{"id":168,"date":"2018-10-28T09:36:34","date_gmt":"2018-10-28T16:36:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/monicagrace\/?p=168"},"modified":"2018-11-03T11:59:58","modified_gmt":"2018-11-03T18:59:58","slug":"learning-activity-2-unit-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/monicagrace\/2018\/10\/28\/learning-activity-2-unit-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Learning Activity 2: Unit 5"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spears (2010) outlines ten characteristics of servant leaders in his article and I would like to highlight three of those ten and discuss how they transfer into actions when coordinating a group project. The three characteristics I will be discussing are: listening<\/em>, persuasion<\/em> and commitment to the growth of people<\/em> (Spears, 2010, pp. 27-29).<\/p>\n

Listening<\/strong><\/p>\n

The quality of listening<\/em>\u00a0in a servant leader<\/em> is described by Spears (2010) as “a deep commitment to listening intently to others” (p. 27). In listening the servant leader <\/em>aims at clarifying a collective direction from the group for how to move forward (Spears, 2010, p. 27).<\/p>\n

In my experience of coordinating group projects, if you want your team members to really be on board with the project, listening\u00a0<\/em>is essential. I think in the earliest states of conception and planning it is best to bring your team members in and allow them to help brainstorm and feed into the process. When they get the chance to be heard and understood, and they see their feedback is having implications on the project, their buy-in comes more natural. I have found you also end up producing a better project, because you utilize the different ideas, gifts and strengths of other team members.<\/p>\n

Persuasion<\/strong><\/p>\n

Persuasion\u00a0<\/em>is when the servant leader looks to convince others of the importance of something, rather than just telling them to do it. Spears (2010) states that servant leaders rely, “on persuasion, rather than on one’s positional authority, in making decisions within an organization” (p. 28).<\/p>\n

I think this is really important to apply this in a team project environment, as you could just tell people what to do, but again that will not help them gain motivation and also will produce less effective results. I have found the best way is to communicate the importance of the project\u00a0 from the start and also consistently throughout the planning process.\u00a0 I think the importance is best communicated when the need or the why of the project is clear, and as a result the vision. This consistent communication will help foster group buy-in.<\/p>\n

In my experience, I also think it is important (if possible in the situation) to allow for a democratic process. You could allow team members to vote on whether to move forward with the project and\/or create space to allow team members to share honestly what they think, whether excitement or concerns, before starting a project. This action helps to gauge who is on board with the project and hear people out on concerns.<\/p>\n

Commitment to the Growth of People<\/strong><\/p>\n

Spears (2010) states, “the servant leader is deeply committed to the growth of each and every individual within his or her organization” (p. 29). This characteristic in a servant leader<\/em> can look like:\u00a0<\/em>taking an interest in the employees personal and professional growth and making funds available for that, showing interest in the input of ideas from all employees, encouraging everyone’s involvement in decision-making, and helping employees that were laid-off to find other positions (Spears, 2010, p. 29).<\/p>\n

When it comes to helping people grow in a group project, it is important to make sure you delegate well. Delegation requires thought and insight to know who would be the best fit for a certain role and it is different from “dumping” tasks on people. Delegation also involves trust and some risk-taking (Simmons, 2015). Simmons (2015) principle of delegation is, “If you have someone on your staff who can do this task 80 percent as well as you can, delegate it.” This is very important to do as in a group project setting because if you do not delegate you will slow down and hinder progress, as everything ends up getting bottle-necked with you (Simmons, 2015). Delegation grows employees confidence and their professional skills as they feel trusted to take on a role that they are responsible for. I have found you have to be prepared to deal with any personal issues of “perfectionism” when you delegate. Personally, I am a “perfectionist”, so I sometimes find it hard to trust something to someone, if I know they might only do the job 80 percent as well. However, if I functioned in that way, I would be burned out and my staff would not feel trusted or experience professional growth.<\/p>\n

In conclusion, the four actions I would recommend a team leader do to integrate\u00a0servant leader<\/em> characteristics, while coordinating a group project would be:<\/p>\n

1) Allow team members a say early on in the planning process (listening<\/em>).<\/p>\n

2) Communicate a compelling vision\/purpose\/why for the project and give your team members time to get on-board (persuasion<\/em>).<\/p>\n

3) If possible in the situation, allow for a democratic process before starting a project, so team members have a say in moving forward (persuasion).<\/p>\n

4) Help employees grow by trusting them through delegating aspects of the project well (commitment to the growth of people<\/em>).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I would love to hear people’s thoughts or experiences with delegation, if you would be interested to respond to the questions below:<\/p>\n

Question 1: When is delegating not helpful to an employee or how much risk can you take?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I ask this because sometimes I find it hard to gauge or predict, which people on the team could do the job at 80%. At times, people only come through at 60% or 70%, is that considered a fail in delegation? What if they really grew from the process?<\/p>\n

Question 2: How would you distinguish between delegating well and “dumping” a task on a team member?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0References<\/strong><\/p>\n

Simmons, Mark (2015, February). The 80 percent rule for delegation.\u00a0Thinking Bigger: Business Media Inc., 24 (<\/em>2). Retrieved from\u00a0https:\/\/ithinkbigger.com\/80-percent-rule-delegate\/;;<\/p>\n

Spears, Larry C. (2010) Character and Servant Leadership: Ten Characteristics of Effective, Caring Leaders. The Journal of Virtues & Leadership, Vol. 1<\/em> Iss. 1,<\/em> 2010, 25-30.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spears (2010) outlines ten characteristics of servant leaders in his article and I would like to highlight three of those ten and discuss how they transfer into actions when coordinating a group project. The three characteristics I will be discussing are: listening, persuasion and commitment to the growth of people (Spears, 2010, pp. 27-29). Listening […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":445,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,10,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ldrs500","category-unit-1","category-unit-5","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/monicagrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/monicagrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/monicagrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/monicagrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/445"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/monicagrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/monicagrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":246,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/monicagrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168\/revisions\/246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/monicagrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/monicagrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/monicagrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}