Contemporary conditions in which the Intelligence Community (IC) is functioning force its leaders to change their tactics in training and personnel management. The rapid development of technology and changing demographics are pushing for a reexamination of the characteristics that need to be possessed by the leaders who will be at the head of the Intelligence (Dugan, 2017). The purpose of this paper is to discuss why situational leadership is the kind of management that will be best suited for handling this transition in implementing innovative and effective learning and training solutions.
Discussion
According to lessons learned from the public and private sectors, situational leaders are those managers who will be able to train staff in new approaches. That is, they will ensure the stuff possesses skills needed for using new tools that will be crucial because they are high-tech and intensive. The continuum of leadership behavior implies that the IC leader needs to choose one of the possible behavioral patterns depending on the strength of their influence.
They include the leader, their followers, and the current situation (Richelson, 2018). People working in the Intelligence Community have the ability to self-government and work effectively in the conditions of proper motivation. In this case, the leader gets the opportunity to take part in the management, and the goals, means, and policies are determined by the leader themselves.
Moreover, the model of situational leadership allows predicting the effectiveness of a working group led by a leader (Dandaura-Samu, 2018). The model uses situational variables that make it possible to determine the degree of auspiciousness or controllability of the situation for a certain leadership style. To measure the approach to the implementation and management of innovation, it is necessary to use a developed scale of characteristics.
One of the key factors of situationality is the adaptability of followers, which is determined by the degree to which people have the abilities and desire to fulfill the task set by the leader. The initial premise of this approach is the assumption that employees are satisfied and productive when there is a strong connection between their efforts and work results. There is a direct relationship between the level of leadership effectiveness and the level of the motivational power of expectations that followers have (Northouse, 2018).
The ideal scenario is when the input is fully consistent with the result. An effective leader helps subordinates follow the path leading to the desired goal. The model states that interest in relationships on the part of the leader is more important when followers perform highly structured work. In this case, the level of interest in the work should be determined by the leader depending on the characteristics of the followers and the nature of the work performed by them.
Concluding Points
Thus, areas of knowledge in which the IC needs to develop rapidly are constantly changing, and adhering to a traditional leadership style is not rational as it does not meet current security requirements. Situational leadership is an adaptive leadership approach in which the manager evaluates various nuances. On the basis of them, they choose a leadership style that helps to achieve the security goal at the moment most effectively. The leader adapts to the current situation and the needs of the organization. This requires a deep understanding of the internal and external processes of the IC, the possession of knowledge of traditional leadership styles, and the ability to switch between them.
References
Dandaura-Samu, M. (2018). Strategic intelligence–community security partnerships: Molding partnerships in conflict-prone regions. New York, NY: Lexington Books.
Dugan, J. P. (2017). Leadership theory: Cultivating critical perspectives. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Northouse, P. G. (2018). Leadership: Theory and practice (8th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
Richelson, J. T. (2018). The U.S. intelligence community (7th ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.