Imagine you are personally seeking coaching. Perhaps it involves a workplace relationship or a presentation you just gave. Question: Would you prefer your coach just to facilitate your thinking or to guide you? It depends on the situation, right?

Hersey and Blanchard’s Situational Leadership is a cornerstone of management theory. As many of you know, the idea is that we need to adapt our leadership style to the particular task to be performed, depending on an individual’s level of skill and motivation.

For example, if a team member is both highly skilled and highly motivated, we should delegate the task to them. If, instead, we provide too much guidance or coaching, we will demotivate them and waste time.

Alternatively, if a team member is motivated but lacks the necessary skills, we should guide them. If we are too hands-off, we will see mistakes, and if we are overly directive, their learning and motivation will suffer.

The same is true with coaching styles. It’s time for us to break away from the dogma that we should always use a facilitative coaching style. We need to recognize that there are situations where guidance and even direction are the most helpful styles to support our clients’ growth.