Leadership and Development Team

TEAM LEADERSHIP AND DEVELOPMENT

It is with great leadership that great teams are established in organizations. Leaders, if not all, run many organizations. Leadership has become a great virtue in every activity involving human beings. A leader is perceived as a figure of direction, responsibility, accountability, and direction to an organization. Leadership has transformed today with the way in which management and human interactions happen between people. It is with equitable updated leadership that performance is achieved in management today. Thus, it is with leadership that an organization, together with as many segments as it can have, have managed to achieve the set targets and objectives within timeframes established (Lum, 2011). Team management and leadership are a multifaceted happening today. It is hard for workers to experience a situation where they are told everything they are supposed to do (Ferrell et al. 2013). Thus, the kind of leadership and team building being focused on today is a situational leadership, a leadership set to offer the best of chances and opportunities for people to work to their best. It does this using their best skills and expertise, yet falling under a team driven by one goal and objective to be achieved at a time (Ferrell et al. 2013).

Leaders are figures endowed with doing a lot that seems like nothing, for an organization. They are endowed with the tasks of making some of the hardest decisions for the organization. They are supposed to establish standards used to perform, and ensure that they are constantly being met. They approve certain measures of performance and ensure they are assessed, working, and giving the best chances for the organization to achieve its set goals and d objectives. Team building is part of the tasks endowed under the leadership (Joyce & Wilmot, 1985). A leader is seen as a unifying factor in any team. He or she is supposed to work with the rest of the members, adjudicating, allocating, directing, measuring, assessing, and even evaluating the different signs of progress being made by the team members. The leader oversees almost everything that happens within a group. In big organizations, leaders are tasked with the responsibility of ensuring members of the different teams are working towards the similar objective and goal of the organization. Leaders run segments and integrate them together to be with one purpose. In a much-diversified team, a leader integrates different mechanisms of operation that work to ensure equitable management of the tasks and responsibilities to be done by the different members (Joyce & Wilmot, 1985).

Managing teams and building teams in an organization requires the team leaders to carry out some activities that involve procedures to build and manage the teams. Team building requires the leader to have a high sense of understanding the members. The leader has to take time and be competitive in understanding every individual team member. The leader has to understand the members based on their individual capabilities, what excites each member, the states of the egos of the members, and every detail that will enable the leader to manage the team and bring it to one page without having to hurt the individual members. The different characteristics of the members will always come into play (Drucker 2004).

The leader will experience different demands from the different members of the team. The leader has to understand that it is not always something like a warrant that the team leaders will be cooperative in serving the team. As stated by Drucker (2004), team building has been classified as both an art and science. The leader who can understand the basic attributes of the art and the science of leadership is worth the weight of gold. High performance is what is expected of every team leader. The performance of every team leader is measured on grounds of high performance of the individual members of the group and the overall performance of the group as a single segment.

According to Keirsey and Bates (1984), it takes the strength of a skillful and competent leader to build successful and sustainable teams and companies. For instance in the world of sports, great football and soccer managers are known for their iconic powers in putting players together and achieve continued success. Likewise, in the corporate world of business, magical leaders are known when it comes to the management of the individual members of the team, and the entire team. As stated by Keirsey & Bates (1984), leaders are ‘pyramids for success.’ They are the ones who initiate success and maintain the long drive that will end in an optimal success of the organization or the team and the individual members of the team (Lum, 2011). The influence of a leader is sentimental to the growth and success of the team. Great examples of iconic leaders who have managed to lead groups and organizations to greater success are available. Jack Welsh, the former chairperson and the CEO of General Electric is a good example. He was the leader of this organization between 1981 and 2001. According to Keirsey and Bates (1984), this company managed to experience tremendous growth during the tenure of Welsh. During the time of this leader, the company managed to attain a value rise of 4000%. As at 2006, the not worth of Welsh was estimated to be $720 million, something that made him launch the Jack Welsh Management Institute located in 2009 (Duetschet al. 2006).

The art of building teams and companies needs patience and time. Many leaders have never reached the pinnacle of success because they want to achieve and be successful within a short stint. Leadership involves the equitable use of the available time while building both long and short-term goals. Some of the long-term goals could even last for as a long as 20 years before their immediate results are attained. Leadership requires the leader of the team to have a mastery of the people and to have the skill to maneuver hundreds and even thousands of people so that they can be at the right place at the right time and doing the right thing. It is important and is the work of the team leader to understand how the different members of the team think, and how they feel about success. Lussier and Achua, (2013) states that leadership is as the continuous playing of a chess match whereby the player knows that every wrong move can result is massive costs being incurred. In the same way, a leader is always worried and keen to ensure that all the moves being taken have been analyzed, understood, and bound to make the team succeed. The success of every team depends on the input of the team leader. Here are some of the basic ideas ideal for building a successful team (Ferrell et al. 2013).

