Situational Leadership: What Shade Suits Your Team?

On the HEC Paris campus, Emmanuel Coblence has been working with leaders in training for years. They almost always arrive with the same pressing question: how can I adapt my leadership to a world that never stops changing?  Among the many answers he explores with them, one approach stands out: situational leadership - a fifty-year-old concept that feels more relevant than ever. 

"How do I adapt myself?"  This question frequently resurfaces in HEC Paris Executive Education programs. A sales director faces their hybrid teams, a CEO navigates between corporate cultures... All leaders ask themselves this question, confronted with today's management challenges. 

Emmanuel Coblence, professor at HEC Paris and director of the Leadership program area, has made this inquiry the heart of his reflection. "The answer lies in adaptability". But then, how do you go about it? This is where situational leadership comes in - a model that rejects ready-made formulas to propose a genuine managerial compass. 

When 1977 Illuminates 2025

The story begins in 1977. Paul Hersey and Kenneth Blanchard, two American researchers, posed a simple but revolutionary hypothesis: effective leaders don't impose a single style, but know how to adapt their approach to the degree of autonomy and maturity of their collaborators.  

Nearly fifty years later, this intuition has never been more relevant. 

"We tend to think that the old concepts are outdated. Wrong: the situational leadership is blazingly current", observes Emmanuel Coblence. 

And for good reason. Never have the demands placed on leaders been so protean. Managing geographically dispersed teams, dealing with generations with different expectations, navigating between contradictory injunctions... "What the situation demands today, it will no longer demand tomorrow. The leader's role, is to understand this and evolve their approach", explains Emmanuel. 

This agility is precisely what situational leadership offers. Far from freezing behaviors in an idealized stance, it offers a repertoire of styles to mobilize according to context and people. A real catalyst for effective leadership - but also a personal alignment tool for those seeking to exercise more conscious leadership. 

The Matrix That Changes Everything 

In a masterclass for corporate executives, Emmanuel Coblence demonstrated how the Hersey-Blanchard matrix helps managers embrace different situations according to their teams' performance levels. Two axes structure the leader's behaviors: directiveness (how they frame, prescribe, organize work), and support (their level of relational involvement, listening, guidance). 

Their intersection draws four distinct managerial styles: 

The Directive Style: The leader defines tasks precisely, frames firmly, exchanges little on the relational level. This is the domain of new team members, crisis situations, or critical stakes. No room for improvisation here. 

The Persuasive Style: Still highly directive, but with a strong relational presence. The leader guides, explains, and supports, while keeping control of decisions. This is the style for skill development. 

The Participative Style: Autonomy progresses, methods no longer imposed. The manager collaborates with their teams, remains highly engaged in the relationship, and watches over the collective. We enter the age of collaboration. 

The Delegative Style: Minimal intervention, maximum trust. The team member is fully responsible, capable of self-management. This is the "Holy Grail of management": growing your teams to autonomy. 

The Mirror Exercise 

This interpretative framework takes on a particular dimension in the HEC approach. Programs combine theory and practice with interactive workshops, peer discussions, and individual reflection moments. Participants engage in rigorous self-assessment, examining how well their natural leadership style matches the real challenges they face. 

Peer learning becomes central. Back in the classroom, executives, managers, and rising potentials share their experiences, reflect on their habits and uncover the blind spots they didn't know they had. 

This multidisciplinary approach, shaped by the HEC ecosystem, opens up space to explore the paradoxes of modern leadership. How can you be both structured and adaptable? How do you balance short-time demands with long-terme vision? Situational leadership doesn't offer ready-made answers - it helps you bring the awareness to navigate each moment wisely. 

The Chameleon's Traps 

But watch out for the traps. Any leadership style can go off the course if it becomes rigid. Too much direction? It slips into authoritarianism. Too much of support? It turns into paternalism. Too much collaboration? The manager hesitates to make decisions. Too much delegation? The team feels abandoned. 

"It's not about becoming a chameleon at all costs", says Emmanuel Coblence. "What matters, is to know what style feels more true to you - and when to lean in it". 

This focus on authenticity runs through all of HEC's programs. Using tools like personality assessments based on the Big Five model, participants explore their natural strengths, areas of discomfort, and behavioral preferences. Self-awareness is the foundation of any lasting leadership. 

Two Paths, One Destination

When faced with this map of leadership styles, leaders have two options. They can adapt their behavior to fit the situation, meeting the need of their teams and the context. Or they can choose environments that align more closely with their natural way of leading. 

Some leaders turn out to be natural 'chameleons': agile, able to shift styles depending on their team's ability, the urgency of the moment, or the nature of the challenge. Others prefer to stay "rooted" in their own style, choosing instead to work in environments that better match who they are. 

"There's no right or wrong path", says Emanuel Coblence. "What matters is being clear-eyed about how you operate - and being able to explain it". 

This kind of clarity grows through shared experience. Simulations, case studies, and conversations with academic thinkers and executive coaches all feed into the process, like a testing ground where everyone gets to try out their own management ideas. 

A Common Language for the Organization

The Hersey-Blanchard model isn't just a tool for managing teams more effectively - it also becomes a way of sparking meaningful conversations across the organization. 

With team members, it helps explaining a shift in leadership style or evolve the manager-employee relationship. 

With one's own manager, it becomes a way to express specific needs: more support, clearer structure, and so on. 

Within teams, it helps lay a shared foundation for leadership and collaboration practices. The model offers a common language that makes managerial relationships flow more easily. 

The HEC Ecosystem at the Service of the Transformation 

This approach to situational leadership is part of HEC Paris Executive Education's broader vision. We see leadership the way a craftsperson sees their trade - not as a set of formulas to follow, but as a deep understanding of each detail, each step, and each context. The goal isn't to innovate at all costs, but to keep growing - refining how we help others to grow and how we move projects forward. 

HEC's expertise, grounded in research and enriched by the experience of thousands of leaders, comes to life through proven teaching methods. Peer learning allows participants to work on real-world challenges. Interactions with leaders from diverse sectors and regions broaden their perspectives. 

The aim is to create the conditions for leadership that's more self-aware, more adaptable, and more strategic. These programs are conceived to support pivotal moments - career shifts, scaling up, organizational transformation - offering a tailored, meaningful experience.

Toward Sustainable Leadership 

Beyond techniques, what emerges is a philosophy of leadership - one rooted in purpose and inspired by the work of HEC Paris's Society & Organisations Institute. It's a kind of leadership that embraces paradoxes rather than avoiding them. 

"Situational leadership is also an invitation to lead with greater awareness". 

In a world where change is the only constant, this capability to adapt becomes a strategic advantage - for leaders and the organizations they serve.

To explore situational leadership further and discover HEC Paris Executive Education's Leadership program offerings, visit our programs page.