Overview of the Main Concepts of Team Leadership
According to Northouse (2012), team leadership has become one of the most popular theories of leadership research. A team refers to a group of employees within an organization, who are interdependent of each, and share a common goal which can only be realized through coordination of their activities. Actually, this can be attributed to the fact that team members typically have dissimilar and unique roles that represent critical contributions to collective action. It goes without mentioning that a team can either be virtual or non-virtual (Tiffan, 2014).
A team leader refers to an employee who facilitates the activities of a team, for instance, by working collaboratively with them in a
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The model simplifies the complex nature of team leadership by aiding leadership problem solving by offering a mental map for helping team leaders.
Northouse (2012) and Kouzes and Posner (2012) emphasize the fact that team leaders can utilize the team leadership model to make decisions that are based on the current nature of the team, for instance, based on collective performance outcomes and taking action if need be by utilizing the most appropriate tools that strengthen the team. Kouzes and Posner (2012) outline some of the most effective tools, such as effective communication, self-determination, self-confidence, provision of choices, accountability, job structure, competence and confidence, in addition to knowledge of quality tools. For this reason, Northouse (2012) and Kouzes and Posner (2012) relate to team dynamics and cohesiveness because they offer the best team leadership model, and the tools required for the achievement of team excellence, respectively.
The Importance of Sharing the Vision and Getting the Team Involved An effective team leader must have a wide variety traits and characteristics that foster collective team participation, and the most important one is that of sharing the vision and getting the team members involved. Basically, there are several benefits accrued to the act of sharing vision regarding to the strategic intent of a company as well as that of the team. First, it facilitates the
Working closely together towards achieving the common goals, the team has developed a certain degree of trust and cohesion. Although, cohesiveness can be seen as an obstacle to progress (CIPP, Unit 1) it is still one of the key characteristics of the team's high performance. It helps to achieve a greater focus on the process and commitment to the decision-making process. It became clearly visible once the team faced a change. The good level of cohesion and trust let the team members openly share their concerns, consider each other's feelings and opinions and come to decisions of how to handle the change in the most effective
The features of effective team performance is set up through positive leadership, this is something which is developed and nurtured. An effective team will work together, be focused and all the time supporting each other along the way to achieve and reach goals. For a team to be effective, each team member needs to be clear on their roles and responsibilities relating to their job. Team performance will be more effective if there is respect for the leader/manager and an understanding towards their job role and responsibility. The leader/manager should also be aware of the skills or weakness within the team and be able to provide support were necessary and also utilise their strengths. Training and support will enable staff to improve
In team leadership, the Hill Model is stated by Northouse (2016) as “to simplify and clarify the complex nature of team leadership and to aid leadership decision making for team leaders and members” (p. 366). This model has several key concepts and practices that this paper will look at and exploit the aspect of influence and processes that people in a groups or teams interact and the force within the group acting to unit all the members or leadership functions. Whether traditional leadership of teams or groups with a formal leader or a self-directed group with no specific leader all benefit from an shared leadership with the attention and focus of all members on the groups process dynamics. This is more so the case in virtual teams benefiting from shared leadership. Team-based structures in organizations have several positive characteristics and are capable of increasing production, allocation and use of resources, effective on making decisions and problem solving, increased quality and services as well as, fluent innovation and creativity, as listed by Parker (as cited in Northhouse, 2016, p. 364).
Agreement and consensus is largely formed among the team, who respond well to facilitation by leader. Roles and responsibilities are clear and accepted. Big decisions are made by group agreement. Smaller decisions may be delegated to individuals or small teams within group. Commitment and unity is strong. The team may engage in fun and social activities. The team discusses and develops its processes and working style. There is general respect for the leader and some of leadership is more shared by the team. The leader facilitates and enables.
Leadership by the team leader, who has responsibility for the team, is critical for team
The Groups Dynamics of a team can be effected if the category of leadership is not in place. Leadership means “the activity of leading a group of people or an organization or the ability to do this.” In order to be a good leader you must have a strong value that you can give to your team. A good leader must have strong values to pass on to their team. At the top of the teams hierarchy is a leader, so that the leader can put input towards everything the team does, so that the team would be successful because the leader controls and guides the team.
The selection of a team leader is of key decision that can have a great impact on the overall success of a team. A good team leader should be able to build and maintain team morale, instilling confidence and trusting in other team members allowing them to work together to achieve the teams goals (Llopis, 2014). The ability to understand the stages of a team and provide the guidance to all members is essential. The stages of forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning (Abudi, 2010) are a helpful framework for recognizing patterns during team conversations and the understanding that team development may not always be linear. The aptitude to walk the team through these stages and ensuring they understand the development of the team and why things are happening in certain ways is an important part of the self evaluation process. Having ways to identify when certain behavioral patterns are occurring and a way to then cause changes to the team behavior can help the team maximize its productivity.
This fable was a great way to promote the importance of a team and its functions. This book had many highlights throughout the context and I would highly recommend it to leaders of a corporation or of that of a team like setting. This book offered many great implications of the model and how to use it in many diverse settings when trying to build and manage successful teams.
Teamwork is a vital aspect of the public and community services. These services consist of groups of people working together to achieve a mutual goal/aim. Teamwork is a key element for having a successful and efficient team. The way a team works together influences how successful they are and how efficient and effective they can be in achieving their common goals/aims. This essay will evaluate various teamwork theories, that explain the stages of forming a group and how it develops into a well established team. Examples of these theories include: Tuckman's theory of team development, Belbin's team roles, conflict theory, pluralism, trait theory and social learning theory. This essay will consider Tuckman's theory of team development, trait
Team Leadership is the theory/model I would like to study further. Leadership is a journey taken together by leaders and followers to a common destination. Great leaders establish a plan, a map to help them organize and ensure they have an appropriate and effective team in place, clearly communicate the plan to and lead their followers to the destination. To lead the mission to a fruitful conclusion, a leader must establish priorities and utilize the talents, creativity, resources, and energy of his followers, generally imperfect individuals, and empower them to rise to and occasionally beyond their previously assumed potential. Only by empowering followers can a leader advance his progress. When people participate in the decision process
Team Leader is celebrity who provides desire, instructions, and instruction to a total of individuals, who cut back furthermore be supported as a twosome, for the motive of achieving a unassailable goal.
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.
A team leader’s role is to instruct a group of people, providing directions and guidance to the team in order to ensure the completion of tasks. A good team leader will motivate and inspire his team, solving problems and empowering others to do the same. A team leader should lead by example and be able to ensure the group work well together in order to promote team spirit. They should ensure that each member of the team receives the correct training in order to perform their duties. Each individual in the team brings their own skills and specialisms to the group. A good team
The Hill Model for Team Leadership theory is broken down into subdivisions: leadership decisions, internal leadership actions (task and relational), external leadership actions (environmental), and team effectiveness (Northouse, 2016,). One key concept is development (team maintenance). Effective leader uses team maintenance to build team effectiveness, internally. For instance, creating team effectiveness includes ?foresting collaborating and building commitment and esprit de corps? (Northouse, 2016, p.378). Foresting collaboration is when a team has creative ideas, opinions, and cooperation.
Despite the advantages associated with a shared leadership approach, some disadvantages also exist. One disadvantage originates from individual interpretations of teamwork (Baghai & Quigley, 2012). In other words, not all people in a work environment view working together the same, posing a leadership challenge to clearly delineate the organization’s concept of team. Other disadvantages arise when workers chose to bypass or overlook some team members, or when an individual lacks the confidence to exhibit leadership skills resulting in organizational loss of leadership potential (Pearce, Wassenaar, & Manz, 2014).