Introduction to Leading a Team - Essay Example

Introduction to Leading a Team Roll No: Teacher: 24th February Introduction to Leading a Team Leadership Skills in Relation to Team The value of leadership cannot be negated in an organizational setup. Leaders usually are in charge of specific teams that are under their control. For leading a team, leaders are required to have some skills that enable them to exercise their power in a positive manner. An effective leader is one who employs his/her power to motivate, encourage and convince people to do a certain tasks (Parry and Hansen 2007). Leaders who accommodate their co-workers in their performance of tasks by supporting them in development and gaining expertise are considered more effectual than those who only make use of power to make jobs done. Leaders exercise their power in making final decisions and also in implementing rules and regulations (Berry and Cartwright 2000).The skills that are essential in a leader in order to lead a team are decisiveness, motivational capability, communication, management, goal orientation, persuasiveness and optimism. Motivation is an essential trait of leadership. Leaders are never successful without having the skill of motivation. The leader should be self-motivated and should encourage his co-workers to perform better. Along with motivation, leaders should be able to persuade people to work in a set direction. For persuading team members, leaders must have an exemplary personality and should prove themselves as an example for their team members. For convincing team members to work in a certain direction, leaders must be communicative. They are required to communicate with their team members in order to gather ideas and decide accordingly. Leaders should make decisions after listening to their team members. The final decision should be of the leader’s. The leader should be decisive and should not rely wholly on his team members in order to come to a conclusion. Every team member should be given a chance to share his views concerning an issue or problem but the responsibility of decision-making rests on the shoulders of the leader. Leaders are required to be optimistic and goal oriented. The positivity of leaders inspires the team members to come up with positive results concerning assigned tasks. The leaders keep goals for themselves and their team members and make sure that their set goals are met. Successful leaders are those who are able to meet their set goals. Leaders are asked to follow 5 P’s to come up as effective and efficient leaders. They are: “Pay attention to what’s important”, “Praise what you want to continue”, “Punish what you want to stop”, “Pay for the results you want” and “Promote the people who give those results” (Parry and Hansen 2007). Therefore, it can be said that leaders are people who have the foremost responsibility to manage and encourage the working capability of the workers. Leadership Concepts and Models and Leader’s Role There are eleven kinds of leadership styles, as leaders are not all alike. They differ from one another on the basis of their opted strategies for leading people. There are bureaucratic leaders who have well thought-out and considered tasks, these kinds of leaders negate the innovatory ideas as they are stick to some set of rules and principles and also make sure that the principles and laws are not overruled (McGovern, et. al 2008). Another kind of leadership style is charismatic leadership in which, the leaders are mostly interested in inculcating energy and fervour in the employees due to which, they take deep interest in a task. Autocratic leadership is a form of leadership in which, the leader has the authority to exercise all his power in making and implementing decisions. This kind of leader makes sure that the employees accept his all kinds of commands (Parry and Hansen 2007). Democratic leader is a leader that takes support of one or more workers in making and implementing decisions. Employees are able to gain confidence in this kind of leadership style (Parry and Hansen 2007). The democratic leader makes his final decisions but involves the employees’ suggestions in decision-making process. Laissez-faire leadership is a kind of leadership in which, the leader facilitates his/her employees to make decisions (McGovern, et. al 2008). The accountability of decision-making is not put on employees but on the leader. This leadership style is best workable when the leader has a strong confidence on his/her employees. People-oriented leader is a leader that accommodates his/her employees or subordinates in terms of expertise and skill required for certain tasks, he/she adds to the usefulness and efficacy of the workers under him/her by helping them in learning and working (McGovern, et. al 2008). Task-oriented leader is a leader that is mainly devoted to the task that he/she has assigned to his/her employees (Parry and Hansen 2007). This kind of leadership is somehow similar to autocratic style of leadership, as the leader is not concerned about the development of his/her team members or subordinates, he/she just want the work done on due time. Servant leader is a kind of leader that is somehow similar to democratic leader. This leader accommodates his/her team co-workers with their needful in terms of output. The servant leader is attached to his/her co-workers (McGovern, et. al 2008). Transaction