In this concise instructional video, Cameron Herold shares the single most important leadership skill he spent 15 years mastering: situational leadership. He explains that effective leadership adapts to each team member’s skill and commitment levels, a concept he first applied while scaling College Pro Painters and later 1‑800‑GOT‑JUNK. Herold presents a streamlined model—originally refined with a behavioral scientist—using a 0‑to‑2 rating for both skill and commitment, yielding a total score from 0 to 4. Each score maps to a specific leadership response: 0 = reassign the task, 1 = micromanage with step‑by‑step instructions, 2 = provide systems while soliciting input, 3 = cheer and keep the door open, and 4 = fully delegate. He notes this skill is one of twelve covered in his Invest in Your Leaders training program and directs viewers to investinyourleaders.com for a deeper module, pre‑ and post‑tests, and additional resources.
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So I studied this on and off, pretty in-depth for about 15 years. I'm going to teach you in 5 minutes what it took me 15 years to learn. It's the number one skill on leading people. It's called situational leadership. I was first exposed to this skill 40 years ago when we were scaling 1-800-GOT-JUNK. Actually, prior to 1-800-GOT-JUNK, when we were scaling College Pro Painters, I took this skill into 1-800-GOT-JUNK and trained everyone there, certified everyone there. And I'm going to teach you the shortcut on it right now. But before I do, I want to ask you a couple of quick questions. Do you know what situational leadership is? Do you know what it would even be based on? I'll give you a hint. It's based on two things. It's based on the commitment level and the skill level of the person that you're leading, and it's on a situational basis. So you're going to adapt your leadership style on a project-by-project basis for every single person on the team. Now, this system used to take a lot more training to go through. I actually worked with a behavioral scientist in Vancouver, Canada to simplify it down to a very simple rating on a scale of 1 to 10. How high would you rate someone's skill level or commitment? And I simplified it down to a scale of 0 to 2. Are they skilled on that project? A 0 for no skill, 1 for some skill, 2 for high skill. And then across the bottom, What is their commitment level on working on that individual project? 0, 1, or 2. And then based on the total point score, whether you have 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4, that's how you would adapt your style. If they have 0 points, you're going to give the project to somebody else. 1, you're actually going to give them the step-by-step instructions, practically micromanage them. 2, you're going to give them the systems but get their thoughts on it, maybe cheer them on along the way. 3 points, you're going to cheer them on lots and let them know that your door is available and open for them. And 4 points, you're just going to delegate the project and let them run with it. I go into this one skill in a lot more detail. It's actually one of 12 skills in my Invest in Your Leaders training. Go to investinyourleaders.com. Check out the first module, Situational Leadership. I go into this skill for about 15 or 20 minutes there with some video information and some written information and also a pre-test and a post-test. We'll see you on the inside.
