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The situational view of leadership maintains that effective leadership is determined by the group’s readiness to take on a task, including its motivation and individual group members’ experience and knowledge (Hersey & Blanchard, 1988). A group that has been together for a long time and has a lot of experience with, say, raising funds for a local charity would probably need different leadership than a group with little experience or motivation. For example, a team that has just been assembled and that has little experience with fund-raising would benefit from a leader with a telling, or autocratic, style. The leader would need to establish structure, provide specific direction about the task, and give frequent feedback to the group about performance. When a group has a moderate degree of experience and motivation with fund-raising, a selling style might be the best leadership choice. The leader would give encouragement to group members while maintaining control over how the work is done. As experience and motivation with fund-raising increases within a group, a leader’s style may become more participating, encouraging shared decision making and providing less specific direction. Finally, a team with a lot of fund-raising experience and motivation would likely require a leader who leads by delegating, whereby group members have complete responsibility for organizing and doing the work.

The situational view of leadership explains two important things. First, a leader’s skills and style must fit the needs of the group. For example, an autocratic leadership style can be successful in some situations (if the group is new) and fail miserably in others (if members are used to having more control over tasks). Second, groups change over time as motivation fluctuates, new challenges emerge, or members gain confidence with the task at hand. Effective leaders adapt their style to changing circumstances.

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A limitation of the situational view is that—much like the traits and style views—it focuses on characteristics and approaches of individuals who are leading others. Each of these views asks a common question: What do effective leaders look like? But none of the three views can account for how communication helps a group share responsibility in leading the group. Instead, members in any small group can make contributions that help lead the group at a particular moment. The next view of leadership considers the role communication plays in influencing and directing groups.