Leading a Team in Crisis Situations - Essay Example

How you would personally lead a team in times of changes to describe how you would lead in a crisis situation? Synopsis How I would lead a team in the times of change depends upon several variables that include but are not limited to the number of team members I have compared to the volume and toughness of task we have at hand, the time we have to accomplish our task, the resources I have, and the kind of change during which the task has to take place. There can be infinite variations of these variables, each leading to the development of a different situation that imparts need to display different kinds of skills and behaviors on the part of the leader. Considering the constraints of time and word-count, I would limit my reflection to certain specific cases of different kinds of change in which I had to lead a team keeping in view the time constraints and resource constraints for each situation. I chose this topic because of its importance, significance, and relevance in the contemporary age. Everything has changed over the time, and this has had a great impact on the way organizations function. As a leader, the responsibility of adopting the right strategy in these times of change fundamentally rests upon the shoulders of the leader. Change in leadership is inevitable. A leader is frequently exposed to circumstances that generate the need for change. A leader must be intelligent and proactive enough to adapt to these changes and make the wisest decision considering the needs of the changed circumstances. The experiences I have shared in this paper discuss what strategies I have employed to deal with the challenges arising as a consequence of changes that took place, and how those strategies helped me achieve my objectives. Each experience that I have shared demonstrates a different kind of change and accordingly, a different strategy I adopted to lead my team to success. Questions that I intend to answer by discussing my personal experiences of change and leadership include but are not limited to;  What type of change it was?  What were the constraints and how they impacted my ability to lead the group?  What was the best course of action to adopt in that change?  What rationale did I have to adopt that course of action in those circumstances?  How have I incorporated the theoretical concepts of leadership in practice?  What were the limitations of my leadership? Theory A leader is needed in every organization of any volume, from large corporations to task forces designed to achieve petty tasks. Subordinates look forward to the leader for the establishment of goals and milestones, as well as support, resources, and motivation for their achievement. The behavior of a leader plays a decisive role in the leader’s success. “The behavior of the leader and the behavior of the group members are inextricably interwoven, and the behavior of both is determined to a great degree by formal requirements imposed by the institution of which the group is a part” (Halpin, n.d., p. 172). Burke et al. (2006) used a framework to determine the link between the conditions, and leadership behaviors, that improve the team’s performance. They conducted a meta-analysis with the help of this framework to assess the link between the variables. As a result, they found that the use of task-focused behaviors by the leaders relates moderately to the team productivity and perceived effectiveness of the team. Gilmore, Beehr, and Richter (1979) hired four groups containing 12 participants in their research to use the Bales coding system to code the group interactions that had been videotaped. The four groups found different behaviors of the leader. As a result of the research, it was revealed that subordinates did not consider the manipulations of leader as different but the leader’s manipulations induced differences in the quality as well as the quantity of work. In spite of the fact that so much research has been made on the subject of leadership in teams, there still exists a lack of integration in terms of the link between the behaviors of the leader and performance outcomes of the team. Change in leadership is a very common thing to happen to teams. In a vast majority of cases, only companies that are family-operated have managers that stay over a long period of time. Teams need to be always ready for the change of a leader. Change of the leader can be very risky for the team as well as the organization as a whole. “Whether it is a family-run business or an international conglomerate, succession planning and then the ultimate election can be difficult, emotional decisions for people who struggle to come to a collective agreement on who and what direction are in the best interest of the company” (White, 2007). A potential challenge is the delegation of the communication channels that were used by the previous leader to the successive leader. Another risk of the change of leadership is that the team members tend to maintain the same attitudes and activities as they did under the leadership of the previous leader whereas the new leader tends to bring an instant change and wants the team members to adapt to his/her style without taking too long. “Communication chaos sets in after the team leader leaves and then much time and energy are wasted