A Cohesive Team of Highly Motivated Members - Essay Example

Answer Part-I: A chain is said to be as strong as the weakest link in it. A team is also composed of a number of people with differing abilities, qualification and motivation levels. A cohesive team of highly motivated and well organized members can do wonders for the growth of the organization. On the other hand a group of individuals concerned with only their work and their own benefits can potentially harm the interest of the organisation. An organization can no doubt function with the boss giving commands to his/ her subordinates and the subordinates in turn following the instructions and completing the tasks. But a basic disadvantage in this type of functioning is that the employee doesn't feel the belonging to the organization and therefore may not go for value addition and creativity to the task. An individual is least bothered about the final product, once he/ she has done his/ her share of task. A team on the other hand helps in networking of the individuals, with exchange of ideas and suggestions. This not only helps in regular updation of the knowledge level of the team members but also enriches the final product and service. When the customer feels the advantage of value addition, he'll naturally be attracted towards the product/ service. The figure below depicts the difference between these two types of systems. Teams in general are committed for common goals as they are accountable for them. Teams can pool there resources, synergize their acts and the team members can complement and supplement each other's efforts to come out with the final product. Contribution from the concerned team members helps in widening the thoughts, assigning responsibilities, helps in implementing and constantly monitoring the results and feedback helps in devising a still better strategy. Part-II: Structure and composition of a team forms the basis of its working. How many members are there in the team, what are the responsibilities assigned to the team, who all are the members, and who is the leader; these are the questions which need to be looked into for the effective functioning of a team. A well structured team will have well defined goals of the organization, roles of each member, group interactions, team-work and most importantly1 areas for individual, inter-group and organizational performance improvement. But the core characteristic is the commitment to a common goal. The team structure determines how to maximize the common efforts. If any one members of the team works in a manner adversely affecting the final outcome, then it acts as a de-motivating factor for other members in the team, which in turn affects the quality of the final product. Therefore an efficient team structure also takes care of such eventualities. A well designed team structures helps in polishing the abilities of the individual team members. A person's strengths may not always be visible; it might be overshadowed by something that he has done in the past. Sometimes it requires a personal trigger from the team leader. When the team members find that the team is behind them and the leader has enough confidence in them they come out of their shell with readiness to take initiatives. The trigger has to be the right one, because squeezing the wrong one might lead to further detachment. Strategies must be in place to support such initiates and experiments. Answer-2 Part-I: Contribution of leadership towards strategy implementation Howard Good (2006), the former president of Highland Central School Board in Highland, N.Y., says, "Being board president brings power and prestige, but you must inspire and help others to be successful". A team leader therefore plays the central role in making or breaking the team. It is the team leader who can synergize the efforts or just wither away the advantage, with his actions. A team leader is supposed to delegate the powers and responsibilities amongst his/ her team mates, inspire the team members by being an example and motivate his team with appropriate motivating factors. A leader can synergize the efforts by; Eliciting the contribution from all concerned Organizing the team members by assigning them the responsibilities, and Developing an information system for monitoring and coordination activities. Terry (1994) says that competence for a managerial job is the product of both inherited and acquired qualities. Therefore the team leader has to be a good learner, so that he can capitalize on the stronger points of the team while trying to minimize the effects of weaker points. A team leader has to be; Initiator: The leader must be able to take a lead in defining the work environment and team spirit. Model: The leader must himself be able to display his workmanship, so that he proves be a role model for other team members. Negotiator: The negotiating skills are the one's which distinctly differentiate a team leader from other members. While stuck up in a tricky situation a team leader uses his skills to convince the concerned people, tries to extract reasonable benefits for his team mates and negotiates a better deal from suppliers while weighing the outcomes of different alternatives. Coach: A team leader has to be a good coach as well. He is supposed to impart the basic working principles amongst his team members. But he must not take this job so seriously that he starts interrupting the team members for each and every task. This results in undue interference in routine functioning of the team. Part-II: Top Three Mistakes that Leaders Make Leadership is a product of many forces that act and interact simultaneously, towards managing the team and the organisation. There are no set principles and theories which a leader can follow in all circumstances. A leader is therefore required to analyze the situation and then take appropriate action. Quite often leaders tend to commit some mistakes which often lead to inefficient functioning of the team. The top three mistakes that a leader can make are; i. The Attitude of Top-Down Authority: A team is supposed to have members led by the leader. The leader could be the boss as well, but once he takes the task of leading the team then, he is supposed to respect the views of other team members, without imposing his wishes on to the team/ members. It is this mistake of implementing top-down authority approach on a team which prevents effective functioning of the team. Such top-down attitude often shows up in abusive/dictatorship authority, inappropriate delegation of responsibilities, egoistic attitude and lack of listening. ii. Giving priority to Paperwork: Often some leaders give priority to the paperwork over people's work. Their contention, one should follow the convention and document each step before venturing any further. This proves to be the unbecoming of a good leader, because when people are told that they'll have to wait for a written permission before moving ahead, then they are actually being told, 'not to work, till permission comes'. This hampers the functioning of the team. Instead a direct contact with people helps in motivating them iii. Not encouraging independent views: An independent individual often proves to be a pioneer in the organization, provided he gets the due encouragement and direction from the leader. But quite often such Mavericks are not encouraged owing to some reasons, which leads to de-motivating such enterprising persons. References: 1. ACCEL Team. Team Building. Available online at http://www.accel-team.com/team_building/index.html (March 31, 2007) 2. Good, Howard (2006). Leader of the Pack. American School Board Journal, xx 2006. 3. Dr. Waylon B. Moore. Top four mistakes leaders make. Available at http://www.mentoring-disciples.org/Mistakes.html (March 31, 2007) 4. Terry, George R. and Franklin Stephen G. (1994). Principles of management. Richard D. Irwin Inc. USA. Read More