There is a distinct difference between a good manager and a good leader. Leaders are able to persuade, negotiate, confront and initiate change while bringing the rest of the team along for the ride. Managers often find challenges in these activities. Often, it is a simple function of experience. Many managers struggle with leadership activities because they have never been given the opportunity to lead in a meaningful way. That’s where situational leadership can really help. If a team member shows promise and is sincerely engaged, he/she deserves the opportunity to grow into a new role. Situational leadership allows an individual to experience the nuances of decision making processes and management techniques on a small but focused scale.

Pick an internal initiative or a project that requires focused leadership and let your best people have at it. Give them room to stumble and guidance to lead change. (This will inevitably result in some challenging situations.) Make sure the risk is low and give your stars what they need to tackle the situation. By creating opportunities for leadership, you are in fact nurturing leaders who will ultimately have a wider breadth of experiences and will be able to assume additional responsibilities.

And don’t forget to celebrate their success and compliment their specific or unique approach or technique that brought the success. It is important for new leaders to be very clear about what works and what doesn’t. Specific feedback is really helpful when gaining new skill sets and can help a leader to focus on priorities, take advantage of their own strengths and work on their weaknesses.

Situational leaders can become really great leaders. And really great leaders…you guessed it… can create really great organizations.