I am a micro manager. I get into people's business, telling them what to do and when to do it. I am also a laissez-faire manager, not talking to my people for weeks and trusting that things will get done right and on time. So do I have an inconsistent management style? Yes.

You often hear people proclaiming, I'm a hands-on manager or, I'm not a micro-manager... but I once learned in a course for new managers at KPMG Consulting that a leader should not have one management style.  Every individual has different levels of skills and motivation and therefore require different management styles to perform at their optimum.

At risk of misrepresenting the model, I want to share the basic take-aways from the course that I have applied religiously in the eight years since I took the course.  To simplify the process, everyone being led must be scored in two dimensions: 1) Skill-set for the task at hand and 2) motivation to complete the task.  Similarly, my management style must vary in two dimensions: 1) Amount of direction given on how to complete the task and 2) amount of time spent engaged with the individual throughout the work. 

Graphically, I place everyone on a grid like this:

Then, I find the corresponding management style on a grid like this:

The final nuance to this simple model is to understand that I must always reevaluate where my workforce lies on the grid because as people take on new responsibilities, their skill-set changes--and as life inside and outside work takes on new challenges, motivation levels change as well.  So even for a given individual I must constantly re-evaluate the leadership role I must play for him or her.

I am always interested in these kinds of simple models for improving my understanding of myself and others.  So please let me know if anyone has other models that are insightful and useful in leadership.