Describe the Characteristics of an Effective Leader

Team Leading Level 2

Principles of Team Leading

Understand leadership styles in organisations

Describe the characteristics of an effective leader.

Description of characteristics of effective leadership can be:

• vision and inspiring action

• honesty and integrity

• optimism

• communicative

• supportive and facilitative

• being decisive

Describe different leadership styles.

Authoritarian leadership – the leader would be dominant, dictatorial and controlling. An enforcer of rules and procedures.

Democratic Leadership – Decisions are made by consulting the team but still has decision making control and team control. A democratic leader encourages participation and input from the team.

Delegative Leadership (Laissez Faire) – This leader allows team to define their own roles and make their own decisions.

Describe ways in which leaders can motivate their teams.

Description of ways in which leaders can motivate their teams can be:

• praise team members publically

• make work fun

• training for every team member

• give extra responsibility to team members

• show integrity to the team

• set clear goals for the team

• work flexibly and respectfully.

Explain the benefits of effective leadership for organisations

The benefits of effective leadership for an organisation can be:

• increased loyalty from staff and improved productivity

• increased organisation reputation and image

• leadership succession planning

• increased knowledge for staff/better trained and more capable

• increased profit and customer service

Understand team dynamics

Explain the purpose of different types of teams

Problem solving teams – The purpose of this team is to meet regularly and discuss ways of improving quality, efficiency and the work environment. This is done by team members sharing ideas and suggestions on how work methods and procedure and processes can be improved.

Self-managed teams – The purpose of this team is to take over responsibility and take control of the pace of work, determining work allocation etc. This is done by each member of the team evaluating others’ performance within the team. This results in decreasing importance of supervisory roles.

Cross functional teams – The purpose of this team is to allow persons at the same hierarchical level from different parts of an organisation to work together in order to exchange information, develop ideas, solve problems and co-ordinate projects that are complex.

Virtual teams – The purpose of this team is to communicate online despite the distance or proximity between each person in order to achieve a specific goal.

Describe the stages of team development and behaviour.

Stages of team development and behaviour are –

·  Forming – high dependence and direction from team leaders as individual roles are unclear.

·  Storming – team members vie for position and decisions do not come readily. Leaders are challenged from team members. Clarity of purpose of goals/team can be seen, although factions may develop as power struggles take place. Compromises are required to ensure progress.

·  Norming – Consensus and agreement takes part largely across the team who respond well to facilitation of leader. Roles and responsibilities are recognised and fully accepted. Big decisions are made by the team, whereas smaller decisions are made by smaller groups within the team.

·  Performing – Team very clearly knows what it has to do and why, and has a shared vision for achieving the goals; can do this without intervention or interference from the leader. Autonomy within the group is high and any disagreements are resolved within the team in a positive way. Team members help one another and there is positive interpersonal interaction with the leader taking an overseeing role.

·  Transforming – The team performs so well and so effectively that all members believe that they are the most successful team of which they have experience.

Explain the concept of team role theory

Concept of team role theory includes – understanding your role within a team, and being able to develop your own strengths and manage your own weaknesses; your contribution to the team will improve.

Explain how the principle of team role theory is used in team building and leadership

Belbin believed that behaviours and interpersonal skills should be observed within teams as people tend to adopt specific roles within a team, dependent on the situations and working styles. This can help leaders to manage workload and achieve goals, as strengths, weaknesses and specific personalities can be suited to roles more closely. Also helps to build a strong and effective team.

'belbin team roles' within teams
Source: www.businessballs.com
·  The Co-ordinator clarifies group objectives, sets the agenda, establishes priorities, selects problems, sums up and is decisive, but does not dominate discussions.
·  The Shaper gives shape to the team effort, looking for pattern in discussions and practical considerations regarding the feasibility of the project. Can steamroller the team, but gets results.
·  The Plant is the source of original ideas, suggestions and proposals that are usually original and radical.
·  The Monitor-Evaluator contributes a measured and dispassionate analysis and, through objectivity, stops the team committing itself to a misguided task.
·  The Implementer turns decisions and strategies into defined and manageable tasks, sorting out objectives and pursuing them logically.
·  The Resource Investigator goes outside the team to bring in ideas, information and developments to it.
·  They are the team's sales-person, diplomat, liaison officer and explorer.
·  The Team Worker operates against division and disruption in the team, like cement, particularly in times of stress and pressure.
·  The Finisher maintains a permanent sense of urgency with relentless follow-through.
·  All of these roles have value and are missed when not in a team; there are no stars or extras.
·  An individual's team role can be determined by the completion of a Belbin questionnaire. It is not essential that teams comprise eight people each fulfilling one of the roles above, but that people who are aware and capable of carrying out these roles should be present.
In small teams, people can, and do, assume more than one role.
In addition, analysing existing teams and their performance or behaviour, using these team role concepts, can lead to improvements, for example:
·  Under-achievement demands a good coordinator or finisher
·  Conflict requires a team worker or strong coordinator
·  Mediocre performance needs a resource investigator, innovator or shaper
·  Error prone teams need an evaluator
·  Different roles are important in different circumstances, for example:
·  New teams need a strong shaper to get started.
·  Competitive situations demand an innovator with good ideas.
·  In areas of high risk, a good evaluator may be needed.
·  Teams should, therefore, be analysed both in terms of what team roles members can play, and also in relation to what team skills are most needed.
Despite having well defined roles within a team, the interaction between the different personalities of individuals can be a frequent source of friction. However, this can largely be avoided by understanding and valuing people's differences

