Leadership & Team Building in the Project Environment Essay

The levels of motivation within a team can be affected both positively and negatively in a variety of different ways.

Leadership is that process in which one person sets the purpose or direction for one or more other persons and gets them to move along together with him or her and with each other in that direction with competence and full commitment (Elliott, 2009). Leadership is supposed to guide people to attain a particular set vision. Motivation is fundamental in the process of leadership as if there is no motivation there will be laxity among the people involved. It is also a critical scenario for leadership to have followers; this will infer a relationship between leaders and followers (Frank, 2003).

Teamwork cannot be demanded. Everyone involved must discuss and understand what the goal is and what is required of them. Teams should have traits such as goals and objectives, empowerment, trust, authentic participation, innovation, creativity, risk taking and leadership. (Temme and Katzel, 1995)

Leadership is a facet of management. It is just one of the many assets a successful manager must possess. The main aim of a manager is to maximize the output of the organization through administrative implementation. To achieve this managers must undertake the four functions of management: planning, organization, leading and controlling. In some cases leadership is just one important component of the leading function. Predpall (1994) said, "Leaders must let vision, strategies, goals, and values be the guide-post for action and behavior rather than attempting to control others". In some circumstances, leadership is not required. For example, self-motivated groups may not require a single leader and may find leaders dominating. The fact that a leader is not always required proves that leadership is just an asset and is not essential.

Commitment- self-knowledge and an ability to trust others are the building blocks of commitment. Commitment to a joined set of goals and values provides direction and motivation for individuals members.

It is essential to have teamwork within a company. Companies who have embraced the concept of teamwork have reported increased performance in work production, problem solving and it has stimulated new growth. This group project approach has improved employee morale and increased input when managed correctly. The benefits of teamwork can make a positive effect in the company that incorporates this type of teamwork approach.

Leadership will help people to develop the ability to work as a team or group to achieve the common goals. It helps people to cultivate the good qualities to become a excellent leader.

I think that leadership is important because if nobody was a leader the nothing would get done. Having leadership helps set a goal and make sure that the goal gets meant. Leaders help inspire people to achieve many goals that have been set. Leaders also have to help manage the task or event wanting to get achieved so that it can work smoothly.

The use of teams in a workplace enhances employee communications. Team work requires some type of collective action that is grounded in words and actions. (University of Phoenix, Apollo Library, 2007). In effective teams, there is a sharing of information and ideas that improves communication within a team and between the team and the company for which they are employed. (University of Phoenix, 2007). In the Effective Team Work Starts with Good Communication article by Adkins, B, (2005), it is stated that "there is a checklist that can be used to provide ideas for communication within your team or this checklist can be used as springboard for developing your own team

Realizing that a group can become a high performance team is important. Accomplishing this goal is invaluable, advantageous and profitable. Once able to operate from a group to the high performing team is a great step into preparation into the big business world. Leaders and members must also realize not only how to accomplish this but that some problems will and can arise from different demographic characteristics and cultural diversity. That is if one is in such a group, which the probability would be quite high.

Motivation is the key to why team players try so viciously. A team player motivates the people around him/her by always having a positive attitude. Being recognized as a leader, he/she must set forth a good example. There are two ways a team player can show motivation. They are always striving for mission accomplishment and constantly wanting the team to be successful. A team player strives for mission accomplishment by showing no concern for his/her own individual needs. This will make the team want to work together as one until a particular task is accomplished. As a result, the team will be successful and show great pride and dignity in whatever missions that may arise in the future. Therefore, a team that achieves mission accomplishment and team success will produce many team players where everyone is a leader.

The area of team leadership attracts a lot of attention in the modern world because of the need to assemble and deploy diverse teams for the completion of projects. The future of many corporations relies more and more on the kind of team leadership they have for their projects. This paper explores a number of facets that constitute effective team leadership.

Teamwork is the backbone of effective communication and the crucial cog that keeps the wheel of successful project management turning. The role of teamwork in enhancing problem solving skills, cohesion, learning, and productivity can no longer be ignored. Proper teamwork plays an integral role in promoting the effective implementation and fulfillment of shared goals in a team project in a manner that is better and quicker. Team work also provides a solid platform on which team members can take on different responsibilities and contribute in ways that together makes the entire team an effective unit.

Leadership is an approach for a leader to guide, motivate, supervise, manage, and influence others in different situation to reach a goal. According to the Pettinger (2007), the leadership can be explained in several situations. First, the leaders have the responsible to provide vision and direction to the followers. Second, the leaders shall energise and motivate the followers. Third, the leaders shall set and enforce absolute standards of behaviour, attitude, presentation and performance.

A further disadvantage of teamwork may be that the team has existed too long and inspiration of new ideas has expired. This idea is discussed in Fincham and Rhodes (2005). There is a risk of team members becoming too friendly with each other and that friendships and professional relationships may be difficult to distinguish. If this occurs, team work is affected as it may be easy for team members to become distracted by personal issues rather than focussing on the task set. In this way team work may become less effective. It is important that team members remain professional when working in