "vision" that will drive your organization forward, this is not that book. It is, however, the most practical presentation of situational management that I've read.


Read from the Master of Situational Leadership   April 7, 1999
F. Wade (Colorado Springs, CO)
30 out of 31 found this review helpful

Dr. Ken Blanchard is indeed the master of Situational Leadership. He and Hershey were the great inventors of Situational Leadership I. They had something great going then. Now, Situational Leadership II is fully on the scene and it is catching on everywhere. From major corporations to the Lady Volunteers of Tennessee, everyone is successfully using Situational Leadership to manage their people. This book tells you how to do it the right way. When situational leadership is done correctly, your people will love you for it. You can also use situational leadership at home with your wife and kids. If you are a manager, you MUST have this book. You can't effectively manage or lead without it. Remember, when you undersupervise you frustrate yourself. When you oversupervise, you frustrate others. Situational leadership is simply providing for subordinate what they cannot provide for themselves. Dr. Blanchard's book will tell you how to do it! As U.S. Air Force instructor, I have taught this theory using this book to over 450 managers per year. All of them have praised this book and Blanchard/Hershey's theory.


Optimize your leadership skills   November 1, 2003
20 out of 21 found this review helpful

This book shows you how to becoming a situational leader by:

1. Crystallizing goals that are clear to both the manager and the people involved.

2. Participating together to examine "competence" and "commitment" to accomplish those goals.

3. Contracting with each employee about the tasks at hand and jointly agreeing which leadership style will likely be most effective. This is Optimal Thinking, the mental software needed to optimize performance.

4. Following through to provide the agreed-upon leadership style until feedback suggests another option.

The book provides a realistic roadmap for diagnosing each employee's status in relation to important goals.

This book provides a practical roadmap for the leader. Read it and read Optimal Thinking: How to Be Your Best Self to learn how to optimize your thinking, be your best, bring out the best in others and create the best results. This is a 10-star combination!


This book is a MUST for new Managers... and for old ones   July 5, 2000
Luis Jose Salazar (Redmond, WA United States)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful

This is a step by step journey from Management to Situational Leadership. You will read it again and again as you move forward in your career and face new challenges with new teams, new direct reports and new bosses. This is also an excellent present for some one that is facing a management position for the first time.