Category: Unit 5

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Response to Ryan’s

Unit 5 Learning Activity 1 – Team Leadership

I found three portions of your blog to be particularly interesting and well presented. First, your summary and analysis of Larson & Fasto’s outline of characteristics of team effectiveness was succinct and accurate (cited in Northouse, 2019, pg. 368-372). Secondly, your description of your workplace situation, leading a group in a work context you identified, the necessity of strategy, the need for goals, tasking each team member with assignments and the need to establish the correct strategy to address questions raised by team members, as all being necessary elements of team leadership. The third component of your posting, which interested me the most, was your question: “How can a team concept be applied to staff members who have a common overarching goal of educating children and carrying out the vision of the school but very different day to day objectives?”

I feel that to answer this question, you have to ask yourself a separate, fundamental question, “Do all staff members employ the same methodology of obtaining the goal of educating children and do they all define the goal the same way?” In my opinion, I feel that some of your team members might have different ideas about how to achieve the goal and even further different ideas about what the goal actually is. The basis of the two aspects of my question are based off John Dewey, who has been heralded as the “chief prophet of progressive education” (Sasse, 2017, pg. 24). For Dewey, “school would become the everything – the literal centre of the world” (Sasse, 2017, pg. 26). His dream was that instead of “supporting parents … [school] would become instead a substitute for parents” (Sasse, 2017, pg. 26).

I would suggest that some of your team members have biases, whether conscious or subconscious, about how to best educate students or have different goals in mind for their students. To better understand your team members’ potentially contrasting views about the process or goals, I might suggest that you consider asking gentle questions in a one-on-one context, about their own educational philosophies and belief. Hopefully, from these conversations, you might yield insight that will lead to more predictable and rewarding outcomes from your team’s efforts.

Reference

Northouse, P. G. (2019). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Sasse, B. (2017). The Vanishing American Adult: Our Coming-of-Age Crisis-and How to Rebuild a Culture of Self-Reliance. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Griffin.

 

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Learning Activity 1 – Team Effectiveness

There are two critical functions of team effectiveness: Performance, defined as “task accomplishment” and Development, defined as “team maintenance” (Northouse, 2019, pg. 369). Interestingly, as noted by Northouse, many characteristics Larson and LaFasto have identified of successful teams overlap with Hackman’s “enabling conditions” of a good team (as cited in Northouse, 2019, pg. 368).

Larson and LaFasto’s list eight “characteristics of team excellence” are (as cited in Northouse, 2019, pg. 368-372):

  1. Clear, elevating goal, which means having a “compelling purpose” (pg. 368)
  2. Results-driven structure, which means finding “the best structure for accomplishing … goals” (pg. 369)
  3. Competent team members means having “the right number and mix” of people (pg. 369)
  4. Unified commitment is a team that “has developed a sense of unity” (pg. 370)
  5. Collaborative climate is the ability to work together (pg. 370)
  6. Standards of excellence are the “norms of conduct” (pg. 370)
  7. External support and recognition includes having the necessary resources to accomplish the task and rewards when they are accomplished” (pg. 371)
  8. Principled leadership means having leaders that are assessed using the above criteria (pg. 372)

Hackman’s six “enabling conditions of group effectiveness” are (as cited in Northouse, 2019, pg. 369):

  1. Compelling purpose, which means having a “clear, elevating goal” (pg. 368)
  2. Right people, which means having “competent team members” (pg. 369)
  3. Real team, which means
  4. Clear norms of conduct, which means
  5. Supportive organizational context
  6. Team-focused coaching

Of these 14 conditions or characteristics of group effectiveness or team excellence, three I have experience with are: Compelling Purpose, Results-Driven Structure and Collaborative Climate. If a team has these three aspects, they have, there are, by definition, a Real Team. If a team has a collaborative climate, this means they also have Team-Focused Coaching.

First, an example for helping my team to have a Compelling purpose is my frequent reminder to them during meetings, when we are discussing technical and detailed explanations of ideas, that we have to keep refocusing on the goal of producing a new product that we are able to manufacture.

Next, an example for having a Results-driven structure is my monitoring of the team member to consistently record failures, experiments, negated ideas to drive the focus of our discussions. This eliminates repetition, revisiting failed ideas and focusing on the goal. Each team member is responsible for contributing knowledge or insight on previous jobs, whether profitable or unprofitable.

Lastly, I try to develop a Collaborative climate by doing three things within my business leadership context. First, talking one-on-one with team members when I have found their responses to colleagues being overly negative or done with a demeaning tone. Second, continually directing the conversation to ensure that each team member is heard equally. Thirdly, I try to affirm and encourage people that even though their ideas might have been rejected, I really appreciate their enthusiasm and energy.

