Creating a Plan for Positive Influence - Essay Example

Creating a Plan for Positive Influence Miguel Garcia June 19, LDR/531 Creating a Plan for Positive To complete a one – year project, the team should plan systematically and strategically how to finish the assigned task. The members of the team must exert satisfactory effort to the project as they work as a team. However, in a group, the individual members tend to contribute less effort in a project (Robbins & Judge, 2011). Given this, the focus of this paper shall mainly delve at creating a plan for positive influence that would increase the motivation, satisfaction, and performance among individual members of the team. In doing so, specifically, this paper aims at answering three points. First, it aims to identify the specific differences in attitudes, emotions, personalities, and values among the individual members of the team. Second, it targets to address how such identified differences influence behavior. Last, it intends to create a plan that would address such differences to influence positively the whole team. This plan is of significance to the entire team because it can assist in effectively managing the team through identifying and addressing the particular differences. This will aid to build a high – performance project centered on the team’s motivation and productivity. Plan for Positive Influence Identifying the differences of the individual team members The initial step considered in creating a plan for positive influence is an application of SWOT analysis to the individual members of the team. SWOT analysis or an examination of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that a project or business venture faces is really one effective strategic tool for a marketing plan that can find a competitive advantage for any organization (Hagos & Pal, 2010). However, instead of applying such in a project, the SWOT analyzes the differences of individual team members. So that at the individual level itself, the team knows where a member excels, where one needs improvement, what opportunities can one own and what threats should one keep away from, therefore, knowing the team composition. Robbins and Judge (2011) described team composition as the structure of the team based on the ability and personality of each team member. Knowing such can aid the team in addressing their weaknesses, hence, differences as well. Likewise, this will help in the decision – making process of objectively allocating roles to each member while basing such on the diversity of each group member and his or her status. Using differences to create a positive influence in behavior After objectively learning the team composition and completing the allocation of roles, the next step to follow is to identify how such differences among individual members can influence possibly the behavior of the rest of the team. This strategic measure aims to increase the motivation as well as the productivity of the members for a project that takes a span of one – year to finish. According to Robbins and Judge (2011), the norms, and status shape how an individual behaves. This entails that despite how different one is from the other, there are acceptable standards of behavior within a group. Each member has to adjust how he or she behaves to align with the norms of the group. On the one hand, status, as suggested by Robbins and Judge (2011), is a socially defined position that stems from the power a person exerts over other team members, ability of a person to contribute to group’s objectives, or personal characteristics of individual. Going back to the SWOT analysis, the more strengths a team member has, and the more valuable these strengths are for the objective of the project, the more likely he or she gains a high status in the team. Thus, he or she is more probable to achieve the role of the team leader. He or she is on the position to do so because as suggested by Robbins and Judge (2011), such status does have an impact on the power of norms. Likewise, this status creates pressure for the other members to conform (Robbins & Judge, 2011). It is also because the higher the status of a member is, the more he or she tends to be assertive. Meanwhile, according to Peterson (2007), the leader or in his terms, the project manager, is in the position to harness different interpersonal skills among the team members to stimulate their performance. This indicates that the project leader’s best interest is to motivate the rest of the team to be productive in achieving the common goals through teamwork (Peterson, 2007). This means that it is important for the team to recognize the hierarchy among each team member but such inequity must be understood that each is working for a shared goal of completing the task with a high quality performance (Robbins & Judge, 2011). Team’s Strategy Given this, the recommended plan that would influence positively the team to complete the task is first, define the main goal of the team: complete a high - performance project within a span of one - year centered on the team’s productivity and motivation. In doing so, next, SWOT analyzes each member to objectively know the team composition and strategically deal with the task. Likewise, this will reveal the differences among members. Through SWOT analysis, the team will objectively allocate the roles of each team member based on his or her status. Members need to acknowledge that hierarchy in status exists for the purpose of attaining a shared goal of completing a task. It is also the case that the inequity in status functions as specialization of a role where the team thinks he or she can excel at, hence, it is his or her best position. This is the role expected from that team member. On the one hand, the team leader or the project manager is in the position to lead the entire group that would motivate the all team members to perform their very best in their specific allocated roles. In addition to that, the leader should serve as a good example for his or her teammates to follow. Last, teamwork is the key to productivity that would yield high satisfactory performance. Conclusion In creating a plan for positive influence that would increase the motivation, satisfaction, and performance, basically, the team leader or the project manager’s role is to motivate his or her team members to perform well for task. Hierarchy and differences in role exist for the purpose of attaining a shared goal. Likewise, it is important for each member to realize his or her significance to the team. Teamwork is a key for influencing positively the members of the team to perform their best. References: Hagos, T.M. and Pal, G. (2010). The means of analysis and evaluation of corporate performances. Annales Universitatis Apulensis Series Oeconomica 12(1): 438 – 449. Peterson, T. (2007). Motivation: How to increase project team performance. Project Management Performance 38(4): 60-69. Robbins, S. and Judge, T.A. (2011). Organizational behavior (14th Eds.). Pearson Education, Inc. Read More