81| Adapt How You Lead: Situational Leadership in Practice [with Suzie Bishop]

Your leadership style isn't the problem. Your default is. The gap between how you're leading and what the person in front of you actually needs is one of the most common and most invisible places leaders get stuck. Most of us default to one mode and don't notice the mismatch until something breaks down. Suzie Bishop has spent over a decade at the Center for Leadership Studies helping leaders close that gap and strengthen their leadership effectiveness. Her new book, Situational Leadership, puts nearly sixty years of research into a practical framework for reading the situation, building leadership flexibility, and adapting your approach. Suzie walks through the four leadership styles, how to read what someone needs in a given situation, and how to adapt your approach to coach, develop leaders, and lead through influence. The best leaders don't pick one style and commit. They pause, assess the situation, and flex to have the impact you intend. You’ll Learn: Why "leadership is influence" reframes how you lead, and why influence has nothing to do with manipulation or control How to diagnose what someone needs, and why one person can require four different approaches in the same conversation How leadership flexibility and adaptability differ—and why knowing the styles isn't the same as knowing when to use them Why only asking coaching questions can leave people stuck, and how to know when to step in with more directive leadership How the "power of the pause" helps you move from reacting out of habit to adapting with intention ABOUT MY GUEST: Suzie Bishop is VP of Product Development at The Center for Leadership Studies. She's a Certified Professional in Training Management, a Stakeholder Centered Coach, and a Marshall Goldsmith 100 Coach. Suzie is co-author of Situational Leadership: The Model for Leading Others, Navigating Change and Unlocking Performance and is currently writing her next book, Match: How to Meet Leaders Where They Are, with Marshall Goldsmith. IMPORTANT LINKS: Full episode show notes: ChainOfLearning.com/81  Connect with Suzie Bishop: linkedin.com/in/suzie-bishop  Purchase a copy: Situational Leadership: The Model for Leading Others, Navigating Change and Unlocking Performance by Suzie Bishop and Sam Shriver Match: How to Meet Leaders Where They Are by Suzie Bishop and Marshall Goldsmith (November 2026) Learn more about The Center for Leadership Studies: situational.com Follow me on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/kbjanderson  Subscribe to my newsletter: kbjanderson.com/newsletter  Check out my website for resources and working together: KBJAnderson.com  Join us on the Japan Leadership Experience: KBJAnderson.com/japantrip  TIMESTAMPS FOR THIS EPISODE: 02:52 Why leadership is influence, not control 04:43 Creating the conditions without controlling 06:51 What Situational Leadership looks like in practice 07:35 Flexibility vs. adaptability: the critical difference 07:48 The four Situational Leadership styles 11:41 How to recognize your natural leadership tendency 13:08 When asking questions isn’t effective coaching 16:46 How to be directive without taking away ownership 17:37 The cost of not adapting how you lead 21:37 Why organizations need a common leadership language 24:05 Creating the conditions for people to ask for help 25:24 The leadership challenge even top executives struggle with 29:06 How to give direction without taking over 30:33 Influence versus control when you have authority 31:06 Three types of power that shape your influence 32:51 Why trust is your most important source of power 36:02 The difference between flexibility and adaptability 37:08 Practice an intention pause before you respond