Principled Leadership are four processes that influence team effectiveness. Zaccaro et al. (2001) note these are “cognitive, motivational, affective, and coordination” (as cited in Northouse, 2019, pg. 371). The Cognitive process means a leader has clarity to define “the problems confronting the team” (Northouse, 2019, pg. 371). The Motivational process means setting high team standards. The Affective process means the leader enables the team to navigate difficult circumstances. The Coordination process means the leader evaluates strengths of individual members and assigns roles based on these.

In my team setting, the Cognitive process shows itself in marketing planning meetings. For instance, in a meeting where the goal is to establish which marketing method is most effective among four types, website, direct mail, magazine and trade shows, my role is to supply financial data for each strategy, marketing data from competitors, the complexities of each and the difficulty and skill required to execute each option. We discuss this information the team is able to determine which methods to use.

Question

Zaccaro et al.’s Affective process is not something I would immediately think of as being important to team effectiveness. Overcoming adversity, however, is one of life’s important challenges. Is there a specific instance you can think of where a leader either helped or hindered the team in navigating difficult circumstances?

Reference

Northouse, P. G. (2019). Leadership: Theory and practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

 

 

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Learning Activity 2 – Servant Team Leadership

In the article for this activity, the Speers lists ten important characteristics of servant leaders (Spears, 2010, pgs. 27-28). Among these ten characteristics of a servant team leader, three that I value highly are: Listening, Awareness and Conceptualization. When coordinating a group project, a leader should at all times be listening to all conversations and ideas. Spears states that a servant leader should not only listen to what is said, but also “listen to what is unsaid” (Spears, 2010, pg. 27). This means a leaders should take time to reflect on conversations and meeting dialogue. This process “is essential to the growth and well-being of the servant leader” (Spears, 2010, pg. 27). In my opinion, listening further enables empathy, healing and commitment to the growth of people. Listening facilities the servant leader’s thinking and gives him or her more time to be more articulate and gain insights.

Awareness enables the servant leader to better focus, to more accurately analyze and be more discerning. Awareness is the opposite of “solace” because when the servant leader is aware, he or she is “sharply awake” and alert (Spears, 2010, pg. 27). When coordinating a group project, a servant leader can demonstrate Awareness by asking precise questions, evaluating body language, by being objective, analytical, flexible and teachable.

Conceptualization is the ability to analyze a situation by viewing it from “beyond day-to-day realities” (Spears, 2010, pg. 28). Servant leaders must, when coordinating a group project, think longer term and more “visionary” than conventional leaders (Spears, 2010, pg. 28). The servant leaders needs to combine both the day-to-day processes and the vision of the group. This helps group members stay on task while protecting them from becoming overwhelmed.

The servant leader, by being cognizant of daily processes and long-term goals and objectives, must consistently convey the same balance to team members. The team members are more aware of the value of the project, in and of itself, at the same time being appreciative of the value of the results in the big picture. Seeing the value of the project, in the big picture of the entire organization, enhances the perceived value of the individual group project.

Question

What are practical ways a Servant Leader can balance thinking about the day-to-day processes and the long term? Do you have an example of a leader who had achieved this balance?

Reference

Spears, Larry C. (2010). Character and Servant Leadership: Ten Characteristics of Effective, Caring Leaders. The Journal of Virtues & Leadership, 1(1), 25-30.

 

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Response to B.’s Learning Activity 1 – Team Leadership

Learning Activity 1 – Team Leadership

I read your post with interest because of your frequent references to a compelling purpose in your workplace. Your references to a supportive organization you worked in and your expressed concern that you received feedback rarely from leadership. I appreciate your succinct summation of the eight characteristics of team excellence followed by the four processes that teams need to have. You’re fortunate in having what you call “a compelling purpose” and your team’s “united commitment.” I believe that among the components of team leadership that the goal or purpose or vision of the team being front and foremost is crucial to a team’s success. You also refer to the “supportive organizational context” in which you worked. It is evident that this leadership component allowed you to build your team and supplied the team with the resources to be successful over a long period of time. Any organization that is not supportive of a team and supplied resources dooms the team to failure. Having outside support of the team is often outside the influence of the leader’s ability to acquire. It is predicated on the culture and decision of the organization. Lastly, you refer to the benefit of feedback. In my experience in Christina organizations, feedback is infrequent and I feel that feedback is often perceived as being critical, unsupportive and “un-Christian.”

Your experience with a lack of feedback from your superiors highlights to me the importance of feedback to not only growth within the position but also with maintaining morale. Thank you for the reminder that leadership isn’t just about getting a job done but also making sure people want to keep doing the job.