Being aware of how you operate

Team leaders must always be aware of leadership strategies including the style of leadership and the techniques of leading a team. Knowing these will enable the leader to judge the relevance of the strategies and leadership style based on the optimal requirements and goals of the team. There are times the leader knows what he or she is doing, but the team members are not appreciative of what is to be done (Duetschet al. 2006). In such a case, the awareness of what the leader is doing will initiate an appreciation of what to be done by the members of the team. It is important that the leader knows what is best for the team, and hence involve methodologies that will serve the team to achieve to the best of their capabilities. A team leader who is not aware of what he or she is doing, and the strategies of leadership in place, will just not take the team to achievement. According to Duetsch et al. (2006), one has to be a boss, flexible, and understanding. It is important for the leader to know the specific attributes as characteristic of good leadership. For instance, it is imperative for a leader to know that powerful things are bound to happen when the leader is transparent. The leader should explore and depict attributes like integrity, selflessness, and care. Such attributes will be diffused to the members of the team, and the team will be iconic and pleasant to work with always (Duetschet al. 2006).

Getting to know the rest of the team members

As much as a leader will always want to be responsible for everything that happens within an organization, it is also important to consider having time to hold talks with the rest of the team members to build camaraderie. A good team leader is one who cares for the team members. The team leader needs to meet the different needs of the team members, including the challenges, the normal things of life, the views, mission, vision, and every other thing that when known between two people makes the relationship between them to be professionally good and healthy. A leader ought not to be bossy. He needs to embrace all the team members, show them their essence in the team, their contribution, their perceived weaknesses, and ways of improving being productive. Moreover, an exceptional leader will teach the team members how to be successful and happy in life as a way of improving job satisfaction among the team members (Drucker, 2004).

Through the knowledge of the team members, a leader will be able to get a chance to gather intelligence, differences, and similarities enabling them meet the different needs of the team members. Moreover, a team leader should know that the team members are the real assets of the organization or the success of the team. The services of the team members enable teams to achieve the many successes entwined with the goals and objectives of the organization. With an equitable knowledge of the team members, a team leader will be able to know which buttons to push at any given time amidst challenges or opportunities of success within an organization (Drucker, 2004).

Striving to build the team

Team building is a crucial activity that must be done within every organization. There are several activities that characterize a team building process that a team leader ought to embrace and have them at abreast at all times. Striving to build a team is not something that happens and ends at one point. Leadership is a progressive activity that continues as long as the team is expected to be existing (Lussier & Achua, 2013). Thus, a good team leader should be able to embrace every activity that promotes team spirit, togetherness, cooperation, and an overall aspect of striving for individual and group success within an organization. For instance, a good team leader should be able to create opportunities that will enable the members of the team to bond, interact, exchange ideas and perceptions, and have a life together as workers of a certain organization (Ferrell et al. 2013). Moreover, a good team leader is one who embraces activities that better the lives and delivery of the team members, like engaging them in team training sessions, seminars, schooling, among others, as a way of assisting them achieve their individual and team dreams. Individual achievement of the team members diffuses into the success of the team and of the organization as a whole (Lussier & Achua, 2013).

In conclusion, team building is a necessary activity in every organization deemed to benefit from the teamwork. A leader is an essential figure that drives a team into achieving the set goals or an organization. Many teams and organizations have failed because of the failure of the leadership of the different teams within these organizations. The need for success is affixed like the leadership and the strength of the teams in organizations. Building a good team requires the contribution of every team member with the right influence by the team leader (Joyce & Wilmot, 1985). Leadership is a requisite for an equitable team. Thus, as leaders or people aspire to have successful organizations, they should begin with establishing equitable leadership that will merit the teams available and hence make them achieve to the best of their capabilities. It should be at the back of the mind of every leader that leading a team starts with them and ends with them. The success of the team is a direct factor in the success of the leadership style that has been incorporated by the team leader (Joyce & Wilmot, 1985).

References

Drucker, P. (2004). The Effective Executive. Harper Business

Lussier, K. & Achua C. (2013). Leadership: Theory, Application, & Skill Development 5e. Southwestern Cengage Learning.

Duetsch, M., Coleman, P. T., Marcus, E. C. (2006). The Handbook of Conflict Resolution, 2nd Ed. “Theory and Practice,” Jossey-Bass, New York.

Ferrell, O.C., Fraedrich, J., Ferrell, L., (2013). Business Ethics, Ethical Decision Making and Cases, Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning, 10th Edition

Joyce, H & Wilmot, W. (1985). Interpersonal Conflict 8th ed. Styles and Tactics 5. (Dubuque, Iowa: Wm. C. Brown Publishers).

Keirsey, D. & Bates, M. (1984). Please Understand Me Character & Temperament Types. Harper Business.

Lum, G. (2011). The Negotiation Field book: Simple Strategies to Help You Negotiate Everything. New York: McGraw-Hill Professional