4.7 Team Leadership Models: Direct, Coach, Support, and Delegate

ASQ Certified Six Sigma Black Belt CSSBB

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1 Chapter 1: Introduction & CSSBB Exam Strategy

1.1 CSSBB Exam Format, Scoring, and Testing Windows 1.2 Eligibility, Project Affidavits, Application, and Recertification 1.3 Open-Book Strategy, Reference Materials, and a 16-Week Study Plan

2 Chapter 2: Organization-Wide Planning and Deployment

2.1 Fundamentals of Six Sigma and Lean Methodologies 2.2 Selecting the Right Methodology: DMAIC, DFSS, and Lean 2.3 Business Systems, Processes, and Stakeholder Relationships 2.4 Strategic Planning and Deployment of Six Sigma Initiatives 2.5 Six Sigma Roles and Responsibilities 2.6 Organizational Barriers and Common Causes of Six Sigma Failure 2.7 Change Management: Stakeholder Analysis, Readiness, and Communication

3 Chapter 3: Organizational Process Management and Measures

3.1 Impact of Six Sigma Projects on Customers, Suppliers, and Stakeholders 3.2 Benchmarking Types and Performance Goal Setting 3.3 Performance Measures: Balanced Scorecard, KPIs, KBIs, OKRs, and Line of Sight 3.4 Leading and Lagging Indicators and Performance Dashboards 3.5 Financial Measures: Revenue Growth, Margin, NPV, ROI, and Cost-Benefit Analysis 3.6 Cost of Poor Quality and Hard versus Soft Savings

4 Chapter 4: Team Management

4.1 Team Types and Constraints 4.2 Team Roles, Responsibilities, and Member Selection 4.3 Team Success Factors and Ground Rules 4.4 Motivational Techniques and Overcoming Demotivators 4.5 Stages of Team Development and Conflict Resolution 4.6 Team Communication Plans 4.7 Team Leadership Models: Direct, Coach, Support, and Delegate 4.8 Group Behaviors, Conflict Resolution, and Meeting Management 4.9 Facilitation Techniques and Team Decision-Making Methods 4.10 Team Training: Needs Assessment, Delivery, and Evaluation

5 Chapter 5: Define Phase

5.1 Customer Identification and Segmentation 5.2 Customer Data Collection: Methods, Validity, and Reliability 5.3 Customer Requirements: CTX, CTQ Trees, and Operational Definitions 5.4 The Kano Model and Quality Function Deployment 5.5 SIPOC and Process Mapping 5.6 Business Case Justification 5.7 The Project Charter and the Problem Statement 5.8 Project Scope and Boundaries 5.9 SMART Goals and Project Performance Measurements 5.10 Project Charter Reviews and Toll-Gate Governance 5.11 Project Management Tools: Gantt Charts, Toll-Gate Reviews, WBS, and RACI 5.12 Analytical Tools Used Throughout the DMAIC Cycle

6 Chapter 6: Measure Phase

6.1 Process Flow Metrics and the Hidden Factory 6.2 Process Analysis Tools and Value Stream Mapping 6.3 Types of Data and Measurement Scales 6.4 Sampling Concepts, Methods, and Sample Size for Estimation 6.5 Data Collection Plans and Common Pitfalls 6.6 Gage R&R for Variable Measurement Systems 6.7 Attribute Agreement Analysis and Audit MSA 6.8 Measurement Systems Across the Organization, and Metrology 6.9 Population Parameters, Sample Statistics, and Valid Statistical Conclusions 6.10 Descriptive Statistics: Central Tendency, Dispersion, and Shape 6.11 Graphical Methods for Exploratory Data Analysis 6.12 Probability Concepts, Common Distributions, and the Central Limit Theorem 6.13 Additional Distributions: Hypergeometric, Exponential, Lognormal, Weibull, and Bivariate 6.14 Process Capability and Performance Indices 6.15 Capability Studies, Attributes Capability, Yield Metrics, and Long-Term Capability

7 Chapter 7: Analyze Phase

7.1 The Correlation Coefficient, Its Confidence Interval, and Causation 7.2 Linear Regression and Residual Analysis 7.3 Multivariate Tools: Factor Analysis, Discriminant Analysis, and MANOVA 7.4 Hypothesis Testing Terminology, Errors, and Single-Sample Tests 7.5 Statistical Versus Practical Significance 7.6 Sample Size for Hypothesis Tests 7.7 Point Estimates, Confidence, Prediction, and Tolerance Intervals 7.8 Tests for Means, Variances, and Proportions 7.9 Analysis of Variance 7.10 Chi-Square Goodness-of-Fit and Tests of Independence 7.11 Types of Risk and Failure Mode and Effects Analysis 7.12 Gap Analysis and Root Cause Analysis 7.13 Waste Analysis: The Seven Classic Wastes and Resource Under-Utilization

8 Chapter 8: Improve Phase

8.1 Design of Experiments: Objectives, Terminology, and Effects 8.2 DOE Design Principles: Randomization, Blocking, Replication, and Resolution 8.3 Planning and Evaluating Designed Experiments 8.4 One-Factor Experiments: Completely Randomized, Randomized Block, and Latin Square Designs 8.5 Full Factorial Experiments and Design Selection 8.6 Two-Level Fractional Factorial Experiments and Confounding 8.7 Response Surface Methodology and Optimization 8.8 Waste Elimination: Pull Systems, Kanban, 5S, and Poka-Yoke 8.9 Cycle-Time Reduction: Continuous Flow, SMED, and Heijunka 8.10 Kaizen, Kaizen Blitz, Theory of Constraints, and OEE 8.11 Implementation Planning, Piloting, and Solution Selection