Explain typical sources of conflict within a team and how these can be managed.

Typical sources of conflict can be: personality clashes, conflict over quality of work, conflict over sharing and delegation and allocation of workload, disagreements over the way work is to be completed.

How to manage these can be: discuss with team members individually and find a compromise over clashes of personality, if quality of work, delegation and allocation of workload or the way work is completed causes conflict then team meetings could be used to discuss the conflicts, causes and how this can be resolved. This way all of the team members are involved and given the chance to express their own views and agree a way forward.

Understand techniques used to manage the work of teams.

Explain what factors you need to take into account when setting targets

Factors: experience and knowledge of the team members, deadlines, each team member’s current workload levels, quality and standard of work delivered and needed,

Describe a range of techniques to monitor the flow of work of a team

Techniques for monitoring flow can be: Gantt charts, fishbone diagrams, flow diagrams/charts, brainstorming meetings, financial planning and reporting, management reporting and team meetings/updates

Describe Techniques to identify and solve problems within a team

This can be about finding the right problem to solve, define the problem, analyse the problem, find solutions, select solutions, implement solutions, evaluate and learn from solutions.

Activity: Can you give examples of identifying and solving problems within your own workplace and team.

Understand the impact of change management within a team

Describe two typical reasons for organisational change.

Two typical reasons can be:

•  technological: new software needed to keep pace with industry

•  legislative: requirements for industry eg health and safety etc

•  people based: reduction in staffing/increase in staffing

•  equipment based: need for new manufacturing equipment or new computer systems to keep pace with competitors and changes in industry

•  financial: increase in revenue/decrease in revenue

•  mergers/takeovers.

Explain the important of accepting change positively

Importance of accepting change positively = enable organisation to see you in a positive light and as accepting, flexible and adaptable, thus opening up new opportunities and promotion prospects either within organisation or within a new organisation. Helps to challenge own comfort zones and offers new experiences and knowledge opportunities.

Explain the potential impact on a team as a result of negative responses to change.

Potential impact of negative responses to change can be: demotivation amongst team, decrease in productivity, higher stress levels, less loyalty and team co-operation from team as a whole or individual members of team, greater risk of targets, objectives and goals being missed, increase in staff turnover.

Explain how to implement change within a team.

How to implement change can include:

Kotter’s 8 steps change process

1. create urgency – develop a sense of urgency around the change needed within the organisation or team
2. form a powerful coalition – convince people that change is necessary; this may involve support from key people within organisation or team
3. create a vision for change – link concepts for change into one coherent vision that the team will be able to grasp
4. communicate the vision – communicate vision frequently, regularly and embed it into everything that the team does
5. remove obstacles – continually check for barriers to change and by removing the barriers help to move the change forward
6. create short term wins – short term targets that are met can motivate teams and help the change to be successful
7. build on the change – build on the success of quick wins and look at what can be improved to make change better
8. anchor the changes in corporate culture – in order to make the change stick it needs to become part of your organisation and team culture by showing in day to day work.

Understand team motivation

Explain the meaning of the term motivation.

Meaning of “motivation” – Internal and external factors that stimulate desire and energy in people to be continually interested and committed to a job, role or subject, or to make an effort to attain a goal.

Desire or willingness to do something; enthusiasm (English Oxford Dictionary definition)

Explain factors that affect the level of motivation of team members –

•  favouritism amongst management and specific team members,

•  unfair workload allocations,

•  regular praise for work completed well,

•  cooperation of team working, communication levels between management and team,

•  expertise and knowledge of each team member.

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Describe the techniques that can be used to motivate team members

give team members meaningful and challenging work, set team members SMART targets for work, give regular feedback that is constructive, supportive and positive as well as developmental, ensure team members can use their strengths when working, enable team members to have choice and input into how the work is achieved.

Explain how having motivated staff affects an organisation

This can include increased productivity, increase in sales and revenue, better working relationships between employees and management, increase in innovation.