Posts

Posted on

Response to Lewa’s post-Lights from many lamps-Unit 6

Response to Lewa’s post-Lights from many lamps-Unit 6

 

LDRS 500, Unit 6, Light from many lamps

I appreciate sharing your thoughts!

Faith, Hope, and Love

I do see a lot of valuable insights in these words and I do believe they have to be combined. Faith is something that we exert; we put an effort to have, some energy and conscious intention. Hope is evidence of life-where there is life always there is hope. Love is a truly healing force and transformational force that can reverses centuries of wrongdoing.

We are often lost if we think of our performance, our ability, our approval from others, but we can fix the sights by looking into humanity collectively.  Faith, hope, and love are like an operational element to our lives; we use them to engage and interact with others. They are the personal fulfillment, and the gift of power given to the human being and they can go far and greater. I believe these words are the magic words rooted in the personality of a great leader, a leader who knows how to lead.  Definitely, we need to convey these words to our precious people, people who we value.

Lastly, I would like to share with you  “With malice toward none, with charity for all’,  Abraham Lincoln 1865

 

 

Posted on

LDRS 500-Learning activity 2-Unit 6

Unit 6-Learning activity 2

 

I had the pleasure of learning and connecting with Brenda within her busy schedule. She is an indigenous woman, working for her community as the Vice-President of the Indigenous economic development organization. She has a lot to say about her work. Her goals are to create capacity through employment opportunities for indigenous people and in creating economic wealth for her nation.

Brenda works in a firm that she need to have organizational, time management, and networking skills. She works well in times of crisis. She described her self as someone that gets things done on time and effectively. An example that I quoted during the conversation

“when my company was asked to set up a campsite in 5 days, it required utilizing my network to get tasks accomplished and to get my project a priority with vendors. I set up a project plan so that all staff knew what was needed to get done. I set timelines and followed up with others to ensure they completed tasks on time and also ensured that they were not running into any obstacles, I equally did my share of the work so that staff could see the pace of work that was required to get the job done. ”

She is organized on her tasks; she keeps them achievable and straightforward by knowing which tasks could wait and which were crucial to opening operations. Brenda’s plans for next five years is to have her MA in Business Leadership and to be the President of her company, and apply the skills that she learned on the job. 

 It’s a new field for Brenda working with the indigenous economic development company. It might be challenging as she explained:

“Many First Nations have joint ventures; however, they are not actually operating companies while my community is operating entirely on its own.”

Choosing the top three skills that she believes they are needed to bring to her organization are:

“Fiscal Responsibility – create economic wealth for the nation through land development. To date, we have focused on a capacity for building and creating employment. We have achieved that goal, and then some having grown from 1 to 160 employees in 5 years.

Improve the relationship with the Kwantlen government by extending the olive branch and improving communications – the business arm of the nation is often influenced by government and can effect community support. First, it means setting the record straight in terms of what can be provided and when. Then having ongoing meetings to keep them informed of progress and any changes. This will relieve some pressure and will help to create a feeling of us all being in this together.

Bring other employees in on decision making and encourage capacity building – instead of jumping in to give answers I need to work on saying “What do you think” to allow the employees to grow and make decisions for themselves. With this will require feedback as not every decision will be a good one.” 

Brenda earned a lot in her career path to bring to her organization and she still wants to give more by pursuing her MA in Business Leadership. She is an example of servant leader in her organization. Brenda firmly believes in putting reconciliation in action through teaching her employee and youth in her community, self-reliance. In turn, she thinks this will creates a healthy and productive community and a better world for future generations.  She presented skills through her work plan, serving her community, and fits appropriately within her organizational goals.

Reference:

Unit 6 Learning Activities

Read Rockwell, D. (2017, March 17) The Anatomy of Performance Enhancing Coaching Conversations.