on basic communication needs and responsibilities instead of on effective outputs” (Develor International, n.d. p. 2). Case I Behavior of a leader plays a very important role in the success of the leader as well as the followers. In this example, I have tried to discuss how coaching can cause sudden shifts in the team members’ behavior by increasing the self-awareness of the subject and developing such changes in attitudes and behaviors that are consistent with the preferences and personalities of the team as a whole. I underwent a transition in my own behavior which had positive effect on the behavior of the team members and the performance of the whole team improved. Once, I was leading a team of five members as a coaching client. It was frustrating me. My team members were not taking any initiative to achieve the goal. The entire responsibility of their work’s quality rested on my shoulders. As a result of this, I was concentrating on more things simultaneously than I could. There was not sufficient time to consider issues in the bigger picture which were required by my role as a leader. I was supposed to allow my subordinates to take initiative for different kinds of tasks remaining in the domains of their respective roles, but I could not make this change effectively. Every time I deviated from my usual responsibilities, there was lack of initiative on the part of the subordinates and consequently, results of the whole ream suffered. When I reflected upon the situation, I found that the fundamental cause of my frustration was that instead of doing something, I was making effort to stop doing something. I was overcome with frustration. As I resolved not to take responsibility for the problems of my subordinates, I felt like I was left with nothing to do but to hold myself back and not contribute. As a result of this, I found many problems surfacing which I found very difficult to leave up to the team to solve. This imparted the need to identify a way to become active without taking others’ responsibilities. I could make use of my strengths in forthright diplomacy and enlisting cooperation to achieve the goals without taking others’ roles. This brought a revolutionary change in my behavior towards the team as well as my role as a leader. As I chose to focus upon the actions that were my preferred traits, the process of change not only became easier for me but also more enjoyable. My team members immediately responded to my cooperation-requests as well as my clear communication regarding their attitudes. By focusing upon my strengths, I was able to move my team. Case II I gained an experience of change in leadership while I was in school. According to the school’s policy, the students were required to prepare projects in groups at the end of the year. Every group was assigned a group-leader. Usually, the group leader would be the student who displayed excellent academic performance, and was also good in extra curricular activities. John was the group-leader of our group. There were five students in our group. John’s family was immigrating to a foreign country and he had to leave with them. He left the school. Instantly, there arose the need of choosing the new group-leader. Since John’s departure was not anticipated, we were not prepared for such a change. After John left, I was made the group-leader. Because of his sudden departure, I could not collect any information from him regarding the communication channel with the students and the teachers he used to keep things running according to the schedule. While John was the leader, he had assigned each group member particular roles in the project. Bob was the data collector, Jeremy was the designer, Spice’s responsibility was to track the project’s progress and update the schedule according to the days and work left, my duty was selecting appropriate graphics and other technical tasks as the rest of the group-members were not quite as good at computer, and John’s duty was to provide us with the resources and serve as a mediator. I was not satisfied with Spice’s and Bob’s performance. I saw better data collecting skills in Spice than Bob and the responsibility of tracking the project’s progress suited Bob more than Spice in my opinion. I wanted to interchange their roles. Secondly, as John had left, burden was increased on all four of us since we not only had to do our work, but also take John’s load as he was no more there, and we could not include another student in our group at such a critical time. When I talked to Bob and Spice about interchanging their roles, Spice was more than happy to accept my proposal whereas Bob was reluctant to accept it, probably because data collection was easier than tracking the project progress and updating the schedules. In the absence of a mediator, the communication system of the group appeared distorted. We were left with only three days to submit our project. “Its the leaders responsibility to set the strategic direction for the company and then align the companys goal with that vision. This means leaders must also be able to explain the vision to the entire workforce because employees will have a direct impact on whether the change will be successful or not!” (AMEinfo, 2005). Originally, I thought about adopting a dictator leadership style, but then I thought better of it