How can you apply the situational leadership model to mentoring new hires?

At the risk of sounding argumentative, while I agree with thegeneral premise, I have found all of the styles can be complementary and applied to varying degrees in any situation. Certainly, directing is essential to maintaining control. All too often delegating and empowering lead to entitling and enabling yielding undesirable results. Once it is ascertained a team member fully understands what leadership desires then delegation and empowering make sense. Coaching must be applied at the degree necessary to help staff achieve the desired results. Undoing is expensive. Additionally, supporting is always important to see the assignment accomplished and the employee or team 😉 enjoy the desired success. The styles can be changed on a dime.

In my experience, I feel you need to master different styles of leadership for so many situations when dealing with people. When employees first start out you might be directing shortly followed by coaching. If you want to build a team of doers and decision makers that feel like a part of the solution you need to empower them to do their best work with expectations & a clear vision. Celebrate the wins and support the short falls with coaching and advice.

The word "situational" can be dangerous. It means that our leadership model or response can be based on circumstances, surroundings or outside/internal stimuli. This is where the word "model" or "mentorship" comes in. Leadership has to evoke stability or strength which stands to reason, if you want to be a strong leader, you cannot let circumstances direct you, rather you should reflect and model purposefully the most appropriate point of action. Mentors, coaches in our lives or a system like, "the situational leadership model" can guide us to a more stable method of response. It will always be trial and error. Leadership isn't a destination but a journey.

R2s are clear examples of the Dunning Kruger effect 'when we lack competence, we are most likely to maintain a degree of overconfidence' The only way to coach individuals here is _If_ they are coachable. If so, then the way to go is nudging them to explore fresh ideas, and towards self-discovery, without imparting your methods onto them.

In early days of new hires, directive style helps in transitioning between different cultures across different companies. It helps to understand the norms and make some changes in early days of new job. I believe 60 days is generally a sweet spot to move away from directive style.