What is leadership?
Leadership is an art of managing and developing strategies to be followed in an organization: the success of an organization depends on the quality of leaders; managerial decisions are the driving force of an organization. Leaders have the role of shaping and guiding an organization to its path to success. The structure of well-organized organization has leadership at different levels, from the chief executive officer who can be seen as the entire organizational leader to micro teams leaders.
At all these levels, leaders need to make decisions that are responsive to the situation that the organization is going through. Their decisions must be timely and effective. Other than making business decisions, leaders have the task of managing their team members to the attainment of the set team goals and objectives. The attainment of team goals leads to the attainment of organizational goals and objectives; leadership is imperative for making a group into an orchestrate team (Parker, 2009).
Mentoring
One of the major roles of a manager is to mentor and develop human resources in his organization; they need to understand the potential that their company has and devise mechanisms to develop and tap intellectualism in the human resources. Every human resource has some potential in him that need to be developed, natured and exploited; it is the work of leaders to undertake these roles. Talents within a team need to be managed effectively to facilitate innovation and invention; this is how a team leader can have orchestrate robust team.
Leadership traits
Although different teams need different management approaches, there are some common characteristics that team managers should posses. Great team leaders understand and appreciate that the attainment of a team’s goals is pegged on the human resources a d their productivity; they thus are willing to empower and create good working environments such that the team can attain its set goals and objectives.
Team members, as a pre-requisite before individual contribution, should feel appreciated and welcomed by the group environment that they are working in, the manager thus has the role of creating a conducive environment for team members to feel at motivated make decisions.
Despite that team leaders are the controlling point, they need to have the passion and the will to conduct their businesses effectively. They should understand that one of the strongest attribute of leader is the ability to serve other. Team leaders should have the heart and will to serve other; to be an effective server, then one need to have perfect communication and listening skills strengthened by wisdom, knowledge and intelligence.
Team members see the leaders as their role model and they envy to be like him in one way or another: they are more willing to work and be loyal to leader who is enthusiastic, energetic, and inspirational and one who leads by an example. Though the above attributes can be argued to be inborn traits, a manager can develop them alongside his career.
Different issues emerge in an organization: they need to have someone who will own up the issues so as the healing process can start. Managers should assume this role: when challenges occur or they are under pressure, they should be composed enough to handle the situation and pioneer the process to change management of the entire situation. They should be honest admitting their mistakes and at the same time, they should be bold enough to say when they are not able to do something.
Managers vs. Leaders
The difference between leaders and managers is minimal however, it appears on how they handle situations; mangers manage tasks, thus he offers instructions and requires them handled whereas leaders manage people, this means that he involves people in business decisions.
One of the major functions of a leader is to motivate his team; however, we are all motivated differently. It is only by understandings of his team members that he can effectively motivate them. It is important to note that a good leader is a good manager, but it is not always the case that a good manager is a good leader.
What differentiates a leader and a manager is that a leader understands his team members, one at a time and thus blends them for the best result; the success of a team is vested on how well the strengths and weaknesses of the team member are combined. There are different styles of leadership and a leader should be sharp enough to know the best style to adopt in different situations (Margerison, 2002).
What is Teamwork?
Teamwork in an organization refers to a joint action of human resources in an organization with the aim of attaining certain common goal. When a company has embraced the spirit of teamwork, every employee works to the benefit of the entire organization and finds his task important in the attainment of corporate goals and objectives. Corporate missions and vision are attained if a company adapts to the spirit of teamwork.
What makes an Effective Team?
The definition of team is wide and covers different aspects; however, a team can be defined as a group of people with a common objective to meet within a certain period work. They range from small teams of two people to an entire organization can be referred to as a team.
When working in team, team members work for the general good of the organization and the team; organizations are run through different teams that are made to meet certain corporate objectives. To effectively manage and attain results, team manager’s roles are required; a team manager is mandated with the task of coordinating and ensuring that things are flowing within a team; he is involved in daily activities of the team but is the reference point in the team.
Their major roles can be classified as technical, functional, problem solving and human resourcing. An effective team leader should posses strong leadership skills as well as be expert communicator and listener. The performance of teams is influenced by the efficiency and the capability that its management has.
Building a Team
Teams are made from available human resources and sourcing for external human resources. When developing a team, the initial point is defining the task, then interpolating the resources that a company has. The available internal resources should be scrutinized and enforced by other experts if they do not have the capacity.
The task that need to be accomplished should be analyzed, objective and goals set; with the task understanding and understanding the potential at hand, then managers blend the resources effectively to the benefit of the task. Different personalities, expertise, age and experiences should be combined and team leader elected.
Benefits of team work
When a company adopts the policy of teamwork, then corporate goals and objectives are attained effectively; there is a higher likelihood that the organization will fulfill its corporate goals and objectives. With team spirit, employees are highly motivated and willing to use their experience and intellectualism for the benefit of the organization.
Such firms enjoy staffs invention and innovation, as staffs are willing to go an extra mile for the benefit of the company. When people are working as a team, they develop efficient routes of doing business, which is to the benefit of a firm, the firms enjoy a low operating cost.
Essential features of a team
An effectively managed team has some basic features; these features are:
- They have a self-drive towards the attainment if the team’s goals; when every member is making a decision, he/she does so with the welfare of the team at the back of the decision.
- Team members are highly motivated and are willing to improve other member’s intellectual knowledge.
- They have a common drive/objective/goal and work to the attainment of the goals in the most effective manner
- They are loyal to the group and have concern for each other social well being
There is team spirit supported by good communication among them; members respect their team leader, on the other hand, team leader involve members in decision-making (Lewis, 2004)
Team problem
When managing teams, there are problems that arise from time to time; such problems may be classified as personal problems, institutional and leadership problems. People have different personalities, thus they may have different standpoints and views on a certain issue, when this happens they may have conflicts amongst themselves. The situation may be even worse when one of the party’s standpoints is supported by the larger team, this bleeds unhealthy competition within a team.
The fulfillment of a team’s objective is dependent with the resources available, sometimes an organization may face resources shortage hampering the success of a team, at the end of the day, the team may be forced to worker extra hard to fulfill the goals initially set. This demand may create problems within a team.
Communication is one of the major problems of teams; when a team fail to have an effective communication strategy, then it is likely to fall into problems. Communication among the team-members and the team leader or top management should be effective and involving. Team leaders have the role of establishing any chance of problem and handle the situation before the problem erupts (Crother-Laurin, 2006).
Conclusion
Team leaders have the role of developing orchestrate teams from groups in an organization; their decisions and the way they exercise their leadership power determines the success of the team. One major attribute that leads to success of a team is effective communication method; team leaders have the role of developing an effective communication strategy. When a company has effective team’s chances of attainment of the corporate goals are high. An orchestrate team has a high team spirit and adopts the policy of teamwork.
References
Crother-Laurin, C. ,2006. Effective Teams: A Symptom of Healthy Leadership. The Journal for Quality and Participation, 29(3), p. 4.
Lewis, P. ,2004. Team-Based Project Management. Washington: Beard Books.
Margerison, C., 2002. Team leadership. Gale: Cengage Learning.
Parker, G. ,2009.Team Leadership: 20 Proven Tools for Success. New Jersey: Human Resource Development Press.