Posted on

LDRS 500-Employee Development Plan-Unit 6-LA 3

Employee Development Plan-Unit 6-LA 3

 

Unit 6 Learning Activities

Working in healthcare sector driven by people and technology. As per Kadampully, Bilgihan and Zhang (2016) “combining…people and technology produce the hybrid organization that benefits from new technology but still provides an appropriate climate and culture to nurture creativity and innovation through people” (p.154). The employee-patient relationship requires the use of technology when delivering care to the patient. Many aspects and applications can be employed to participate in employee development; therefore patient service will have an improvement that can be measured. In such hybrid firm, they recognize the role of technology as enabler without neglecting the importance of emotional engagement with the patient. Interprofessional collaboration is the key to a partnership between a team of healthcare provider and the patient. Therefore, determining the patient needs will set the goal for service and the good use of technology.

Employee development plan adds more values to the purpose when incorporated into employee-patient care relationship. I will list some of the technologies that can be used when initiating employee development plan

Employee integral-online module-Our organization provides employees with integral- online modules that have to be completed annually to keep the employee within the standard. These modules reviewed every year to consider any changes in the practice. In conjunction to these modules, developing “a community of practice framework” as noted by Moule (2006), and mutual engagement in the healthcare system will communicate employee development plan and improvements in their communities [profession] efficiently. Therefore; promoting organizational citizenship behavior will have positive results in a service-oriented culture.

Patients feedback and satisfaction-as I mentioned earlier, have a positive impact on employee development and patient care service. The organization should create a service environment and have patient submitting their feedback and their ideas about the service through feedback email or podcast. I believe, there would be an increasing number of responses. Therefore, firms would facilitate patients empowerment as well as employee development. On the other hand, it is not limited to provide the opportunity for co-creation and innovation; thereby, promoting organizational citizenship behavior in a service-oriented culture. Additional, patient results can be checked on e-health service which enables the physician to have a better understanding and medical decisions that can expedite treatment and shorten the length of stay in the healthcare facility. The implication of the electronic feedback and suggestions from patients are good evidence for the decision makers to consider in any transformational process that leads to improvement. In regard, I do value patient ‘s feedback and the influence of the process on the growth of employee and development in the healthcare sector. Hence, determining patients needs and measure their satisfaction, will have a positive impact on healthcare partnership and would set and sustain goals for excellent service.

Developing virtual classroom for our students and employees as part of the practicum and orientation will facilitate a learning opportunity for a situation that may happen during real time. It will simulate the thinking process and engage the learners with resources in work groups in a safe virtual learning environment that incorporates course materials and other tools that are external to the classroom experience. Therefore, during real time, students and employee have earned some experience through their first practical application to initiate their starting at the workplace in healthcare platform. At the same time, they elicit confidence, learning, and interaction needed in the workplace. Huddle street- A virtual learning environment as noted in the study done by Currell and Taylor (2012), is a 2D virtual street and community providing a hybrid Virtual Learning Environment that combines features and interaction styles, more commonly associated with computer simulations where all professions could converse and learn together. VLE (Currell & Taylor, 2012) supports perceptual inferences that people find easy to understand. The concept as explained by Currell and Taylor (2012), is like google maps that have a better representation of the real world and could enable more scenarios and situations or events. The tutors who set these situations want to facilitate problem-solving by students or to discuss specific topics.  The learners will learn to work in a multidisciplinary environment that enable them to provide feedback gained through this experience by seeing the effects of their interventions on the virtual patients (Currell & Taylor, 2012). As far as I know, this approach is coming soon and will be introduced to our students as part of their practicum.

Developing environment that supports organizational citizenship behavior – Northouse (2016) explained the environmental factors as follow:

 “The internal environmental influences affecting leadership performance can include factors as technology, facilities, the expertise of subordinates, and communication. External environmental influences, including economic, political, and social issues, as well as natural disasters, can provide a unique challenge to leaders“(p.56).

