Situational Leadership and the Johari Window

Excerpt from Essential Leadership Training Topics For Change Leaders

Paul Richardson2009

Hersey and Blanchard’s situational leadership model builds on Blake and Mouton’s work. While
it uses a very similar looking four quadrant grid it is a little different in two aspects. First, instead
of being based on the leader’s attitude (Blake and Mouton) it is based on the leader’s observed
behavior. Also, it adds a new dimension by linking the immaturity—maturity theory to the four
quadrant grid. Through a great deal of research in every imaginable organization and setting
they determined that the key to leadership competence is to use the maturity of the person or
group being managed and the reality of each situation as a guide to the proper style for the leader
to employ in that situation.

While it is relatively simple to state, it is challenging and rewarding to carry out. It does require
an absolutely intellectually honest approach by the leader, factoring in the reality of the situation
including the leader’s competence as well. It is a cognitive challenge to do it right, but it is a very
powerful tool if used correctly.

The change process using the situational leadership model is very powerful. It always works if
you remember to use it.

The Johari window is a way of depicting a person’s public, private, blind and unknown selves.
That is, if you create a four quadrant chart with known and unknown to self on one axis and
known and unknown to others on the other axis you create the “maps” of the four selves. The
same assessment used to assess a person’s natural situational leadership tendencies can be used
to determine degrees of difference between the known to self and known to others areas.

The Hersey and Blanchard situational leadership model is used by thousands of organizations
worldwide. It is used by over 400 of the Fortune 500 companies.
 SITUATIONAL LEADERSHIP MODEL

The situational leadership model has a four quadrant grid like the Blake/Mouton
Managerial Grid. The axes are very similar with the vertical axis for the managerial grid
labeled “concern for people” and the vertical axis for the situational leadership model is
labeled “relationship behavior.” The horizontal axis for the managerial grid is labeled
“concern for production” while the horizontal axis for the situational leadership model is
labeled “task behavior.”

Thus the difference between the two models is that the managerial grid is measuring a
leader’s attitude while the situational leadership model is measuring the leader’s
“observed behavior” in the eyes of subordinates. This difference may seem subtle but it
is the perception of the subordinates that is important as far as leading them effectively.

Therefore, the four quadrants of the situational leadership grid are lower right, high
task/low relationship; upper right, high task/high relationship; upper left, low task/high
relationship; and lower left, low task/low relationship.

Situational Leadership Grid

High Relationship High Relationship

Low Task High Task

Low Relationship Low Relationship

Low Task High Task

SITUATIONAL LEADERSHIP AND MOTIVATION

One way of classifying high strength motives is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, while
goals or incentives that tend to satisfy these needs can be described by Herzberg’s
hygiene factors and motivators. Both of these frameworks can be illustrated in
Situational Leadership theory in terms of those leadership styles that have a high
probability of satisfying these needs or providing the corresponding incentives, as
illustrated below.

It should be stressed that in relating Maslow’s or Herzberg’s theories to styles in

Situational Leadership, there are no absolutes but only markers for the manager to use
in practice. While styles associated with a certain quadrant may be “heavy” on one
concept, they are not exclusively; other styles may also satisfy them to some degree.

General Placement of Need Levels to Style Quadrant

Relationship Between Situational Leadership and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs,
Herzberg’s Motivation-Hygiene Theory and Argyris’ Immaturity-Maturity Continuum

Upon examining the curvilinear function of the cycle, one can begin to plot the styles
that tend to correspond with the various high-strength needs described by Maslow. It is
the leadership styles in the first three quadrants of the cycle that tend to provide
incentives consistent with hygiene factors, whereas it is in quadrant 4 that behaviors
that facilitate motivators occur.
Maturity in Situational Leadership is consistent with Argyris’ Immaturity-Maturity
continuum.

SITUATIONAL LEADERSHIP AND CHANGE

The first step in initiating a change cycle is to determine the maturity level of the people
with whom you are working. If they are below average in maturity—dependent and
unwilling to take responsibility—they will tend to require more unfreezing than people
who are average or above average in maturity. As shown in the illustration below, the
leadership styles in Quadrants 1 and 2 tend to be heavy in terms of unfreezing, while
the emphasis in 2 and 3 is on the change process, with 3 and 4 stressing the refreezing
process.

Relationship Between Situational Leadership and the Change Process

 One of
the techniques used to move through the curvilinear function is behavior modification.

