Chapter 9

I got interested in “Situational Leadership” from page 278. It says leaders should pay attention to their groups’ maturity so that their group members can effectively participate. I’m wondering how leaders can facilitate a group if they are not matured. I believe some people become leaders because they have outstanding knowledge, but not because they have good communication skills or they are matured.

If every organization follows this situational leadership theory, most companies would have a hard time to find good leaders because not many people have both good communication skill and outstanding knowledge.

If organizations are small, it is possible to find effective leaders because there are not many people. However, big organizations might have many ineffective leaders, I guess. In fact, when I worked at newspaper office, my manager was not matured because he always wanted to speak up his opinion, but not listened to his employees. I knew he had a good educational background and great career, but his communication style was not appropriate because most of his employees also had good knowledge. I felt like my manager was a good follower, and that’s why he became a leader. Though, he wasn’t a good leader because he always kept “telling” us; in other words, he did not pay attention to our maturity.

I agree with that effective leaders should follow situational leadership theory, but I don’t know how to communicate with leaders if they are not matured. I think many people have experienced such immature leaders,,,, how did you work in his/her team??