Developing environment that supports organizational citizenship behavior,  can be mediated by Leader-member-exchange (LMX) theory. As noted in Atwater and Carmeli (2009) study, the “perceived high-quality leader-member exchange was positively related to greater involvement in creative work” (as cited in Northouse 2016, p.165). LMX theory “served as a mechanism to nurture peoples’ feelings, which then enhanced their creativity” (Atwater & Carmali (2009); as cited in Northouse, 2016, p.165).

Therefore, supporting this dyadic relationship through integrating system-based leadership can be achieved by submitting surveys that can be done online and provide feedback for both leaders and followers. Likewise,  video conferencing and remote training sessions can facilitate learning experience to demonstrate specific tasks or share important content.

The effect of LMX theory “influence the relationship between leaders and followers who intend real changes and outcome that reflect their shared purpose” (Hunt, 2014), and facilitate a safe communication process. In regard, the leaders- followers relationships influences employee development within defined community framework in a service-oriented culture. Providing evidence on how to improve and considering high-quality LMX relationships and applications [Surveys, video conferencing, and remote training], may be regarded as a useful tool to leverage professionals in the workforce, whether leading a team or working with a direct supervisor.

The importance of bridging disciplinary gaps as explained by Wong (n.d), on “how a change in organizational-level attributes and behaviors may influence frontline employee behaviors; and such influence may, in turn, impact customers’ perceived service quality and behavioral outcomes.”(p.16). Hence, including organizations attributes and behaviors and employees with patients in one chain will promote service-oriented culture in healthcare platform.

References:

Currell, K., & Taylor, R. (2012). Huddle Street-A virtual learning environment (VLE) for integrated interprofessional working within a healthcare setting. In: International Technology, Education and Development Conference, Valencia, Spain, 5th-7th March. INTED2012 Proceedings: IATED.  Retrieved from: http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/id/eprint/13041/1/Currell_Taylor.pdf

Hunt, T. J. (2014). Leader-Member Exchange Relationships in Health Information Management. Perspectives in Health Information Management, 11(Spring), 1d. Retrieved from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3995491/

Kadampully, J., Bilgihan, A., Zhang, T. (2016). Developing a people-technology hybrids model to unleash innovation and creativity: The new hospitality frontier. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management 29(2016)154-164.

Moule. P. (2006). E‐learning for healthcare students: developing the communities of practice framework, Jan Leading Global Nursing Research, 54(3), 370-380 doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2648.2006.03813.x  Retrieved from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1365-2648.2006.03813.x

Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice, Seventh Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. ISBN 971452203409.

Wong, I. A. (n.d). Linking Firms, Employees, and Customers: A Multilevel Research Agenda for Hospitality Studies. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 57(1), 7-20. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.student.twu.ca:2956/eds/detail/detail?vid=2&sid=45575e0a-8de3-4eae-9a97-f7e5bbaa8b13%40sessionmgr4008&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d#AN=000370202700002&db=edswss

Posted on

Andragogy-Unit 6-LA1

Andragogy-Unit 6-LA1

 

Unit 6 Learning Activities

The six principles of andragogy are (1) the learner’s need to know, (2) self-concept of the learner, (3) prior experience of the learner, (4) readiness to learn, (5) orientation to learning, and (6) motivation to learn (Knowles, M. S., Swanson, R. A., & Holton, E. F. (2005), p. 3).

In this blog, I will describe my adult learning experience in relevance to Malcolm Knowles six principles

