Coordinating a group project

From my leadership experiences, I have come to realize that coordinating team efforts could be quite an easy or a difficult undertaking depending on the nature of the project, the capabilities of individual team members, and how the team leader is able to influence the team, among others.

The ability of the team leader to plan, organize and coordinate the efforts of the team is critical for achieving project objectives. Northouse (2016) asserts that leading a team is very process oriented. This implies that planning, organizing, and coordination occur in a systematic and predictable manner. Prior to describing actions which team leaders could take when coordinating a team project, I briefly describe two prerequisites;

  1. The team should comprise individuals who (a), possess the required skills, (b), are assigned to roles that match with their skills, and (c), are willing to continually work with others to create the required synergy for actualizing project objectives.
  2. Team members understand the mission at hand and are committed towards accomplishing it. They should be made aware of the importance and benefits of the project to them individually, and collectively as a team, and also to the organization.

Two actions which the team leader could take are: (a) ensure that there exists a clear plan for deploying resources towards project objectives; this plan should have monitoring mechanisms which ensure that expected outcomes are realized on a timely basis, (b) the team continues to work together in harmony. Action (a) relates to team performance while (b), relates to team development; both represent the critical factors of team effectiveness as asserted by Northouse (2016).

Spears (2010, p. 25) asserts that “servant leadership seeks to involve others in decision making, is strongly based in ethical and caring behaviour, and enhances the growth of workers while improving the caring and quality of organizational life.” Hence, servant leadership (SL) approach, if applied, could first, enhance the team’s development and in turn, enrich the team’s performance. This is possible because SL traits could be learnt and also applied by a team leader (Spears, 2010). Specifically, traits or characteristics like awareness, conceptualization, foresight, and persuasion could help a team leader better articulate the needs of the team and provide guidance to same; others like stewardship, listening, empathy, healing, and commitment to growth, could enhance team development by tending to the emotional needs of the team (Spears, 2010).

 

References

Northouse, P.G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and Practice. (7th ed.). SAGE Publications.

Spears, L.C. (2010). Character and servant leadership: Ten characteristics of effective, caring leaders. The Journal of Virtues & Leadership, 1(1), 25-30.