According to Fiedler's Contingency Theory, relationship-oriented leaders perform best when the situation for leaders is neither extremely favourable nor extremely unfavourable.That is, they do best in situations of medium favourableness.

Fiedler's Contingency Theory posits that the effectiveness of a leader is contingent on the match between the leader's style and the favorability of the leadership situation. Relationship-oriented leaders indeed perform best in situations of medium favorableness, where their focus on interpersonal relationships helps them navigate neither highly favorable nor highly unfavorable circumstances effectively.