Leading and Training a Team - Assignment Example

Running Head: LEADING AND TRAINING A TEAM LEADING AND TRAINING A TEAM Introduction Numerous people think that leadership is just being the foremost and most dominant headship. Leadership has a diverse and further evocative explanation. In simple words, a leader is construed as person who sets way in an effort and persuades people to pursue that direction. (Bass, Bernard M. Bass and Stogdill, 1990). Leadership as interpersonal influence, exercised in situation and directed, through the communication process, toward the attainment of a specified goal or goals. Leadership always involves attempts on the part of a leader (influencer) to affect (influence) the behavior of a follower (influence) or followers in situation (Fleishman E. A., & Zaccaro S. J. 1992). This definition has the virtue of generality. It does not limit the leadership concept to formally appointed functionaries or to individuals whose influence potential rests upon the voluntary consent of others. Rather, it is applicable to all interpersonal relationships in which influence attempts are involved. Relationships as apparently diverse as the superior-subordinate, the staff-line, the consultant-client, the salesman-customer, the teacher-student, the counselor-counselee, the husband-wife, or the parent-child are all seen as involving leadership. Thus here we will discuss leadership skills and training contribution towards teamwork. I believe, Training can typically be clustered into two categories with distinctly different content orientations: (a) task, knowledge, and skill-based training designed to provide the individual with the attributes necessary to effectively interact and utilize the hardware capabilities of a system; and (b) attitude, expectation, and perception-based training designed to provide the individual with the attributes necessary with which to effectively interact and utilize the human and social attributes of a system. (a)YOUR AWARENESS OF LEADERSHIP SKILLS AND EXPLAIN HOW LEADERSHIP IMPACTS UPON A TEAM Effective Leaders has the capability to offer voluntary vision and motivation to employees (Ehrenberg, R.G. and R.S. Smith. 1994). A leader values the self-esteem of the individual moreover distinguish the significance and control of freedom. They work to persuade, convince, and guide others to a vision of what desires to be done, and, in so doing, make dedication towards that vision. By doing this, leaders are capable to provoke, infuse, and motivate others with inspiration to carry out the view or vision. Leadership integrates an extensive vision of the circumstances that has deference for the forces at play, for inner capabilities of the supporters and self-reliance in and recognition of one's own position in showing those capabilities. To offer leadership, then, is for a person to distinguish all of the essentials of the circumstances and to be capable to release the leadership prospective in it to make somewhat happen. Leaders are extremely excellent at inspiring their team's feeling, raising their prospect, and intriguing them in new directions. Though, leaders usually endure from neuroses and have a propensity toward egotism and concern (Katzenbach, J. R., & Smith, D. K. 1993). Leadership is established not simply on grand events, though. Nor is it constantly carries out on a large scale by people officially accepted as leaders. Leadership can be applied at all stages not simply by managers and supervisors although also by peers and individuals, at times in ways that persuades those with much greater recognized power. Leadership simply takes place while others keenly implement, for a phase of time, the aims of a group as their own. therefore, leadership disquiets building unified and objective leaning teams; there is a fundamental and definitional connection linking leadership and employee's performance. (b)YOUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE STEPS INVOLVED IN THE SYSTEMATIC TRAINING CYCLE Training has typically been micro in its team orientation, with a center on individual learning, development, and change. This is true regardless of the fact that, at least at a conceptual level, training needs assessment, evaluation, and instructional design models (Goldstein, 1992) assert that training should be designed to support and contribute to clearly articulate organizational goals. In practice, however, training activities are generally focused at the individual level, including needs analysis, delivery programs ( Salas, Dickinson, Converse, & Tannenbaum, 1992), and evaluation criteria ( Alliger & Janak, 1989). This can be accredited to the dominance of instructional theory in training, which is based on individual-level models of change. An inherent assumption is that the individual level is the source of organizational-level change. In my opinion the steps involve the systematic training cycle has five major steps; recognition of training need, training goals, selection and design of programme, accomplishing training, and evaluative feedback. As training is a means of enhancing organizational efficiency. The procedure starts with an analysis of the accessible situation. The requirements recognized will be phrased in stipulations of new work practices which will augment the efficiency of one particular part of the organization. The management of that component of the organization should be concerned at all stages and be dedicated to changing organizational structures or performs which diverge with the new practices that are being commenced. In approximately every case this entail that the managers are implicated in the design and deliverance of the training. They will as well be accountable for supporting the new behaviors in the work place by assessing performance and coaching or supervising as essential to making it certain that the learning becomes