9 Chapter 9: Control Phase

9.1 SPC Objectives, Variable Selection, and Rational Subgrouping 9.2 Control Charts for Variables Data 9.3 Control Charts for Attributes Data 9.4 Short-Run SPC and Moving Average Charts 9.5 Control Chart Analysis: Common Cause, Special Cause, and Run Rules 9.6 Total Productive Maintenance and Visual Controls 9.7 Measurement System Reanalysis 9.8 Control Plan Development and Process Owner Handoff 9.9 Lessons Learned, Documentation, and Training for Sustainment 9.10 Ongoing Evaluation of the Improved Process

10 Chapter 10: Design for Six Sigma (DFSS)

10.1 DFSS Frameworks: DMADV, DMADOV, and Design Transfer 10.2 Design for X (DFX) 10.3 Robust Design, Parameter Design, and Verification 10.4 Tolerance Design and Statistical Tolerancing

4.7 Team Leadership Models: Direct, Coach, Support, and Delegate

Key Takeaways Explain This Topic AI

The four leadership approaches named by ASQ are direct, coach, support, and delegate.

Style is selected against readiness for a specific task, not against the person in general; the same member may need directing on DOE and delegation on process mapping.

Directing supplies high task structure with low relationship emphasis; delegating supplies low levels of both because the member has competence and confidence.

The most damaging mismatch is delegating to a member who lacks competence, because the failure surfaces only at the toll gate.

Leadership style maps onto the Tuckman stages: direct in forming, coach in storming, support in norming, delegate in performing.

Last updated: August 2026

Four approaches
Situational leadership, in the form the Body of Knowledge uses, defines four approaches along two

dimensions: how much task direction the leader provides, and how much relationship support .

Approach Task direction Relationship support The leader's behaviour Use when

Direct High Low Tells what, how, when; supervises closely Member is willing but unable; the task is new to them

Coach High High Explains reasoning, invites questions, still decides Member is learning and confidence is dipping

Support Low High Facilitates, encourages, shares decision-making Member is able but hesitant or inconsistently motivated

Delegate Low Low Hands over the outcome and the authority; monitors at agreed points Member is able and confident

Readiness is task-specific
The most important idea in the model, and the one the exam tests: style is chosen against readiness
for a task, not against a person's general seniority . A senior process engineer with twenty years'
experience may be at delegate level for process mapping and at direct level for a fractional
factorial design they have never run. Assigning that engineer a DOE with a delegate style because they

are senior produces a confounded experiment discovered at the toll gate.

Readiness has two components:

Competence -- do they have the skill and the knowledge for this task?

Commitment -- do they have the confidence and the motivation for it?

The two do not move together. A member who has just been taught a new tool typically has rising
competence and falling confidence, which is exactly the condition that calls for coaching rather

than delegation.

Low competence High competence
High commitment Direct (enthusiastic beginner) Delegate (self-reliant achiever)
Low commitment Coach (disillusioned learner) Support (capable but cautious)
Mapping to the project lifecycle
A DMAIC project moves the team through the readiness grid, and the Black Belt's style should move

with it. This also maps cleanly onto the Tuckman stages taught in the team development section.

Phase Team state Dominant style What it looks like

Define / forming New team, unclear roles, high willingness Direct Set the charter, assign deliverables, state the process explicitly

Measure / storming Real disagreements about data and scope emerge Coach Explain the reasoning, teach the tools, mediate, still decide

Analyze / norming Team has method and rhythm; capability is real Support Facilitate, challenge conclusions, let the team choose the analysis

Improve-Control / performing Team is self-managing and confident Delegate Assign outcomes, agree checkpoints, step back

A Black Belt who stays in Direct through Analyze creates a dependent team that stops thinking; one who

starts in Delegate at Define gets a charter nobody can defend.

Mismatches and their signatures

Mismatch Signature Correction

Directing a capable, confident member Resentment; disengagement; "why am I even here" Move to delegate; agree checkpoints instead of instructions

Delegating to an incapable member Silence, then a failed deliverable discovered at the toll gate Move to direct or coach; break the task into reviewable steps

Supporting a member who lacks the skill Encouraging conversations, no progress Teach the tool before encouraging its use

Coaching a member who has lost motivation for reasons outside the project Style feels intrusive; no change Address the underlying cause; style will not fix a hygiene problem

Delegating to an incapable member is the most dangerous because it fails silently. Directing a
capable person produces immediate, visible friction that gets corrected. Delegating a gage R&R to
someone who has never run one produces a plausible-looking spreadsheet and a wrong conclusion that

propagates through the whole Measure phase.

Applying it without formal authority
A Black Belt usually has no line authority over the team, which changes how the styles are expressed

but not which one is correct.

Direct becomes explicit written deliverables with acceptance criteria and dates, agreed in the

charter, rather than instruction.

Coach becomes working the first example alongside the member, then reviewing the second.

Support becomes asking the questions that test a conclusion -- "what would we expect to see if

that were true?" -- rather than supplying the answer.

Delegate becomes agreeing the outcome and the checkpoint, then genuinely not attending the work

in between.

Selecting the style: a three-question test

Before assigning any significant piece of work, answer:

Has this person done this specific task successfully before? If no, direct or coach.

Are they confident about doing it now? If no, coach or support.

What is the cost if it is done wrong and not noticed until the toll gate? If high, add a

checkpoint regardless of style.

The third question is the practical safeguard. Even a delegate-level assignment on a high-consequence
analysis -- the measurement system study, the capability baseline, the hypothesis test that drives the
solution -- deserves a scheduled review, not because the member is untrusted but because the cost of

an undetected error is asymmetric.