 When working with immature people, at first the leader tends to cut back on the
structure, giving the individuals an opportunity to take some responsibility.
 When the leader gets the smallest approximation of mature behavior, he
immediately increases the socio-emotional support as positive reinforcement.
 This stair like process (cut back on structure, then increase socio-emotional
support) continues until the change or changes start to become a habit as the
people mature. At that point, the leader tends to cut back also on reinforcement
as he moves toward quadrant 4 and a low task-low relationship style. If done
earlier, this cutback on socio-emotional support would have appeared as
punishment to the person of below-average or average maturity. The fact that the
boss tends to leave him alone when he has matured is appropriate in terms of
the task but also in terms of socio-emotional support is thus viewed as positive
reinforcement.

The styles representing quadrants 1 and 2 seem to be consistent with the behaviors
associated with the coerced change cycle, while quadrants 3 and 4 are more
representative of a participative change cycle. In a participative change cycle, the
change begins at the knowledge level and moves eventually to the organization, while
the coerced change cycle starts with changes in the organization and moves gradually
toward changes in knowledge and attitudes.

Knowledge about motivation and leader behavior will continue to be of great

concern for several reasons:

 It can help improve the effective utilization of human resources;

  It can help in preventing resistance to change, restriction of output, and
labor disputes;

 Often it can lead to a more efficient organization.

A conceptual framework has been provided which may be useful in applying the
conclusions of the behavioral sciences. The value of a framework of this kind is not in
changing one’s knowledge but comes when it is applied in changing one’s behavior in
working with people. That is, knowledge is not power, applied knowledge is
power.
CHANGE PROCESS EXAMPLE

Following is an example of the change process in operation:

A college basketball coach recruited for his team Bob Anderson, a center six feet four
inches tall from a small town in a rural area. In his district, six feet four inches was good
height for a center. This fact, combined with his deadly turnaround jump shot, made
Anderson the rage of his league and enabled him to average close to thirty points a
game.

Recognizing that six feet four inches is small for a college center, the coach hoped that
he could make Anderson a forward, moving him inside only when they were playing a
double pivot. One of the things the coach was concerned about, though was how
Anderson, when used in the pivot, could get his jump shot off when he came up against
other players ranging in height from six feet eight inches to seven feet. He felt that
Anderson would have to learn to shoot a hook shot, which is much harder to block, if he
was going to have scoring potential against this kind of competition. The approach that
many coaches use to solve this problem would probably be as follows:

The first day of practice when Anderson arrived, the coach would welcome Anderson
and would then explain the problem to him as he had analyzed it. As a solution he
would probably ask Anderson to start to work with the varsity center, Steve Cram, who
was six feet ten inches tall and had an excellent hook. “Steve can help you start
working on that new shot, Bob,” the coach would say. Anderson’s reaction to this
interchange might be one of resentment, and he would go over and work with Cram
only because of the coach’s position power. After all, he might think to himself, “Who
does he think he is” I’ve been averaging close to thirty points a game for three years
now and the first day I show up here the coach wants me to learn a new shot.” Se he
may start to work with Cram reluctantly, concentrating on the hook shot only when the
coach is looking but taking his favorite jump shot when he is not being observed by the
coach. Anderson is by no means unfrozen or ready to learn to shoot another way. Let
us look at another approach the coach could have used to solve this problem.

Suppose that on the first day of practice he sets up a scrimmage between the varsity
and the freshmen. Before he starts the scrimmage he gets big Steve Cram, the varsity
center, aside and tells him, “Steve, we have this new freshman named Anderson who
has real potential to be a fine ball player. What I’d like you to do today, though, is not to
worry about scoring or rebounding—just make sure every time Anderson goes up for a
shot you make him eat it. I want him to see that he will have to learn to shoot some
other shots if he is to survive against guys like you.” So when the scrimmage starts, the
first time Anderson gets the ball and turns around to shoot, Cram leaps up and “stuffs
the ball right down his throat.” Time after time this occurs. Soon Anderson starts to
engage in some coping behavior, trying to fall away from the basket, shooting from the
side of his head rather than from the front in an attempt to get his shot off.
After the scrimmage, Anderson comes off the court dejected. The coach says, “What’s
wrong, Bob?” Bob replies, “I don’t know, coach, I just can’t seem to get my shot off
against a man as big as Cram. What do you think I should do, coach?” he asks.