integrated in standard work practices (Honey, P & Mumford, A 1986, 1989). The leader's choice of a theoretical model to apply to a given situation is based on his or her assessment of the group's needs and training goals. Through data collection and subsequent diagnosis, the leader arrives at specific recommendations and goals that lead to a clear choice of model to meet emergent training needs. The leader may choose to employ one or several different models in order to meet set sub-goals. For example, the leader may have established as an overall goal the establishment of an efficient organizational structure, but the attainment of that goal may be dependent on the realization of a series of sub-goals. Sub-goals, in this case, might include awareness of group and organizational functioning, improvement of managerial skills, and an increase in communication skills. Each sub-goal requires the implementation of a different model. The first sub-goal may require a t-group orientation followed by lecture and discussion in a skills training format to enhance understanding and the ability to use what has been learned. The second sub-goal requires skills training in effective managerial behavior. The third sub-goal, communications, brings to mind the personal growth training model. In employing one or several different models to meet group goals, the leader must be aware that mixing one model within another model, during a given segment or within a given session, is confusing to the group. The clear use of a single model at a specific time in the group's life provides for more purposeful goal-oriented training programs. (C)YOUR COMPREHENSION OF THE CONTRIBUTION OF TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT TO THE TEAM ACHIEVEMENT OF TEAM AND ORGANISATIONAL GOALS. I'm a big believer in teamwork. In running a big, complicated organization, you need lots of information and different points of view. You can best lead a complicated organization through a team approach, in part to obtain more information, in part to obtain different points of view and, maybe equally important, to get the buy-in and support that is necessary to execute. The strongest part of the culture of our organization is teamwork, and we've found that the more diverse our teams, the more productive they can be. You get a creative rub by having views that are slightly dissimilar. But to make that work, you've got to encourage open discussion and debate. There is a natural reluctance for people to speak up, particularly when they don't agree. It's even kind of threatening to some executives. So, therefore, your culture must allow and encourage open discussion and debate. Only then do you get the best results. I believe in leadership style that is geared toward promoting teams and getting results through teams. And for effective teamwork, training is essential. Proper training helps team to improve and enhance communication. This is an immense time for the leadership and teams to share the information with the entire team so that everybody discerns the score of the game. The group appraises what origin the business to be what it is and recognizes changes for the subsequently part of the organization. Training also contributes to every person and division discerns what his or her collision on the business is. A cross functional team representing the areas that can influence transform should get together to make it take place. These ways for communication put up teams by getting everybody to constantly interrelate with each other. This assists build confidence among the team members also. Training pull attempt together to achieve a frequent goal as a team, businesses get larger profits. Training team is a procedure, while team members discern the common goals, their tasks and responsibilities, decided upon techniques for communication comprising coaching and giving response, and have encouragement to achieve them, accomplishment is certain. Teams as well eases dialog among members through communications, and by facilitating determine interpersonal conflicts which take place in or between meetings. In addition those teams also improve inventiveness in an organization as people with balancing skills are stanch to a common reason, routine goals, and move toward for which they hold themselves equally accountable. Team surroundings are characterized by principles and beliefs that prop up the principles of quality development. These embrace participative managerial, collaboration, and unremitting learning. Members divide a frequent vision and deference for one another. Staffs are organized or arrange themselves in formal and informal, provisional, or longer-term teams. This may embrace work teams, analytical teams, centers of quality, research teams, and cross-functional teams which assist in ornamental creativity in an organization. The utilization of team training can assist to develop the efficiency of an organization and meeting its goals. The precise knowledge that every person brings and the widened contribution of a team show to better decisions. Furthermore, teams also amplify morale and allow people to take better conceit in their work. Training also contributes Teamwork to offers a general language that creates additional well-organized and effective communication both straight and upright across the organization. Furthermore, it diminishes costs and get better overall act in a lot of ways, including more rapidly and more dependable decisions, doing stuff right the first time, improving client satisfaction, and abolishes redundancies (Heifetz, Ronald A., 1994). Classic models of organizational training emphasize two key areas of linkage between training activity and the organizational system. McGehee and Thayer ( 1961) emphasized the organizational goals and objectives resultant through needs assessment that drive the fortitude of