An Overview of the Concepts and Practices
An extensive research on the various aspects of leadership reveals a number of concepts and practices that organizational members have to conceptualize in order to realize the desired goals and objectives. Team leadership model is one of the terms often used to suggest one of the ways through which a manager could lead his or her team in achieving the goals.
Based on the model, the leader is simply expected to monitor the performance of the team before taking the most appropriate action to ensure that effectiveness is enhanced. While monitoring and evaluation has never been an easy task, the leader has to develop various strategies that will help him or her understand the functionality of the team.
On the other hand, mental model suggests that the manager has to understand the thought process of each team member and try to compare it with what is expected in the real world. In this regard, it is critical to incorporate the views of each person in designing a policy that will affect the team. Through the model, it is noted that each person has a unique way dealing with an issue meaning giving members of the group an opportunity to contribute their ideas results in enhanced decisions as opposed to coming with unilateral decisions that are insensitive to the beliefs, values, and expectations of the majority.
Action mediation is concept suggesting that group members should employ various courses of action before formulating the final decision. Task leadership function is a practice that entails job supervision, policy formulation, problem solving, adopting changes, making plans, and ensuring that goals are achieved. Additionally, maintenance function is another practice that includes development of positive climate, solving problems at the interpersonal levels, developing strategies that satisfy the needs of all members, and encouraging cohesion.
A virtual team is made up of persons who come together to work without thinking about national borders, time, and space to achieve a collective objective using technology. Team development means encouraging members to coexist in a culturally diverse environment since it enables effectiveness. A collaborative environment is the one that allows members to solve their problems and listen to the pleas of each other.
Northouse (2012) presents a leadership model that is of great significance when it comes to diagnosing problems in various groups and designing appropriate courses of actions. First, it is noted that a leader has to possess a stable mind to help in determining whether an action has to be taken or the situation is to be monitored for some time. Secondly, the leader has to determine whether the problem is internal or external since a decision cannon be formulated without understanding those affected. The third layer entails deciding whether the type of intervention to be taken is task related, relational, or environmental.
Once a leader undertakes the three steps accurately, chances are high that the team will perform superbly. Through the model, groups have a great opportunity to resolve the conflicts that bring them down hence enabling them to focus on goal attainment. The theory plays a role in building commitment and loyalty among members of the team, which leads to conflict management. In their analysis, Kouzes and Posner (2012) are of the view that enhancing self-determination and developing competence, as well as confidence plays a role in strengthening the performance of team members.
In fact, building self-confidence is the first step towards goal attainment since it enables a team member to work hard. Studies show that many teams have failed to realize their objectives mainly because of low self-esteem from members given the fact that leaders tend to dominate the process of decision-making. Enhancing self-determination means allowing a team member to choose what is right without much influence from the leader. Through this practice, team members are likely to develop competence in the sense that they accumulate knowledge over time.
Importance of Sharing the Vision
Each organization is expected to identify and communicate a clear vision statement since it plays a critical role towards goal attainment. Therefore, business leaders are required to understand the elements of visioning, as well as the way in which they are to be communicated to teams and other stakeholders. In case members share a common vision, chances are high that an organization will benefit since it will have a clearly defined value meaning that the behavior of employees will be easily controlled.
Based on this, a vision statement helps in enhancing productivity and efficiency in the organization. Studies show that visioning is the first step towards strategic planning meaning that setting of common goals is facilitated (Leeuwen, Winkel, & Dijkstra, 2007). Without a vision statement, an employee would not be motivated to perform his or her expected duty implying that setting a vision helps in empowering workers. In this regard, visions act as guiding principles towards ideal planning.
With visions, people’s work are considered meaningful since they mobile workers to swing into action, as well as helping them to make wise decisions when faced with difficult situations, as they carry out their daily functions. A vision is defined as an idealized picture of the desired future implying that it reflects the aspirations of the organization. Therefore, it is known to stimulate the need for greatness among team members, teasing them with individual gains, and appealing to their desires to make a difference. Visions have a tendency of grabbing team members and bringing them to the fold meaning that they facilitate cohesion.
Virtual and Non-virtual Teams
Unlike non-virtual teams, virtual teams rarely set clear goals, lack direction, and are reluctant to prioritize their objectives mainly because they suffer from poor communication given the fact that members are geographically dispersed. In fact, virtual teams rarely manage to keep their members focused on similar objectives for some time. Members in non-virtual teams have clear-cut roles, but the case is different in virtual teams since many members are unaware of their roles leading to underperformance.
Similarly, virtual teams suffer from the issue of trust and cooperation since members rarely meet physically to deliberate on the issues facing them. Members employ a cautious approach when dealing with the group team because of lacking trust, but non-virtual teams allows members to commit themselves to teamwork (DeRosa, & Lepsinger, 2010). However, the two types of teams are similar in the sense that they aim at addressing the issues that members face.
Importance of Communication, Conflict Resolution, and Geographical Issues
Teams are likely to survive in case they employ a clear form of communication that allows feedback. For instance, each member should be allowed to express his or her view freely while others members are listening patiently. In this regard, teams have to understand the important of listening as an important skill that paves way for conflict resolution (Barker, 2010). Without problem solving skills, which is one of the aspects of communication, members would not be able to address the problems that face them from time to time. Geographical issues, especially those that come about due to cultural differences, are only addressed through effective conflict resolution mechanisms that observe the rules of communication.
References
Barker, A. (2010). Improve your communication skills, revised second edition. London: KoganPage.
DeRosa, D. M., & Lepsinger, R. (2010). Virtual team success: A practical guide for working and leading from a distance. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. Z. (2012). The leadership challenges (5th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Leeuwen, L.., Winkel, K., & Dijkstra, H. (2007). Vision, mission, compassion: Why people matter in organisations. Assen: Koninklijke Van Gorcum.
Northouse, P. G. (2012). Leadership theory and practice (6th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.