Category: Unit 5

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Servant Leadership Characteristics in Team Leadership – Unit 5, Learning Activity 2

Servant leaders who are given the responsibility to lead a team need to consider how to most effectively serve and lead when working together on projects in a group.

Spears’ ten characteristics (2010) can be seen as over-arching character descriptions of an effective servant leader and can also be taken as instructive directions and strategies for a particular situation. The habit of character, as described by Hillman (1996, as cited in Spears, 2010), points to these characteristics being both situational and longer term.

When it comes to a specific group project being led by a team leader in an organization, some of these characteristics can be used effectively to help the team succeed.

Listening
Leaders must be able to clearly identify the goals and results which are being requested in a project. The ability to ask questions, seek clarity and listen to the “said and unsaid” (Spears, 2010, p. 27) communication of what will make a project successful is key for the leader.

This equips the leader to then communicate clearly to those they are leading. In the same way that a leader must listen well to what is being asked of them, the leader must also listen well to what is being offered by the followers.

The specific talents, abilities, experience and resources which different members of the team are able to offer the leader need to be heard, recognized and encouraged for the group to be successful together.

Awareness
The power dynamic of a leadership position requires self-awareness so that a leader doesn’t obstruct or interfere in the work a team is doing together. Understanding how requests are heard by followers when asked by a leader, for example,  will impact how the leader makes the request.

Awareness also helps to facilitate leadership decisions from the Hill Model for Team Leadership, as explained by Northouse (2018). Whether a leader needs to monitor or take action, whether intervention is needed by task or relationship, and whether internal or external intervention is needed are all challenges which can be navigated by a leader with a high level of awareness.

Persuasion
By listening to followers on the team, the leader is then able to persuade the team as they work together to achieve the common goal. A servant leader is not in a position to simply do the will of the rest of the team but to serve each person on the team by helping them come to the most effective solution to the problem they are facing.

Persuasion can easily become dictatorial and driven by power so the leader needs to understand their role clearly and develop skills which allow them to be persuasive rather than manipulative. As Spears says, persuasion “offers one of the clearest distinctions between the traditional authoritarian model and that of servant leadership” (Spears, 2010, p. 28).

Question
Have you experienced being a follower on a team where a leader clearly struggled with one of the ten characteristics of servant leadership from Spears? How did that impact you and the team you were a part of?

Reference
Northouse, P. G. (2018). Leadership: Theory and Practice, Eighth Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Spears, Larry C. (2010) Character and Servant Leadership: Ten Characteristics of Effective, Caring Leaders. The Journal of Virtues & Leadership, Vol. 1 Iss. 1, 2010, 25-30. Retrieved from https://www.regent.edu/acad/global/publications/jvl/vol1_iss1/Spears_Final.pdf

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Critical Functions of Team Effectiveness – Unit 5, Learning Activity 1

Team leadership and the effectiveness of teams has been an area of focus for me since most of my leadership experience has been within the context of teams. Team leadership effectiveness can bring joy and pain to everyone involved!

According to Northouse (2018), the two critical functions of team effectiveness are performance and development. Nadler (1998, as cited in Northouse, 2018) expands on these two functions with performance referring to the quality of work produced by the team and development referring to the growth among and within the team itself.

Components of effective team leadership are found through answers to these six questions asked by Hackman (2012, as cited in Northouse, 2018, p. 375):

  1. It is a real team?
  2. Does it have a compelling purpose?
  3. Does it have the right people?
  4. Are the norms of conduct clear?
  5. Is there support from the organizational context?
  6. Is there team-focused coaching?

As these questions are answered, more questions answered affirmatively is an indicator of higher team leadership effectiveness.

Larson & LaFasto (1989, as cited in Northouse, 2018) identified eight characteristics “consistently associated with team excellence” (Northouse, 2018, p. 376). Team leadership at its most excellent is characterized by:

  1. Clear, elevating goal
  2. Results-Driven Structure
  3. Competent Team Members
  4. Unified Commitment
  5. Collaborative Climate
  6. Standards of Excellence
  7. External Support and Recognition
  8. Principled Leadership

I have the privilege of currently working as part of a team with a compelling purpose and clear, elevating goal of becoming a regional church of 10,000 meeting the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of people in Jesus’ name.

Competent team members, I’m very happy to say, surround me in the work I am currently doing. They help make our team better, they help me do better work and they help those we are leading.

I am also grateful to work in a team with a collaborative climate yet where there is also the desire for increased collaboration among our leadership team and across departments. As our organization grows this becomes more challenging but when it occurs the results are always better and the overall effectiveness of our team grows.

Principled leadership is the ability of the leader of a team to allow the team to work according to agreed upon principles, stepping in only when “one or more of the eight characteristics of team success are not being achieved” (Northouse, 2018, p. 379).

Zaccaro, Heinen, & Shuffler (2001, as cited in Northouse, 2018) identified four processes which influence team leadership. The cognitive process helps the team identify and understand problems. The motivational process helps the team achieve high performing goals. The affective process helps the team overcome obstacles and stressful situations. The process of coordination helps the team become more effective by matching skills to the correct roles and through change, adaptation and feedback as growth is experienced (Northouse, 2018).

When I joined the team in my current role the staff had just agreed to a five-year strategic plan. On its own, this plan was filled with objectives which were well beyond the reach, capability and skill set of the existing team of staff and volunteers.

Over the past five years, we have been led by a team leader who has encouraged, resourced, challenged and celebrated us as we’ve seen these seemingly out-of-reach goals come to reality. The collective work of our team became more and more encouraging as we saw some of these big, audacious goals come into focus and then to see them accomplished.

These accomplishments and successes then become fuel for the next challenge, the next big goal, the next dream which seems so far away. This motivational process becomes itself a way for the team to grow in ability and confidence as we work together and grow in effectiveness.

Reference
Northouse, P. G. (2018). Leadership: Theory and Practice, Eighth Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.