training content. They defined training as, ". . . the formal procedures which a company uses to ease employees' learning so that their resulting behavior contributes to the attainment of the company's goals and objectives" (p. 3 ). Goldstein (1992) incorporated this linkage, but emphasized transfer. He defined training as ". . . the systematic acquisition of skills, rules, concepts, or attitudes that results in improved performance in another environment" (p. 3 ;); trained knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSAs) cannot affect organizational goals if they are not expressed in the work environment. Needs analysis is traditionally regarded as a diagnostic process that occurs prior to training. The purpose of needs analysis is to recognize what is to be trained, training content, and who is to obtain training targets. Transfer is usually regarded as a post training outcome and a key gauge of training effectiveness. Training is predicated on meeting organizational goals and objectives. Classic models of training emphasize desires assessment as the means by which these goals exert an influence on training design, though they do not bond this process directly to transfer. Needs assessment integrates three principal activities: organizational analysis, operations or task analysis, and person analysis. Training can also considerably benefit from an integration with concepts drawn from organizational theory. The training function is bound by the appropriate constraints of the organizational system and its defining features. Recent theory has begun to think the interface between the organizational system and training (Goldstein, 1991). Training is being conceptualized as essential to the strategic goals of the organization (Schuler & Walker, 1990), as a component of the human resource planning process (Jackson & Schuler, 1990), and as an activity that is forced by organizational environment features. Thus, the neglect of the leadership skills and organizational system implications for training effectiveness, mainly in those instances when training content or its level of delivery does not line up well with contextual constraints. Hence, this paper reaches the conclusion that incorporation of a systems perspective identifies issues that must be addressed to ensure that training contributes to desired changes. Trained knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSAs) at the individual level are embedded in team- or unit-level technology, coordination processes, and social system contexts, with broader contextual constraints originating at higher system levels. From this perspective, preparing individuals to accept training-induced change, and encouraging them to express their new capabilities in the work environment, require training that is delivered at the appropriate level and is congruent with contextual supports. It is clear that training shares themes with other research domains that also address the problem of organizational change. Yet, these themes have rarely been systematically applied to issues in training. The leader has an inimitable pose in organization. The qualities of good leadership embrace vision, target setting, spur, vision, incessant learning, teamwork, adaptation, and motivation. Leadership can be applied at all stage, not simply by managers and supervisors but as well by peers and persons. Though, leadership is not a mysterious process. It can be clearly defined and its component parts can be taught to your people. Take the time to train your people in the nine behaviors of leadership. Your organization's ability to survive and thrive during the next century may well depend on it. http://rebrown.com/rebrown/article.htm. References: Bass, Bernard M. Bass and Stogdill's Handbook of Leadership: Theory, Research, and Managerial Applications. 3rd Edition. New York: Free Press, 1990. Katzenbach, J. R., & Smith, D. K. (1993). The wisdom of teams. New York: HarperCollins. Salas E., Dickinson T. L., Converse S. A., & Tannenbaum S. I. ( 1992). "Toward an understanding of team performance and training". In R. W. Swezey & E. Salas (Eds.), Teams: Their training and performance (pp. 3-29). Norwood, NJ: Ablex. Alliger G. M., & Janak E. A. ( 1989). "Kirkpatrick's levels of training criteria: Thirty years later." Personnd Psychology, 42, 331-342. McGehee W., & Thayer P W. ( 1961). Training in business and industry. New York: Wiley. Goldstein I. L. ( 1991). "Training in work organizations". In M. D. Dunnette & L. M. Hough (Eds.), Handbook of industrial and organizational psychology ( 2nd ed., Vol. 2, pp. 71-164). Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press. Goldstein I. L. ( 1992). Training in organizations: Needs assessment, design, and evaluation ( 2nd ed.). Monterey, CA. Brooks/Cole. Goldstein I. L. ( 1993). Training in organizations ( 3rd ed.). Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole. Honey, P & Mumford, A (1986) Using your learning styles Maidenhead, Peter Honey Publications Honey, P & Mumford, A (1989) The manual of learning opportunities Maidenhead, Peter Honey Publications Schuler R. S., & Walker J. W. ( 1990). Human resources strategy: Focusing on issues and actions. Organizational Dynamics, 19( 1), 5-19. Ehrenberg, R.G. and R.S. Smith. 1994. Modern Labor Economics: Theory and Public Policy. New York: Harper Collins College Publishers. Jackson S. E., & Schuler R. S. ( 1990). "Human resource planning: Challenges for industrial/ organizational psychologists". American Psychologist, 45, 223-239. http://rebrown.com/rebrown/article.htm. Fleishman E. A., & Zaccaro S. J. ( 1992). "Toward a taxonomy of team performance functions". In R. W. Swezey & E. Salas (Eds.), "Teams: Their training and performance" (pp. 31-56). Norwood, NJ: Ablex. Heifetz, Ronald A. Leadership Without Easy Answers. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1994. Read More