This creates a team environment based on trust and respect, which leads to high satisfaction and motivation and, as a result, high production.Īpplying the Blake Mouton Managerial Grid Being aware of the various approaches is the first step in understanding and improving how well you perform as a manager. When employees are committed to, and have a stake in the organization’s success, their needs and production needs coincide. The premise here is that employees are involved in understanding organizational purpose and determining production needs. These leaders stress production needs and the needs of the people equally highly. Team Leadership – High Production/High People According to the Blake Mouton model, this is the pinnacle of managerial style. Leaders who use this style settle for average performance and often believe that this is the most anyone can expect. Therein lies the problem, though: When you compromise, you necessarily give away a bit of each concern so that neither production nor people needs are fully met. It may at first appear to be an ideal compromise. Middle-of-the-Road Leadership – Medium Production/Medium People This style seems to be a balance of the two competing concerns. The result is a place of disorganization, dissatisfaction and disharmony.
He/she has neither a high regard for creating systems for getting the job done, nor for creating a work environment that is satisfying and motivating. Impoverished Leadership – Low Production/Low People This leader is mostly ineffective. This type of leader is very autocratic, has strict work rules, policies, and procedures, and views punishment as the most effective means to motivate employees. Employee needs are always secondary to the need for efficient and productive workplaces. Produce or Perish Leadership – High Production/Low PeopleĪlso known as Authoritarian or Compliance Leaders, people in this category believe that employees are simply a means to an end. What tends to result is a work environment that is very relaxed and fun but where production suffers due to lack of direction and control. These people operate under the assumption that as long as team members are happy and secure then they will work hard. Using the axis to plot leadership ‘concerns for production’ versus ‘concerns for people’, Blake and Mouton defined the following five leadership styles:Ĭountry Club Leadership – High People/Low Production This style of leader is most concerned about the needs and feelings of members of his/her team. Understanding the Model The Managerial Grid is based on two behavioral dimensions:Ĭoncern for People – This is the degree to which a leader considers the needs of team members, their interests, and areas of personal development when deciding how best to accomplish a task.Ĭoncern for Production – This is the degree to which a leader emphasizes concrete objectives, organizational efficiency and high productivity when deciding how best to accomplish a task. Called the Managerial Grid, or Leadership Grid, it plots the degree of task-centeredness versus person-centeredness and identifies five combinations as distinct leadership styles. However, it’s useful to understand what your natural leadership tendencies are, so that you can then begin working on developing skills that you may be missing.Ī popular framework for thinking about a leader’s ‘task versus person’ orientation was developed by Robert Blake and Jane Mouton in the early 1960s. Neither preference is right or wrong, just as no one type of leadership style is best for all situations. If you make people your priority and try to accommodate employee needs, then you’re more people-oriented. If you prefer to lead by setting and enforcing tight schedules, you tend to be more production-oriented (or task-oriented). Others are very people-oriented they want people to be happy. Some leaders are very task-oriented they simply want to get things done. Your answers to these types of questions can reveal a great deal about your personal leadership style. When the planning starts to fall behind schedule, what is your first reaction?ĭo you chase everyone to get back on track, or do you ease off a bit recognizing that everyone is busy just doing his/her job, let alone the extra tasks you’ve assigned? When your boss puts you in charge of organizing the company Sports meet, what do you do first?ĭo you develop a time line and start assigning tasks or do you think about who would prefer to do what and try to schedule around their needs?