How to Delegate Effectively Using the Skill Will Method of Situational Leadership

The Skill-Will Matrix is a situational leadership model, made popular by Max Landsberg in his book The Tao of Coaching (2003).
The Skill-Will method is popular because it is easy to remember and apply. It provides a simple way to assess the right leadership style according to an individual or team’s level of motivation and competence.
It is easily visualised as a two-by-two table with one axis being will (low and high) and the other axis being skill (low and high).
The matrix then proposes the best leadership style for a person, depending on where the subject falls in the four quadrants:
• Low-will/low-skill: Direct
• High-will/low-skill: Guide
• Low-will/high-skill: Excite
• High-will/high-skill: Delegate
The video contains a further explanation of each of the four quadrants. If you want even more detail, check out the accompanying article by following this link:
therightquestions.co/how-to-u...
This animation was created with VideoScribe: www.awin1.com/cread.php?s=292...

[@pauljones8930]

Does that mean we should re consider our views on delegating? Because each time we delegate we are therefore assuming high skill high will.

[@therightquestions1]

Paul,
That's a good observation and highlights what I think is the only real weakness of this model. Labelling one quadrant 'delegate' is a little misleading.
Leaders delegate, to some degree, to people in all four quadrants. Depending on where people sit on the skill-will spectrum, they might require more support, direction or motivation, but a manager is still giving them tasks to achieve.
The difference in the high-will/high-skill quadrant (labelled delegate) is that these are people who make delegation easy, as the leader can trust that the work will get done to a high standard without the need for intervention.
I have a similar issue with another (otherwise good) situational leadership model, the Hersey-Blanchard model, which labels one quadrant 'coach' when in reality, a good leader coaches people no matter what their capability.
I hope that helps to clarify things a bit.