Professionalism in the Office - Essay Example

Team building and vision are the core of leadership. Leadership is all about building peak performing teams, teams focused on accomplishing goals. Leaders are able to effectively communicate and motivate the team to perform the set goals. Professionalism provides the tools needed to develop essential skills required for personal and team success. Focusing on building skills such as professionalism, effective communication, time management and organization, helps leaders develop a productive team ready to provide a positive contribution to the success of the organization (Vital Learning, N.D.).

Many organizations struggle, not from lack of advanced information -- rather, they never really master these basics. One of the responsibilities of a leader is to motivate the team to all work together towards the common goal. This can be a daunting challenge. So often the team is comprised of very diverse members, each with their own strengths, weaknesses, and work styles. The team dynamics are also often complicated by internal disagreements and personal conflicts. The leader, not only has worked with this group of people but also needs to achieve the results expected by their superiors.

Leaders can benefit by being able to identify the types of personality characteristics of team members. By understanding the basic personality types, the leader can use the individual strengths of members for the good of the team, as well as assign tasks that individual team members naturally excel in. A leader can also learn to communicate in a way that is motivating, by taking into account the needs, values and working preferences of different team members (PointShop.com, 2006). Besides, regular positive and negative feedback from the team members will also help in improving and understanding the needs of the team.

For many individuals, everyday life activities, including work-related activities, are impaired due to a lack of, or untrained organizational skills. What can be done to develop or improve organizational skills at work? Organizational skills can help deal with a busy work environment, provide workplace structure, and create order in one's life. For most people procrastinating to some degree is common - but some are so chronically affected by procrastination that it disrupts their careers and thwarts even their best efforts.

The key to controlling and ultimately combating this destructive habit is to understand how and why it happens and to take a few simple steps to better manage time and outcomes. Whatever the reason behind procrastination, it must be recognized, dealt with and controlled before anyone misses opportunities or their career is derailed. Part of the solution is to develop good organizational and personal effectiveness habits. This helps to establish the right priorities, and manage time in such a way to make the most of the opportunities.

To do this, it is imperative to understand the difference between urgency and importance. With proper planning and some self-discipline, many urgent matters disappear altogether or, when they do surface, planning and discipline make them less urgent and easier to deal with (mindtools.com, 2006). Finally, it can be said that leadership is all about identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the team members. It is essential to motivate the team to work on their weaknesses and get over them at the earliest. The basic foundation of leadership lies in working with the team and helping the team achieve more through proper time management, organizational skills and good communication.