Powerpoint Presentation (Study guide attached) APA format

MSL 6000, Psychological Foundations of Leadership 1

Course Learning Outcomes for Unit VII Upon completion of this unit, students should be able to:

6. Examine the characteristics a leader needs to achieve organizational objectives. 6.1 Explain the value of teams within an organization. 6.2 Determine which leadership characteristics are the most important for team success. 6.3 Analyze strategies a leader can utilize to deal with conflict management and facilitate team

development.

Course/Unit Learning Outcomes

Learning Activity

6.1 Unit Lesson Chapter 10 Unit VII PowerPoint Presentation

6.2 Unit Lesson Chapter 10 Unit VII PowerPoint Presentation

6.3 Unit Lesson Chapter 10 Unit VII PowerPoint Presentation

Reading Assignment In addition to a physical copy of the textbook, each unit contains the eTextbook version of the assigned reading chapters. If preferred, click on Unit VII in the course navigation menu to access the online version of the assigned chapters. Chapter 10: Leading Teams, pp. 293–316

Unit Lesson Teams are a critical component in today’s complex organizations, but they can present many leadership challenges. Daft (2018) defines a team as a “unit of two or more people who interact and coordinate their work to accomplish a shared goal or purpose” (p. 294). A high-performing team is a group of people who share a common vision, collaborate, and hold each other accountable to achieve outstanding results (Daft,

2018). Organizations use various types of teams to accomplish their goals. Some teams are formed within their division or department and are led by their current supervisor. For example, a marketing department may form a team within the department that is created to work on a specific advertising campaign. While one member of the team may take on the team leadership role, ultimately, the entire team still reports to the marketing department manager. Cross departmental teams, or matrix teams, work across multiple departments within an

organization and may have multiple leaders. For example, a project team might be formed to develop a new product for the organization. This team might include staff from research and development, production, finance, and marketing. Members of the team will still be accountable to their division leader, but they may

UNIT VII STUDY GUIDE

Leading Teams

TEAM: Unit of two or more people who

interact and coordinate their work to accomplish a shared goal or

purpose

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also have leaders within the team. Regardless of the type of team established, the leader must find ways to motivate the team to work as a high-performance team. You will be able to spot a high-performing team if the members have a clear vision, clear direction, and a solid plan to accomplish their objectives. High-performance teams do not just happen; they must be developed and nurtured by leaders. Typically, cohesiveness is a prelude to a high-performing team. Daft (2018) identifies five elements of a high-performing team. A high-performing team will have the characteristics listed below.

1. A compelling purpose with clear objectives and goals. Leaders need to make sure all team members know exactly what is expected of them and ensure all members are committed to the process. In order for this to happen, there must be a clear, well-defined purpose. Team members should be able to articulate why they are working on the team project, what the end results should be, and how the success of the project (and their work) will be measured and evaluated. Metrics should be established that detail the progression of the project and how well the team is meeting (or not meeting) the stated goals.

2. A diversity of skills and clearly defined roles. Teams should possess a diverse set of skills and a variety of knowledge and experiences. Each team member should possess a clear understanding of their role and what is expected of them. A team that has a lot of overlap in their member’s skills, abilities, and responsibilities will likely also have a lot of confusion and conflict as members try to figure out their specific roles. Leaders need to make sure there is very little ambiguity in the roles and responsibilities established for their team.

3. Streamlined team size. There has been a lot of debate on the minimum and maximum number of individuals to comprise an effective team. While no absolute consensus has been established, most team leaders find smaller teams (5-6 members) perform better and have more motivation and teamwork satisfaction than larger teams.

4. Decision authority over how to achieve goals: Teams need the autonomy to make the necessary decisions collaboratively to fulfill the project goals. Good leaders will build a team they can trust and feel comfortable sharing information, responsibility, and power to accomplish the team objectives.

5. Support and coaching: A leader who possesses solid soft leadership skills (e.g., a positive attitude, good communication skills, time management, problem-solving, mentoring) is more likely to build positive team relationships than a leader who does not possess these skills. Team cohesiveness is strengthened when leaders provide support, meaning, and trust.

Leading a High-

Performing Team

Purpose with Objectives and Goals

Diversity of Skills and

Defined Roles

Streamlined Team Size

Authority Over How to

Achieve Goals

Support and Coaching

A quick look at the five elements of a high-performing team. (Daft, 2018)

