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A Conversation with Leadership Guru, Paul Hersey

1999; SAGE Publishing; Volume: 5; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1177/107179199900500212

1071-7919

Charles W. Blackwell, Jane Whitney Gibson,

Leadership and Management in Organizations

guess the gift that was given to me was that I can take very complex things and put them into nickel words that everybody can understand. (Paul Hersey) Paul Hersey has long been acknowledged as one of the giants in the field of management. Along with Ken Blanchard, he developed and popularized the Situational Leadership Model. Thanks to the common sense approach to leadership that the Model shows, millions of managers around the world have learned how to correctly match their leadership style with their employees' needs for guidance and positive reinforcement. Today, Hersey lives in Southern California and heads up the Center for Leadership Studies. The authors recently traveled to Dr. Hersey's Escondido office to interview him on a wide range of leadership topics. Authors: Everyone knows you as the Father of Situational Leadership Theory but many of our readers would be very interested in knowing something about your background. We understand you were born and raised in New Jersey and began your university training at Seton Hall. What were you studying in school and what were your career goals back then? Hersey: First, let me clarify one thing. Situational leadership is not really a theory; it's a Model. For me there is an important difference between a theory and a model. A theory is something that you construct to analyze or understand a given event, whereas a model is something that you can take out and replicate and use in a variety of different settings. Situational Leadership is something practical and applicable, and it is used all over the world. Thank you for permitting that point of clarification; now on to that background. I am proud to say that I was in the first group to ever receive a B.S. in management at Seton Hall and thoroughly enjoyed my education there thanks to some wonderful teachers. I was married when I graduated and I worked midnight until early in the morning loading draft beers on freight cars. Shortly after than, I received an offer from the University of Chicago to become a full time research associate. While I was finishing my MBA, I was promoted to be a Project Director of the Industrial Relations Center under the guidance of Bob Burns. Authors: It sounds like you had some exceptional opportunities at an early stage of your career. Hersey: I certainly did! I even got to work on a project with Carl Rogers. There's a quote from Sir Isaac Newton that I've always thought applied to me: If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I stood on the shoulders of giants. I really believe that. For me, the giants were Carl Rogers, Douglas MacGregor and Abraham Maslow. Authors: Can you elaborate on the other practical experience you received while you were working on your Masters Degree? Hersey: My first full time work with the IRC was with projects for Republic Steel, Warehouse Paper and many other major companies. My main emphasis was on a variety of Industrial Relations programs because that's what my MBA major was at the U. of Chicago. I went into companies and developed programs for them to improve the relationships between the workers, the union and management. The goal was to facilitate a positive change away from a confrontational situation to one that was win-win for everyone. When I received my MBA, I really wanted to be a college professor, but wanted to have at least 10 years of real life experience to draw on first. At the time, I had three years of manufacturing experience with Kaiser Aluminum in Ravenswood, West Virginia. That was an incredible opportunity! I was one of five management people on site before the plant was even constructed. We went from five to about 2500 people in a fully operational facility in those three years. This position helped to fulfill what I consider a professional obligation. During my three years at IRC I worked with problem identification and designing solutions. …