leader is a leader who keeps the right to recompense or penalize his/her subordinates for their performance (Parry and Hansen 2007). This type of leadership is goal oriented and leader wants his/her subordinates to come up with expected results. Transformation leadership is a kind of leadership in which, the leader presents himself as a source of inspiration for effectual task performance. This kind of leader is concerned about the vision of the company or organization and facilitates the workers to move in the direction of the vision of the workplace (McGovern, et. al 2008). Environmental leadership is also a form of leadership style in which, the leader is concerned to develop and establish a workplace environment that is supportive for the workers to perform their respective tasks. An environmental leader establishes an organization culture (Parry and Hansen 2007). Motivational Factors Many motivational factors can be adopted by leaders to motivate their team members in order to perform better. The leaders are required to provide opportunities to all team members to show their capabilities for any respective task (McGovern, et. al 2008). Giving opportunity to perform is a motivational factor and plays a crucial role in driving them to give some output. The team members should be appreciated and encouraged for their tasks so that they can come up with better results in the future (Silver and Bufiano 1996). Appreciation and encouragement are necessary for employee motivation. There can be certain rewards for team members who have excelled. This can be a motivating factor for other team members to perform. Team members of a team not only require rewards but also recognition for their performed tasks (Parry and Hansen 2007). The leaders should praise the team members and should help them in any promotions that they deserve in order to give the team members a sense of trust in the leadership. Components of an Effective Team and Its Operation For an effective team, the team members are required to have professional skills for specific performances. Every member of an effective team should have the required professional skills for a job, which is assigned to him (Silver and Bufiano 1996). For a team related to business working, the team members of the team should have skills such as understanding of the work environment, business demands and the job needs. Every team member should be aware of the business setting, job specifications and should be target oriented (Devine, et. al 1999). Such members make a team effective. Effective team also forms when people related to the team have interpersonal skills (Silver and Bufiano 1996). Every team member should identify the skills of other members and should be aware about his own working that can be supported by other members of the team. In an effective team, the team members prove themselves as a support for other members and each member is aware of the skills of other person. Balanced diversity and time frame are other characteristics that the team members should have to make the team effective. Each member of the team should be able to offer diverse ideas in case of need (Devine, et. al 1999). For performing any activity, diverse ideas play an effective role. The team members that have diverse skills are much more suitable to form an effective team. Time frame is a very crucial factor and all the team members should take care of the time allocated for a task to make the team effective. Actions to Increase or Maintain Motivation of Team Members First, the leader should set a goal for himself before starting a communication procedure with the group or team members. He should be aware of the situation and problem that needs resolution. After setting a goal and having full awareness of the problem or situation, the leader should set his message in an understandable manner that is easy to understand but before that he should allow the group or team members to express their own views related to the situation and for that purpose, he should listen attentively to the expressed views of other group members. There should be group meetings for discussion of procedures and the leader should listen to group and team members and should decide after obtainment of all views from the group members. The last decision is of the leader so, he should be fully aware of the multiple paths that can be there for the resolution of a problem. The attitude of the leader should be encouraging and motivating so that the workers can work actively and effectively. The communication procedure should be continuous and growing, so that the whole process of effective leadership is quite clear. References Berry, A.J. and Cartwright, S 2000, Leadership: a critical construction, Leadership and Organization Development Journal 21 (7), 342-349. Devine, D. J., Clayton, L. D., Philips, J. L., Dunford, B. B and Melner, S. B 1999, ‘Teams in Organizations: Prevalence, Characteristics, and Effectiveness’, Small Group Research, 30, 678 – 711. McGovern, George S., Donald C. Simmons, Jr. and Gaken, Daniel 2008, Leadership and Service: An Introduction, Kendall/Hunt Publishing, New York. Parry, K. W. and Hansen, H 2007, The Organizational Story as Leadership, Leadership 3(3): 281 - 300. Silver, W. S. and Bufiano, K. M 1996, The impact of group efficacy and group goals on group task performance. Small Group Research, 27, 55 – 72. Read More