OGL 300 – Paper 1

There are five major styles defined on the leadership grid, one of those styles being “Authority–

Compliance Management (9,1),” which can be defined as a leader who is more concerned with

the tasks of the job than the people they work with. These leaders hold the mentality that the

people they are working with are just “tools for getting the job done,” (Northouse, 2018, p

90). This leader is only communicating when it involves handing out tasks of giving direction,

their followers will usually define them as being “controlling, demanding, hard driving, and

overpowering,” (Northouse, 2018, p 90) in the workplace. The next style of leadership is

“Country-Club Management (1,9),” which is the exact opposite of the leader defined in the

“Authority–Compliance Management” leadership style. The “Country-Club Management” leader

is not concerned with achieving goals but rather concerned with building trust-based

relationships with their partners by “making sure the personal and social needs of followers are

met,” (Northouse, 2018, p 90). Their followers will usually define their qualities of a leader as

being, “agreeable, eager to help, comforting, and uncontroversial,” which I believe can be quite

problematic in the workplace. The next leadership style is called “Impoverished Management

(1,1),” which is a style that lacks both task and relationship behaviors. “This type of leader goes

through the motions of being a leader but acts uninvolved and withdrawn… could be described

as indifferent, noncommittal, resigned, and apathetic,” (Northouse, 2018, p 90). “Middle-of-the-

Road Management (5,5),” is the leadership style that I think best describes me currently, as I am

trying to become the best possible leader. This is a well-balanced approach at leadership, having

equal concern for people and the task(s) at hand. However, “to arrive at an equilibrium, the

leader avoids conflict and emphasizes moderate levels of production and interpersonal

relationships. This type of leader often is described as one who is expedient, prefers the middle
ground, soft-pedals disagreement, and swallows convictions in the interest of “progress””

(Northouse, 2018, p 90). “Team Management (9,9)” is the last style in the leadership grid. This

style is considered top tier to me, as I am currently working toward being able to have a strong

balance between being task oriented and relationship oriented. This style is all about the leaders

who can encourage their team to push out the best results, in a timely manner, while also

maintaining trust-based relationships with their team to keep their employees satisfied and

engaged with their job. Their followers would “describe the 9,9 leader (as): stimulates

participation, acts determined, gets issues into the open, makes priorities clear, follows through,

behaves open-mindedly, and enjoys working,” (Northouse, 2018, p 90). This is the leadership

style that I deem to be the most efficient, and what I strive to become in my day-to-day life.

I know with the covid there are a lot of people who are concerned with their safety at work,

because they have health problems, or they are going home to someone who may be at high risk.

In this situation, I think that the “Country-Club Management” would be the best because it is

focusing more on the needs people than it is on the required work that must be done. However, I

don’t think I respond well to this kind of management because I have always been a task-

oriented person, so it would frustrate me if I was the only member putting in effort and my leader

also wasn’t enforcing it the way they probably should be. Another situation that I am seeing

now-a-days is “Impoverished Management”, as I am seeing more and more leaders give very

little effort in their job for whatever reason. Most of the time, the team will give more effort than

the leader because they know that the company will still hold them liable even if the leader isn’t

giving direction in their roles and tasks, and I find that a bit unfair because we are punishing

them if they decided to not put up with their leader’s lack of responsibility to the company. I
would not respond well to this, and I would probably be the one that leads the team if the leader

is lacking, while also complaining to upper management that person in this leadership role is not

doing what is best for the company and its employees. In the other three leadership styles, I can

see myself working just fine under that management, but of course who doesn’t want to work

under a leader who resembles the “Team Management” style. I am fortunate to say that I do

currently work under this kind of management!

After taking the Leadership Behavior Questionnaire, I have received my scores and they are

exactly as I predicted. In task, I received a forty-five, and in relationship I got a forty-one, which

are both considered to be high preforming. I think this is a pretty accurate representation of my

leadership style; however, I did slightly anticipate that my relationship score would be lower

than it came out to be. I knew that I was more task-oriented than I was people-oriented, and this

leadership style has always worked for me. Working with Starbucks is the main reason I

probably scored so high when it comes to relationships because that is what Starbucks is all

about, “creating a culture of warmth and belonging,” they have drilled it into my head so now I

know it by memory!

One of the most admirable qualities in a leader, is the ability to be flexible in any work

environment that they put themselves in. Each work environment has its own unique culture that

best suits the personalities within that workspace, along as setting the tone for morale produced

in the environment. Leaders need to be able to read a room to determine if that task at hand needs

a strong leader to navigate through the emotions in their team, or a strong leader to give direction
in achieving the team’s goals. When a leader can tell where they are needed most, and adjust

their focus to that, they impact not only the employees, but the company and the output of their

work in a positive way. If a leader with a high concern for task was put in a work culture that

was fueled off relationships, like having strong bonds with their boss and coworkers, the morale

is going to drop severely when a task-oriented leader takes over, which at this point it is probably

already diminishing because their previous manager probably fit their work culture. Same thing

goes for a leader with a high concern for relationship when paired with a team that is used to not

communicating because they are too busy pushing out results, in shorter terms, a work-driven

team. This leader may experience a lack of respect because they don’t share the same level of

concern for tasks and goals that the team share.

In my current role at my job, I am developing a lot of my baristas who are wanting to promote

within the company. My coworkers and I, sat down to grade everyone using the “low-supportive-

low directive style” approach, which consisted of us ranking these individuals under the D1, D2,

D3, or D4 categories. We do this by reflecting on how that individual performs every day, this

allows us to see if they are consistent in their roles and routines, if they aren’t consistent and the

times that they do perform their roles and routines, they aren’t performing well, we agreed that

this person would fall under the D2 category. Anyone that falls below a D4 we are hoping to get

them there through development pods and working shoulder to shoulder with them on their

approach.
When it came to the situational leadership questionnaire, I was a bit surprise to realize I got two

out of the four questions wrong! After reviewing them, I see why I did fail those questions, and I

realized that what my coworkers say about me, might be accurate. In the first situation, I was

giving support and encouragement when it was not needed. This person has experience in all the

departments within the organization, if being one of the most respected and trusted people

amongst the staff. This person would be considered a D4, completely developed, and my support

would be unneeded here. In the third situation, I was doing the same thing, giving more support

and encouragement than needed. This group needed to feel heard as they struggle with their

morale after the project setbacks, not a leader that continues to focus on tasks and trying to

encourage better morale.

My coworker and I are working with a lot of D1 and D3 individuals within these development

pods. I notice that D1 individuals are a lot more eager to learn while individuals in D3 know that

the possess the capabilities to promote and just need guidance on in their approach. I will have to

take on a supporting approach when dealing with D1 individuals, as they need a lot more support

in their roles and routines as they are getting familiar with them. I will be taking more of a

coaching approach when developing my individuals within the D3 category because they are

aware and comfortable in their approach and now need to be able to advise other’s in that same

approach.