“Well, Bob, why don’t you go over and start working with Steve on a hook shot. I think
you’ll find it much harder to block. And with your shooting eye, I don’t think it will take
long for you to learn.”

How do you think Anderson feels about working with Cram now? He is enthusiastic and
ready to learn. Having been placed in a situation where he learns for himself that he
has a problem has gone a long way in unfreezing Anderson from his past patterns of
behavior and preparing him for making the attempt at identification. Now he is ready for
identification. He has had an opportunity to internalize his problem and ready to work
with Steve Cram.

So often the leader who has knowledge of an existing problem forgets that until the
people involved recognize the problem as their own, it is going to be much more difficult
to produce change in their behavior. Internalization and identification are not either/or
alternatives but can be parts of developing specific change strategies appropriate to the
situation.
 The Johari Window

To understand what the data from your LEAD-Self assessment is telling you the
framework developed by Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham is helpful. It is named the
Johari Window. Johari is taken from the first names of the developers of the concept.

This tool, for our purposes, depicts leadership personality, not overall personality as it is
often used. We need to recognize that a difference exists between leadership style and
leadership personality. The style consists of the leader’s behavior as perceived by
others, whereas the Johari Window includes the perception of self and others.

In this context, there are some attitudes and behaviors engaged in by leaders that they
know about themselves. This known to self component includes their understanding of
the influence they are having with the people they are trying to lead. Concurrently,
there is an element of unknown to self where the leader is unaware of how they are
perceived by others. This may be due to no feedback from others or inattention to the
clues both verbal and nonverbal that are there to access if they are alert to them. There
are also known to others and unknown to others components to realize exist.

Thus, the quadrants can be labeled

 PUBLIC—Known to self and known to others

 BLIND—Unknown to self and known to others
 PRIVATE—Known to self and unknown to others
  UNKNOWN—Unknown to self and unknown to others

Worth exploring is the Unknown category. In Freudian psychology this would be

referred to as the subconscious or unconscious. Freud described personality as being
like an iceberg. It is easy to see the portion of the leader’s personality that is above the
surface. It seems obvious just by looking at the leader. However, much of the iceberg
lies out of sight under water. Unless we make concerted efforts to probe and
understand we will never really have insight into the whole truth of the leader’s
personality. We need to understand that the unknown component may have significant
impact on the behaviors the leader uses to influence others.

FEEDBACK AND DISCLOSURE

There are two processes that act on the shape of your Johari Window. The first is
Feedback. This impact is illustrated below.

Though feedback is vital to being a good leader, people have to be willing to give it. If
the normal reaction to constructive criticism of the leader is to “kill the messenger,”
feedback will not be forthcoming. If on the other hand a leader welcomes feedback and
positively reinforces it the supply will be plentiful and worth listening to.
DISCLOSURE

The second process that affects the shape of your Johari Window is disclosure.
Disclosure results when leaders are willing to share information about themselves to
those with whom they work.

One thing to always remember when looking at a leader is to focus on the

behavior/results and take the words spoken with a grain of salt. Many people who really
want to oppose progress are given the opportunity to play the game because they use
the “buzz words” correctly and yet their intent is to delay and obfuscate progress. The
old saying, “pay attention to what they do, not what they say,” has great value. While
some people in the sensitivity training area believe all disclosure should be encouraged,
here the disclosure being advocated is “work related” disclosure.

It is important to note that if an environment exists where feedback and disclosure can
happen together then not only does the public quadrant grow bigger but the unknown
quadrant begins to shrink. This is a desired occurrence.

SELF-PERCEPTION VERSUS STYLE

The LEAD-Self assessment done earlier is a measure of your perception of your style.
The other way to measure your style would be to have those who work with you do an
assessment of how they see your style. Both style assessments should measure the
PUBLIC (known to self and known to others) component. But the two would differ in
that your assessment of yourself would include the PRIVATE (known to you but
unknown to others) information while the assessment from others would include the
BLIND (unknown to self but known to others) information.

After comparing self and other style evaluations for many people some interesting
things can be determined by using this process. If there is great discrepancy between
the two assessments, that indicates a very small PUBLIC window and a
correspondingly large UNKNOWN window. If on the other hand the two assessments
are essentially identical it indicates that the PUBLIC window takes up most of the entire
Johari plot and the other areas, especially the UNKNOWN window is very small. Each
organizational setting in which we are involved is unique so that you will have different
Johari plots for working with one individual versus working with a group.