  1. Adult need to know why, they need the reason of learning something (Marriam & Bierma, 2014, p.47)-I appreciate the reason for why do I need to learn about something as part of personal integrity that may participate in many aspects of my life or others in society. It answers the inquiry that was initiated when becoming more self-directed and autonomous and choose what I want to learn and how I want to learn. It’s the transformative process that has a starting point and informative inquiry that keeps me on a track of life-long learning.
  2. Self-concept- the adult becomes more autonomous and self-directed. Knowles (1984) He believed education was based on situations defined by learner needs versus predetermined curriculums because learners came to understand the meaning of education while they were actually “engaged in the process” of education (Lindeman, 1926, p. xix; as cited in Blondy, 2007, P.117). It appears adult learning built upon relationships of the learning experience, as well as goals and aspirations for the future.Over the past years, I found my self-trending in my career and finding opportunities to grow to be more self-directed and independent; therefore,  I can choose and be responsible for my choice. I worked full-time during my adult education, and I was passionate and eager towards a new learning opportunity. I earned experience that I value to invest towards my life-long learning. On the other hand, dealing with students during their practicum, I usually offer them the learning materials and let them set their own understanding of what they learned and what they want to learn and coaching them when needed. For example, verifying patient results requires to review these results from different disciplines. Giving a better understanding of how to interpret these results can be accomplished by learning how to verify clinical results from various aspects. Providing a collaborative learning environment that fosters the mutual respect is encouraging the self-directed approach. The students during their practicum, they develop new ideas based upon knowledge already attained. It’s a collaboration between experience earned during practicum and the new outcome of what was learned. As I work in the healthcare sector, we always follow a standard manual of operation; however -it’s not limited- we can have additional resources from the internet.

    One day I was asked about special test collection that it’s not on our sample dispatch and searching up information from the internet was the deal on how to process the collection. We provide the student with our designed checklist, and we asked them to sign for completion when they meet the expectation. Additionally, we asked them to have their goals and their learning expectation created and documented, thereby we can work on gaps and coach them if needed. We provide them with a safe environment to practice, share and exchange information to reach the pertinent goal.

  3. Experience-an adult accumulates a growing life experience that can bring and invest in a new learning experience. This type of experience that has a contribution to self and others. As an increasing opportunity to what I learned in childhood, and under-graduation level as a dependable learner and to what I accumulate after that time as an in-dependable learner has a positive impact on who I am today, and who I will be in the future. Keep in mind; learning is not limited experience, it can expand upon and branch anywhere it can find the light of growing opportunity. I consider the opportunity as a resource, either to find or you already have or both, its like mind map, you draw the way you want to go through to reach a desirable future. I can employ experience and share this experience with others, in regard, I learn a new lesson that is up to date. I share my experience with my students during their practicum and learn from them to help them reach their goals through the process and find what we can do better for improvement and change. I set my self as an equal to my student, thereby, I usually set an open-mind mode to learn and have the student to participate through discussion and sharing their ideas so we can learn better within that platform. 
  4. Readiness to learn, depend on need- the readiness of an adult to learn is closely related to the developmental tasks of his or her social role. Although Knowles (1984) believed “adults learned primarily out of necessity,” he also believed “learning should be a gratifying and pleasurable experience” (as cited in Blondy 2007, p.123). My readiness to enroll in a master degree is a result branched from my desire to expand my skills and learn from this experience to advance the present and may impact my students during their practicum.
  5. Adult learners are problem-oriented, Knowles (1984) believed “adults normally did not pursue learning simply for the sake of learning, but because they needed to immediately apply what they were learning to life situations” (Blondy, 2007, p.125). There is a change in time perspective as people mature-from future application of knowledge to immediacy of application. Thus, an adult is a more problem than subject centered in learning. The rewarding part of learning as an adult is “I want to practice what I learned, and bring it to the level that has a sense of meaning and purpose.” The use of the application to what we learned encourages the learning opportunity and growth. Its more explanatory to why question, if I have to answer the inquiry.  In the practicum, the students they have more application and hands-on practicing and earning experience that helps them in their future career.
  6. Internal motivation- Adults are mostly driven by internal motivation, rather than an external motivator. Knowles (1984) believed that adults were best motivated to learn primarily by internal factors, such as increased self-esteem, self-actualization, or recognition (Blondy, 2007, p.126). The intrinsic factors that initiate the first step in learning have more power and autonomous than opportunity comes as an external motivator. The positive outcome of that inner motive is life-long learning path. The foresight of having the better future is long lasting one.

