Christmas tree leadership (Tannenbaum/Schmidt Continuum)

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
How lovely are thy branches!

For some reason, this little portion of the third stanza is all I seem to remember of the song, despite hearing it repeatedly from late October through mid-January for decades.  It's an ode to the beautiful Christmas tree, and has been recorded with many different lyrics over the past 50 years.

Wondering what it has to do with leadership?


"O Christmas Tree" was originally "O Tannenbaum," an ode not to the decorated Christmas tree, but instead to the evergreen fir, a symbol of faithfulness and consistency.  Tannenbaum is not to be confused with Tenenbaum, a comedy film that came out in 2001, leveraging the familiar German name into commercial success.

Tannenbaum is also the surname of a Robert Tannenbaum,who along with Warren H. Schmidt published a paper in the March-April 1958 edition of the Harvard Business Review (republished as an "HBR Classic" in 1973) titled, "How to Choose a Leadership Pattern."  The field of leadership research continues to evolve, but the model Tannenbaum and Schmidt share is straightforward, sensible, and easy to understand.

Tannenbaum-Schmidt Continuum

The idea is to demonstrate how a manager might choose to lead a team.  For immature teams (related to team maturity and not the age or experience of the individual members), a manager may choose to exercise a great deal of authority - the left side of the continuum.  For more mature and/or independent teams, the manager may choose to delegate a great deal of authority to the team - the right side of the continuum.

At the left end of the spectrum the manager exerts the greatest control but must be heavily engaged in decisions for the team.  At the right end of the spectrum the manager delegates to the greatest extent and gains the benefit of increased team capacity and capability.

Depending on the situation, a manager may select different points on the continuum based on a variety of factors, including manager capability and maturity, the capability and maturity of the team, the urgency of the task, and organizational and environmental considerations.

As a manager, when making decisions ask yourself:

• Is this a decision my team is equipped to make?
• Is this decision one that I am comfortable delegating?
• How mature is my team?
• What expertise and perspective does my team bring that complements my own?
• How can I help my team mature?
• How quickly do we need a decision, and how quickly would the team arrive at a decision?
• What organizational and environmental implications are there for me making the decision, for the team?

If you'd like to learn more, here are a few places to check out, or you can buy the article or book.

Best,
Bryan