Situational leadership in hospitality: what every team needs

Every manager in hospitality knows the moment: the approach that worked with the last team falls flat with the new one. Situational leadership starts from that problem. Instead of one fixed style, you read the people and the conditions in front of you and adjust, while a few basic needs stay the same for everyone. It sounds simple. In practice it asks more of a leader than any single method does.

Mohamed Massaquoi has seen this from more than one side. He played wide receiver in the NFL, lost his hand in an accident in 2017, went back to school for business and organizational psychology, and now works with senior leaders on leadership, resilience and change. Much of what he teaches, he says, comes from sports, from good leaders and bad ones. Asked how hard to push people for performance, he starts with two words: it depends.

What situational leadership means in practice

The core idea is a match between leader and talent. In Massaquoi's view, a leader either finds people who fit their style or changes their style to fit the people they already have.

“What I mean by that is stylistically, a leader needs to find talent that either matches their style or adjust their style for the talent that they have.”

Mohamed Massaquoi, 21:13

That match often fails, he says, when a new leader arrives and repeats exactly what worked at the previous company, without seeing that the culture is different. Sometimes the new leader can bring in their own people who move at their pace. Often they cannot, and then the style has to move. A related article looks at what a new general manager can do in the first months. He gives a simple contrast: someone leading an elementary school faces different pressures and different people than someone leading a finance company. For hotel leaders the lesson is the same, because the style that fits one team may not fit the next. That is why he calls situational leadership extremely important.

Five needs that hold in every situation

Adapting your style does not mean that anything goes. Massaquoi names a set of overarching things that have to be true for people, whatever the setting. They work well as a checklist for any department head or general manager:

• Feedback: people need to know how they are doing.
• Direction: they need some sense of where they are going.
• Autonomy: enough room that they do not feel like a small part in a machine.
• Stretch: work that pushes them a little, so they do not get complacent.
• Fit: a role and an environment that suit their aptitude.

“They need something that stretches them a little bit so that they don't get complacent, and that keeps them motivated as well.”

Mohamed Massaquoi, 22:08

His warning is just as useful. Motivation is not solved by telling everybody to smile or by throwing a pizza party. People are wired differently, and a leader who wants high performance without breaking anyone has to know which of those needs is missing for which person. Why openness builds stronger teams is the subject of a related article on vulnerable leadership.

Leading when conditions keep changing

Hospitality managers rarely work in stable conditions. In the conversation, the host points to the pressures many hotels feel: revenues that are mostly decent, but rising costs and constant work on attracting, retaining and training talent. Massaquoi recognises that pattern from his own career. When he played in Cleveland, the team was being sold. He went through multiple head coaches and offensive coordinators, high roster turnover and seven different starting quarterbacks.

His lesson from that period: a wildly talented group can still underperform when the leadership is not right, or when nobody teaches talented people how to be professionals. He sees the same in organizations. Young people often want to do a good job and simply do not know how, because no one leads them and the system is not designed for repeatable success. Output then happens in spite of the barriers people face every day, not because of the way the work is set up.

He compares this with his high school team, which won 109 games in a row and seven straight championships under a coach who expected success and planned for it.

“We're always dealing with volatile conditions that we just have to work through, which is very similar in organizations.”

Mohamed Massaquoi, 20:03

For a hotel, situational leadership in unstable times means building the conditions first: clear standards, a system that makes success repeatable, and leaders who adjust to the talent they actually have rather than the team they wish they had.

High standards and protecting your people

Adjusting to people is not the same as lowering the bar. The coach Massaquoi describes gave very direct feedback, held extremely high standards and knew how to put people in position to succeed. The team worked hard and had a good time doing it. According to Massaquoi, those are exactly the qualities organizations want.

What set that coach apart from other good coaches was that he was in it with the players. He worked out with them, held himself accountable and fought every barrier that kept them from doing their job. Once, when everybody had to dress a certain way for the state championship, he insisted his players show up the way they were comfortable, or not take part at all. Because he protected his people in small things, they trusted him when he asked a lot of them. Massaquoi sums up that approach as pushing people hard, taking care of them and leaving them in a better condition than you found them. A related article on leading by example in the workplace follows a hotel GM's daily practice.

For hospitality leaders, the same balance applies on a busy shift or during a difficult season: demanding, but clearly on the side of your team.

Developing talent instead of waiting for it

Adapting to people also changes how you look at talent. Massaquoi does not believe in gifts that simply appear. He developed his over years of training behind the scenes, and the distance between him and others grew as that work added up. In his view, most organizations cannot count on elite outliers. Realistically, he says, you have to develop talent and set the conditions for it, which many organizations do not do.

That development includes how you train your team, how you pay attention to what happens in real time, how you course correct and how you keep learning from what others do. For a hotel team, it means treating training and feedback as daily leadership work, not as a one-off programme. You can watch the full conversation for his story about adversity and resilience, or find more interviews in the Unscripted Hospitality series.

Frequently asked questions

What is situational leadership?

It means leading by adjusting your style to the people and conditions in front of you. Mohamed Massaquoi describes it as a leader either finding talent that matches their style or adjusting their style to the talent on the team. A few basic needs, such as feedback, direction, autonomy, stretch and fit, stay the same for everyone.

How do you adapt your leadership style to a new team?

Look at the culture before you repeat what worked elsewhere. Massaquoi sees new leaders struggle when they copy the approach of their old company without noticing that the culture is different. Check which core need each person is missing, such as feedback, direction or autonomy, and change the way you lead to fill that gap.

How can managers push for high performance without breaking people?

Combine high standards with care. In Massaquoi's experience, the best leader he had gave direct feedback and set very high standards, but worked alongside the team, held himself accountable and removed barriers. People accepted hard demands because they knew he had their best interests at heart. Stretch people a little, and never rely on pressure alone.

How do you lead a hotel team through an unstable period?

Build conditions that make success repeatable. Massaquoi saw a talented team underperform during an ownership change, coaching turnover and a long line of quarterbacks, because the leadership was not right and young talent was never taught to be professional. Clear standards, steady feedback and a system designed for the team help people deliver despite the pressure.