Adult learning principles that emphasize “the relevance and usefulness of the contents, include active and reflective strategies and connect to experience and previous knowledge should be considered to create a meaningful whole” (Palis & Quirose, 2014).  The preferred learning environment for me is an online platform, it might be challenging; however, it works around my work schedule, and I can do it at my convenient time.

How technology affects our learning path?

References:

Bartle, M. S. (2013). Andragogy. Research Starters: Education (Online Edition). Retrieved from http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?vid=6&sid=f4c9e5aa-402c-48fa-82f5-27703647a5f1%40sessionmgr102&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d#AN=89164070&db=ers

Blondy, L.C. (2007). Evaluation and application of andragogical assumptions to the adult online learning environment. Journal of Interactive Online Learning, 6(2), 116-130. Retrieved from: http://www.ncolr.org/jiol/issues/pdf/6.2.3.pdf

Knowles, M. S., Swanson, R. A., & Holton, E. F. (2005). The Adult Learner. Amsterdam: Routledge. Retrieved from http://eds.a.ebscohost.com/eds/ebookviewer/ebook/ZTAwMHhuYV9fMTMwMDk5X19BTg2?sid=b6e49970-6187-4090-8eec-6c676c841050@sessionmgr4009&vid=5&format=EB

Palis, A. G. & Quiros, P. A. (2014). Adult learning principles and presentation pearls. Middle East African Journal of Opthamology, 21(2), 114-122. Retrieved from: http://www.meajo.org/article.asp?issn=0974-9233;year=2014;volume=21;issue=2;spage=114;epage=122;aulast=Palis

Posted on

Light form many Lamps- Abraham Lincoln-Unit 6

Lights from many Lamps-Unit 6

Image result for servant leadership images

Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated for the second time on March 4, 1865. He had taken over the leadership of the country at a time of grave crisis and had given his best effort to maintaining and preserving the union.

 “With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan-to-do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among our selves and wish all nations.” Abraham Lincoln, 1865

Lincoln’s strong statement “With malice toward none, with charity for all’, has a great influence, courage, humility, and love for his fellow man (Watson, 1951). He was very aware of the importance of faith and its role in the lives of Americans and used that knowledge to communicate more effectively with his people at that time.  Lincoln believed that God’s hand was at work in the events that surrounded America during this turbulent time. There was no self-aggrandizement anywhere in his speech from Watson (1951) viewpoint; “the union was his main theme, his main interest, unbroken nation, firm in its loyalty and ideal” (p.205). He declared about his interest to reconcile the rebellious state and to rebuild the union he had sworn to preserve.  The American Civil War provided a platform for Abraham Lincoln to demonstrate servant leadership. Lincoln’s servant leadership are the preservation of the Union and the freeing of the slaves.

Lincoln’s noble sentiment to a nation he loved was “appealing for peace and tolerance, for understanding, for an end to sectional bitterness and strife” (Watson, 1951, p.205). His eloquence of democracy and insistence that the Union was worth saving embody the ideals of “self-government” that all nations strive to achieve. Lincoln servant leadership style has two areas that I distinguished: The first area was sustainability and preserving the union, the second one is the revolutionization of his country, empowering and serving the greater good for most of his people. Lincoln’s aspiration to become president stemmed from his desire to serve his country.

References:

Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice, Seventh Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. ISBN 971452203409

Watson, L.E. (1951). _Light from Many Lamps_. New York: Simon and Schuster

 

Posted on

Response to ACHSAHS-SPRINGS’s post-Unit 5

Response to 

Servant Leader Characteristics in Action in Group Project Work

There are many actions that could, and should be taken by leaders when coordinating a project in their context.  What actions do you think are most important?

The project environment impacts how committed team members are toward tasks and the project objectives. Team-leaders who have the interest in servant leadership approach, they invest in their members’ growth; and influence career developments through “modeling, team building, and open decision-making” (Page & Wong, 2000, p.72). Regarding, environment, leaders should be able to realize the importance of the environment surrounding their team;. Therefore they can know how their members are treated, the team members accountability in decision making, development of a new ides, and how power and information flow, therefore they are committed to the task through modeling and building a positive environment to support their team.  A successful team leader employs the principles of servant leadership and focuses on the needs of the team.

