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ACCA Strategic Professional · Strategic Business Leader · Qualities of leadership

Tarek leads a team of experienced engineers who are highly skilled but whose motivation has dropped after a restructuring. They are unsure the new targets are achievable. Under Hersey and Blanchard's model, the most appropriate leadership style is:

Supporting is the right style. The engineers have high competence but wavering commitment and confidence, so the leader should focus on relationships, encouragement and involving them in decisions rather than giving detailed task instructions, which they do not need.

  1. ADirecting, because motivation has fallen and tasks need tight control
  2. BSupporting, because the followers are competent but lack confidence or commitmentCorrect
  3. CDelegating, because the followers are experienced and need no leader input
  4. DCoaching, because the followers lack both competence and commitment

Explanation

Competent followers with variable commitment (D3) need a supporting style: high relationship, low task direction, sharing decisions and encouraging. Directing would be unnecessary and demotivating for skilled staff. Delegating ignores the confidence problem.

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