because I could not risk ruining our project if my group members did not take me seriously as a dictator. So I resolved to adopt the servant leadership style for two main reasons. Firstly, I was loaded with just as much of the project work as the rest of the group members, and probably some more because I also had to play the role of the leader along with fulfilling my duties as the technical operator. Secondly, I needed to address all needs and concerns of my group members in order to have them place their trust and confidence in me and do as I directed. I started with a meeting with my group members. I explained to them that John’s departure had left a void which we needed to fill by taking additional responsibilities. Self-discipline should be our first target because we have no time to waste in conflicts. I persuaded Bob into becoming the scheduler. I reminded him that he had served as a scheduler in past projects and had also very good grades in scheduling. I explained them that it was a very critical moment as the project needed to be submitted in just three days, so I required their utmost cooperation. Reflection and Conclusion From the analysis of the two cases that I have discussed in this paper, I have reached the conclusion that in all times in general and in the time of change in particular, success of the whole team depends upon the strategic thinking, wisdom, and right decision-making skills of the leader. Challenges are inevitable. Had there been no challenges, leaders would not have been required. This imparts the need for a leader to think high and not be disappointed by the conditions. “[Leaders] that are slowed by unfavorable headwinds, demoralized by setbacks and get bogged down in activities that don’t create value are those that fail” (Marksonborn, 2012). There are several conclusions that I can draw from the experience I have shared in the Case I. Firstly, focusing upon making positive advances instead of stopping behaviors is a more effective and useful approach for a leader. Secondly, it is easer for the team to commence actions that accord with their preferred traits. “Research once again has confirmed what we’ve always suspected - your boss can cause you stress, induce depression and anxiety or even trigger the onset of serious illness. It is not just bad managers who can negatively affect employee health, but it is also the lackadaisical and mediocre who can put employees on the sick list” (Williams, 2011). Thirdly, the desired results can be achieved by using different preferred traits in different situations. Behavioral solutions can be customized for different personalities as per their individualistic preferences. In the second case, I made use of my emotional intelligence and was very articulate in my speech and mannerism to get them convinced. By the grace of God, they cooperated with me and I was able to submit the project within the deadline, and our project was selected among the best three projects. I drew the conclusion that selection of the appropriate leadership style depends upon the circumstances and challenges at hand. The style of leadership an individual adopts has a great impact on his/her perception as a leader in the minds of the subordinates. There is a whole range of leadership styles in the literature ranging from autocratic and transformational leadership, to charismatic and servant-leadership, each style having its own distinct features. While no style can be criticized as all have been proven effective in different contexts through years of research, it is imperative that the leader has the skills to assess which leadership style is required in a particular situation. Choice of a wrong leadership style in a particular situation may induce negative feelings and emotions in the subordinates that may in turn, ruin their performance. In the second case, selection of the write leadership style was fundamental to our achievement of the goals. Had I tried to be autocratic, my group-mates might have found it offensive. On the other hand, the time we were left with was too less for me to adopt the transformational leadership style. References: AMEinfo 2005, The challenges of change leadership, [online] Available at: . [Accessed 20 July 2012]. Burke, CS, Stagl, KC, Klein, C, Goodwin, GF, Salas, E, and Halpin, SM 2006, What type of leadership behaviors are functional in teams? A meta-analysis, The Leadership Quarterly, Vol. 17, pp. 288-307. [Online] Available at: . [Accessed 21 July 2012]. Develor International n.d., Case study: Changing team leaders, [online] Available at: . [Accessed 20 July 2012]. Gilmore, DC, Beehr, TA, and Richter, DJ 1979, Effects of leader behaviors on subordinate performance and satisfaction: A laboratory experiment with student employees, Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol 64, No. 2, pp. 166-172. Halpin, AW n.d., The Behavior of Leaders, [online] Available at: . [Accessed 20 July 2012]. Marksonborn 2012, Challenges Change but Leadership is Constant, [online] Available at: . [Accessed 20 July 2012]. White, M 2007, Leadership Change: A Business Case Study of Time Warner, [online] Available a: . [Accessed 20 July 2012]. Williams, R 2011, The Impact of Leader Behavior on Employee Health: Lessons for Leadership Development, [online] Available at: . [Accessed 20 July 2012]. Read More