Posted on

Response to Lara’s post-Unit 5- effective team leadership

 

Response to Lara’s post-Unit 5- Effective team leadership

https://create.twu.ca/awalkinthewoods/unit-5-team-leadership/#builder_active

What have you as a group member (not necessarily the appointed leader) found to be the most challenging aspect of teamwork? What strategies did you find most helpful in dealing with those issues?

Conflict can be healthy for a team when it is channeled properly. The challenge for leaders or team members is knowing how and when to intervene. Generational differences or any differences at the workplace may cause conflict, different opinion different understanding, however, diagnosing the situation by listening and discussion to understand how to intervene would be the key to resolve the issue. Being open mind and consider other perceptions will help the situation.
Leaders or team members who understand what each team member seeks; therefore, this approach will help them to create structures that can move things when conflicts arise.

Listening and understanding are the tools I use when resolving any conflict, and the following steps are the way I process when conflict arises
-Try to find what are the areas of disagreement
-Try to understand what led to the problem
-Use “discussion” as a tool to understand
-Try to find the root cause
-Seeing the positive viewpoint in each to find the workable solution
Keep in mind, a healthy relationship between the team members will benefit the situation.

Posted on

LEADERSHIP ACTIONS – LDRS 500- Unit 5-LA 2

LEADERSHIP ACTIONS – LDRS 500- Unit 5-LA 2

 

Unit 5 Learning Activity

Actions a team leader should take when coordinating a group project in an organization.

Spears (2010) examined a set of ten characteristics found in Greenleaf’s writing that are of crucial impotence on servant leadership. They are Listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth of people, and building community. These ten characteristics contribute in a meaningful way to servant leadership practice. Servant leadership “seeks to involve others in decision making, is strongly based in ethical and caring behavior, and enhances the growth of workers while improving the caring and quality of organizational life” (Spears, 2010, p.25).

A team leader who plays the role of servant leadership in the organization considered as a member of a collaborative project team. This individual or group of individuals in the team are responsible for planning, executing and promoting the activities that project undertakes and communicating these activities effectively. In considering servant leadership actions, there are three actions were identified by Northouse (2016) as Internal task leadership action, Internal relational leadership actions, and external environmental leadership actions (p. 291). Leaders need to recognize and identify what is getting in the way of the team’s goal accomplishment and choose the appropriate strategy that reveals the necessary actions.

The internal task leadership action- leaders, consider diagnosing the situation when dealing with a “team performance problem.” Diagnosing the situation requires team leader who is approaching a servant leadership, to engage the group activities and listen to them respectively and attentively with empathy to understand the situation and help to transform to a better position to achieve an attainable goal.

There is a list of elements team leader to consider in task-orientation  (Page & Wong, 2000, p.84; Northouse, 2016, p.296) are :

-Goal focusing and share vision with team (clarifying and gaining agreement)

-Structuring results accordingly to meet the attainable goal (planning, visioning, organizing, clarifying roles, delegating)

-facilitating decision making (informing, controlling, coordinating, mediating, synthesizing, focusing on issues)

-training team members in task skills (education and training)

-leading to achieve the attainable goal.

-maintaining standards of excellence (assessing team and individual performance, confronting inadequate performance)

Team-leaders who have the interest in servant leadership approach, they invest in their members’ growth; and influence career developments through “modeling, team building, and open decision-making” (Page & Wong, 2000, p.72).  Servant leadership awareness helps to understand the situation in monitoring the team’s performance. In other words, choosing an intervention to educate the team or train them, clarify the goals and obtain agreement on these goals as part of the interaction and to a certain extent, setting a standard for inadequate performance to improve and get the job done. Structuring results by sharing a vision, “enabling, ennobling, and empowering” (Page & Wong, 2000, p.74). This approach resonates team leader with the workers around them to work for the attainment of that vision.

