Situational Leadership II Practical Application Training Course

Course overview

Managers often use one leadership approach for every employee: detailed direction for experienced specialists, broad delegation for new hires, or encouragement without enough structure when performance is slipping. The result can be missed deadlines, uneven quality, low confidence, and avoidable escalation. Situational Leadership II Practical Application Training Course equips leaders to diagnose what a person needs for a specific task and adjust their leadership behaviour without lowering standards or treating people inconsistently.

Participants work with the SLII model: Development Levels D1–D4 and the four leadership styles—Directing, Coaching, Supporting, and Delegating. They learn to assess competence and commitment separately, define task-specific development needs, set measurable goals, agree leadership expectations, conduct diagnosis conversations, and move team members toward greater autonomy. The programme also addresses common errors, including confusing tenure with competence, over-directing capable staff, and delegating work before capability and confidence are established.

Instructor-led demonstrations, structured role plays, peer observation, and realistic people-management cases turn the model into repeatable practice. Participants use SLII diagnosis worksheets, conversation planners, and performance scenarios to prepare for live workplace situations such as onboarding, correcting quality problems, assigning stretch work, and rebuilding confidence after setbacks. Each participant leaves with a documented SLII application plan for selected team members and tasks, including diagnosis, leadership response, milestones, and follow-up questions.

This intermediate course is designed for managers who already lead people and need a disciplined method for adapting leadership to task readiness. It is particularly valuable for leaders managing mixed-experience teams, technical specialists, new managers, supervisors, project leads, and managers responsible for improving performance without defaulting to micromanagement.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Diagnose task-specific development levels using the SLII D1–D4 competence and commitment criteria
• Match Directing, Coaching, Supporting, and Delegating leadership styles to diagnosed development needs
• Conduct an SLII diagnosis conversation that clarifies task, competence, confidence, motivation, and required support
• Create measurable task goals and performance milestones using the SLII goal-setting process
• Use directive and supportive behaviours deliberately within one-to-one performance conversations
• Identify over-supervision, premature delegation, and style-task mismatch in workplace leadership cases
• Prepare an SLII conversation planner for onboarding, performance recovery, or stretch-assignment discussions
• Produce a 90-day SLII application plan for named team members, priority tasks, follow-up dates, and success measures

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Line Managers — who need to adjust supervision and support across employees with different task readiness
• Team Leaders — who allocate daily work and must improve performance without over-managing capable staff
• Newly Appointed Managers — who need a practical framework for leading former peers and new direct reports
• Project Managers — who lead contributors across changing work packages, skills, and confidence levels
• Operations Supervisors — who must maintain consistent quality while developing frontline capability
• Technical and Professional Services Managers — who lead specialists needing different levels of direction on unfamiliar work

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have current or recent responsibility for supervising, coaching, assigning work to, or influencing colleagues. They should be comfortable discussing performance expectations, giving feedback, and working with practical examples from their own team. Familiarity with basic management concepts such as objectives, delegation, one-to-ones, and performance review is helpful; prior knowledge of the SLII model is not required. Participants should bring two or three real tasks or team situations they can analyse during the course. No psychometric certification, HR qualification, specialist software, or formal leadership credential is required.

Training methodology

The course combines concise instructor-led explanation of the SLII model with repeated application to realistic management situations. Participants diagnose D1–D4 cases, select S1–S4 leadership responses, practise one-to-one conversations in triads, and receive structured peer and facilitator feedback against observable directive and supportive behaviours. Case work covers new starters, experienced employees facing unfamiliar tasks, underperformance, and stretch assignments. Each day concludes with an applied worksheet, building toward a final 90-day plan that participants can use with their own team after the course.

Course outline

Day 1: SLII foundations and task diagnosis

• Situational Leadership II model purpose and workplace use
• Development Levels D1 to D4
• Competence and commitment as separate diagnostic factors
• Task-specific versus person-wide development assessment
• Observable evidence of competence, confidence, and motivation
• Common diagnosis errors and leadership assumptions
• Writing clear task outcomes before selecting a leadership style

Workshop: Participants analyse four employee-task scenarios and produce an evidence-based D1–D4 diagnosis with stated assumptions and information gaps.

Day 2: Matching leadership style to development need

• Directing style S1 behaviours and appropriate use
• Coaching style S2 behaviours and appropriate use
• Supporting style S3 behaviours and appropriate use
• Delegating style S4 behaviours and appropriate use
• Directive behaviour: structure, priorities, standards, and deadlines
• Supportive behaviour: listening, encouragement, problem solving, and autonomy
• Style-flexing decisions across routine and unfamiliar tasks

Workshop: Participants complete a style-matching workshop, selecting S1–S4 responses for a departmental workload case and defending each choice.

Day 3: Goal setting and SLII conversations

• SLII goal-setting conversation structure
• Defining task scope, quality standards, and decision rights
• Using milestone plans and check-in agreements
• Diagnosis questions for competence and commitment
• Explaining leadership style choices without sounding controlling
• Balancing instruction, questions, feedback, and encouragement
• Documenting agreements in an SLII conversation planner

Workshop: In triads, participants conduct a simulated goal-setting and diagnosis conversation and produce a completed SLII conversation planner.

Day 4: Applying SLII to performance and development challenges

• Using SLII when a new employee is learning a critical process
• Rebuilding commitment after mistakes, setbacks, or negative feedback
• Managing capable employees assigned unfamiliar stretch work
• Responding to inconsistent performance and unclear ownership
• Avoiding rescue behaviour and learned dependency
• Transitioning from coaching to supporting and delegation
• Integrating SLII with one-to-ones, feedback, and development plans

Workshop: Participants work through a performance-recovery case and produce a staged leadership plan with goals, style changes, and review points.

Day 5: Workplace implementation and leadership practice

• Mapping real team members against priority tasks
• Selecting high-value situations for initial SLII application
• Planning leadership transitions as competence and commitment change
• Using feedback and performance evidence to reassess development level
• Handling resistance to increased direction or increased autonomy
• Building manager routines for follow-up and accountability
• Measuring impact through quality, timeliness, autonomy, and engagement indicators

Workshop: Participants produce and peer-review a 90-day SLII application plan for their own team, including named tasks, diagnoses, leadership actions, milestones, and measures.

Tools & standards covered

Situational Leadership II (SLII) Model, SLII Conversation Planner, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Teams

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions