In what situations would each style be appropriate? Inappropriate?

Managers must also adjust their styles according to the situation that they are presented with. Below are four quadrants of situational leadership that depend on the amount of support and guidance needed:

Telling: Works best when employees are neither willing nor able to do the job (high need of support and high need of guidance).

Delegating: Works best when the employees are willing to do the job and know how to go about it (low need of support and low need of guidance).

Participating: Works best when employees have the ability to do the job, but need a high amount of support (low need of guidance but high need of support).

Selling: Works best when employees are willing to do the job, but don�t know how to do it (low need of support but high need of guidance).

The different styles depend on the situation and the relationship behavior (amount of support required) and task behavior (amount of guidance required).