The internal relational leadership action- Leaders, needs to implement skills to improve team members’ interpersonal skills and intrateam relationships as explained by Northouse (2016, p.297) through:

-Coaching team members in interpersonal skills

-Collaborating (including, involving)

– Managing conflict and power issues (avoiding confrontation, questioning ideas)

-Building commitments (being optimistic, innovating, envisioning, socializing, rewarding, recognizing)

-Satisfying individuals needs (trusting, supporting, advocating)

-modeling ethical and principled practices (fair, consistent, normative).

Team-leaders who want to pursue servant leadership approach choose to intervene the conflict to manage the situation and resolve power issues. The intervention starts by coaching the team members appropriate behavior, build commitments and unity; which in regard provides “healing to self and others” (spears, 2010; Page & Wong, 2000) in the team-relationship.  Team-leaders ability to foresee the outcomes of the situation by “understanding the lessons from the past and realities of the present” (spears 2010; Page & Wong, 2000) may contribute to a decision for the future. Servant leadership approach deemed to convince others and build consensus and effective team-relationship within groups (spears 2010; Page & Wong, 2000).

Part of being a team leader is to support your team, advocate them, and provide them with resources to manage the undesired outcome.

The external environmental leadership action– Leaders might need to take actions to protect their team and to enhance their team effectiveness by monitoring their environment closely. However; team leaders support their team when they connect them to the external environment. Northouse (2016) suggested the following functions:

-Networking and forming alliance in the environment (gathering information, increasing influence)

-Advocating and representing the team to an environment

-Negotiating upward to secure necessary resources, support, and recognition for the team)

-Buffering team members from environmental distractions

-Assessing environmental indicators of team’s effectiveness (survey, evaluations, performance indicators)

-Sharing relevant environmental information with the team (p. 298).

An effective team leader who wishes to use servant leadership approach may need to advocate and represent their team to the external environment. They bring team’s effort to the upper -level of management to be appreciated and rewarded. Their intrinsic value is deeply committed to the growth of each individual in the team and within his or her organization. This awareness leads to build community among those who work within a given institution (Spears, 2010). Team-leaders in servant leadership approach, they invest in their members’ growth; and influence career developments through “modeling, team building, and open decision-making” (Page & Wong, 2000, p.72). Regarding environment, leaders should be able to realize the importance of the environment surrounding their team, so they can know how their members are treated, the team members accountability in decision making, development of a new ides, and how power and information flow, therefore they are committed  to the task through modeling and building a positive environment to support their team.

The fundamental assertion of the functional perspective is that leader is to do whatever is necessary to take care of unmet needs of the group (Northouse, 2016). Effective team leadership focuses on both task and relational issues/problems as a high level of task productivity, combined with superior intrateam relationships, leads to best team performance and development.

My question is: Do you think all these characteristics have to be applied in one situation? if it’s not what is the most needed ones?

Resources:

Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice, Seventh Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. ISBN 971452203409 (Chapter 14 Team Leadership)

Page, D., & Wong, T. P. (2000). A conceptual framework for measuring servant leadership. The human factor in shaping the course of history and development, 69-110.

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted on

TEAM EFFECTIVENESS-LDRS 500-UNIT 5-LA 1

TEAM EFFECTIVENESS – Unit 5- LA 1

 

Unit 5 Learning Activity

 

The two critical function of team effectiveness according to Hill’s model is performance and development (Northouse, 2016). Performance (task accomplishment) is the “quality of decision making, ability to implement a decision, the outcome of teamwork in terms of problems solved and work completed, and the quality of institutional leadership provided by the team” (Nadler 1998, as cited by Northouse, 2016, p.299). Team development (maintenance of team) is the “cohesiveness of the team and the ability of group member to satisfy their own needs while working effectively with other team members” (Nader 1998, s cited in Northouse, 2016, p.299).

Hackman and Walton (1986) suggested criteria and conditions that are necessary for the effectiveness of task-performing team in the organization. These components are “clear, engaging direction, enabling structure, enabling context, adequate material resources, and expert coaching (as cited in Northouse, 2016, p.299).

Larson and laFasto (1989, as cited in Northouse, 2016), described the characteristics of team excellence as:

Clear and elevating goal – team goals must be clear and involving or motivating so members believe it to be worthwhile and aligned with task-performance objectives.

Results-driven structure – Teams need to find the best structure for accomplishing their goal. Structure feature that leads to effective teamwork includes task design, team composition, core norms of conduct. “Appropriate structures enable groups to meet their needs while accomplishing team goals.”

Competent team members – group should be composed of the right number and mix of members to accomplish all the tasks of the group. Team members need certain core competencies that include the ability to do the job and to solve the problem. Considering certain team factors that have a positive impact on the team are openness, positive personal style, an action of orientation, and supportiveness.

Unified commitment – teams that have developed a sense of unity and identification.

Collaborative climate – is one in which team member can stay problem focused, listen to and understand one another, feel free to take risks, and be willing to compensate for one another. To foster collaboration, we need to develop trusting relationships based on honesty, openness, consistency, and respect.

Standards of excellence – team members’ performance should be regulated so that action can be coordinated, and tasks completed. The team leader can facilitate this process by requiring results- making exceptions clear; reviewing results-providing feedback to resolve performance issues and rewarding results-acknowledging superior performance.

External support and recognition – the team can achieve excellence if they are given the resources needed to do their jobs, are recognized for team accomplishments and rewarded for team performance rather than for individual performance.

Principled leadership – it’s the central drive of team effectiveness, influencing the team through four sets of a process, helps the team to handle stressful circumstances by providing clear goals, assignment, and strategies. Leaders help integrate the team’s activities by matching members’ skills to roles, providing clear performance strategies, monitoring feedback, and adapting to environmental change.

To provide personal examples of these components in my practice, I deemed to choose:

Clear, elevated goal – which I exercise daily at my workplace by keeping my self and others focused on the task. Dealing with patients and reporting critical results require to communicate clearly and based on priority. Our goal in the team is to provide our best and promote patient care. Collaboration, regarding this component; the goals must include a social framework that drives others momentum and stimulate the completion of the task. In the lab. environment; every member has assigned role where the performance of each contribute to the collective success, and the failure may reside on the team accordingly.

Results-driven structure – our team in the lab has defined a structure, every member has a definite role (know what to do), communicate with other members of other teams effectively to deliver patient results promptly.

Leadership influencing the team through four sets of a process: cognitive, motivational, affective, and coordination (Northouse, 2016, p.302). Cognitively, the leader helps the team to better understand the situation. Motivationally, when the leader helps the team become cohesive and capable of setting high standards and helping them to achieve them. Affectively, the leader maintains the team to handle a stressful situation. Coordinatively, when leaders help integrate the team’s activities by matching members’ skills to roles and adapting to changes. In my practice, dealing with patients results might be stressful, and usually, I support the team through affective modulation and work with them to achieve our shared goal; therefore I may need to clear the target based on the circumstances and change assignments to function better.

What do you think if you gave your team the resources needed and one of the team members still does need to ask about them every time? what is the suitable way to make it available for that member?

References:

Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice, Seventh Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. ISBN 971452203409 (Chapter 14 Team Leadership)

 

 

Posted on

Response to Layla’s post- Lights from many lamps

Response to Layla’ s post- Light from many lamps

Light From Many Lamps: Failure is the Staying Down Rather Than the Falling Down

I like your story Layla, “We cannot change or restart our experience, but we can make a turn when we reach the dead end.” We all experience turns in life, some of them good and some them of them bad. When we have to face the bad ones, we have the choice, stuck or turn around it. We are all wired and ingrained to go around it. Personally, the present is what matters to me; I have the choice to change and do better. I would do baby steps and small wins until I start to build momentum. So, preparing the mind to change the course, and making commitment and devotion to keep the present.