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When it comes to team leadership, there are a myriad of factors that can affect the leader’s ability to lead an effective team. Leaders are challenged to find ways to balance the company goals, performance goals, and the individual goals of their team. There are many variables that leaders have to take into account when leading their team. The team’s experience, the characteristics of the team, culture of the organization, and the resources available are just some of the variables affecting team leadership. A leader’s influence on each variable is dependent upon the specific situation he or she is experiencing. Situational variables (those variables not controlled by the leader, such as the economy) have a direct impact on mediating variables (or those variables that can affect organizational performance, such as the organization’s vision or culture). A situational variable can determine the importance of a mediating variable to overall team performance. Situational variables can either have an effect on task commitment or subordinate ability and role clarity. As you have seen in previous readings, the characteristics of the followers, the work environment, and the external environment all affect a leader’s ability to lead (Daft, 2018). Regardless of the effect, a leader’s role (among many) is to foster continuous improvement in team performance. There must be a balance between the task and ability; what works best for one team may not have the same outcome with another team. One way of achieving this is for leaders to focus on the elements and contributions of teams as well as team cohesiveness. Since the team dynamics will likely change over time, it is important to understand how teams develop. Team Development The stages of team development usually occur in sequence with some overlap between the stages. As you recall, these stages were introduced briefly in Unit II. The five stages of team development are outlined in more detail below.

The first stage of team development is the forming stage. This is when the team members are getting to know each other. The team members at this stage are usually not quite sure of the roles and responsibilities of each member. There may be getting-to-know-you exercises or informal gatherings to introduce team members. In the forming stage, the leader takes a facilitator role, making sure that relationships among team members are being established. In the next phase, the team moves to the storming stage. The team is more comfortable at this stage. The team roles are more clearly established, and team members start to establish working processes. This is where team conflict often arises as team members start to push the boundaries and jockey for positions with the team (Daft, 2018). This is a critical stage for the team. The leader must resolve any conflicts early before the team is derailed. The team leader can often take on the mediator role at this stage by facilitating communication, clarifying roles and responsibilities, and resolving any conflicts hastily. The leader must make sure the team moves beyond this stage quickly as conflicts can quickly snowball and jeopardize the chance of the team becoming a high-performance team.

•Orientation

•Establish relationships

Forming

•Conflict

•Establish processes

Storming •Collaboration

•Delegate responsibilities

Norming

•Cooperation

•Accomplish goals

Performing •Completion

•Wrap up and clean up

Adjourning

Five stages of team development (Daft, 2018)

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Once the initial conflict has been resolved and team members start to settle into their roles, the team will enter the norming stage. In this stage, the team typically starts acting in a cohesive manner with everyone working collaboratively toward the team objective. The leader, at this point, can start to delegate some of the daily management responsibilities to others within the team. The team leader will continue to clarify roles and responsibilities in this stage and make sure the team stays focused on the expected goals. In the performing stage, the real work on the team project is being performed. By this point, the team has settled into their roles and is task oriented. The team leader will be focusing his or her efforts on managing the tasks the team needs to accomplish to meet goals. At some point during this stage, the team may move toward a self-managed team with little interaction needed from the leader. Lastly, the team will move into the final adjourning stage. This is essentially the cleanup stage where the team leader makes sure that all of the tasks have been completed successfully. Once the project is complete, the leader will disband the team. During this stage, it is important that the leader pays attention to the health and well-being of the individual team members. The team may have mixed feelings about completing the project and returning to their nonteamwork. Team deficiencies Some conflict in teamwork is inevitable. Team members spend a lot of time together working on tight deadlines with high outcome expectations. It is only natural that, in these types of situations, the team may experience some conflict that threatens to affect the ability of the team to be successful. How the leader reacts and responds to team conflict will determine if the team can overcome the conflict and move forward or fall apart. When the leader finds himself or herself in a position to take corrective action for team deficiencies, there are various leadership styles that can be developed, depending on the situation (Daft, 2018). The five styles of handling team deficiencies are listed below.

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Each team leader style is dependent upon the situation, the individuals, and the leader’s behaviors. Each of these principles is a variable that contributes to the team’s success, whether it is immediate or a work-in- progress. Leaders can adopt the approach that best suits the needs of their specific situation when team conflict arises. They may find they need to use elements of all the team conflict styles at one time. The key is for leaders to understand where their action is most needed. This will enable them to provide interventions that allow them to respond efficiently to performance deficits and to increase the success of the overall team and performance. Teams present an interesting leadership dilemma. Individual team members may have more than one leader (their functional manager and their team manager). In addition, team leaders will likely have to deal with dysfunctional teams and poorly performing team members at some point in their careers. Teams go through stages and change over time. Good team leaders will know how to guide the team through these changes and will minimize conflict within the team. A leader of a team can motivate his or her team and encourage a cohesive, collaborative work environment by setting team goals, establishing team norms, and acting quickly to resolve any conflict or communication issues that may arise in the team.

Styles to Handle Conflict (Daft, 2018)

Dominating: This type of leader is quick to make decisions and is decisive in his or her actions. This leadership style has a clear line of authority with delegation and power flowing from the top down. While this style is authoritative in nature (i.e., “my way or the highway"), it can be an effective leadership style. This is especially evident in cases where a decision must be made quickly, such as in an emergency situation. For example, if a fire broke out in a building, a leader would want to direct people to leave immediately and would not put the order up for discussion.

Avoiding: This leader is not authoritative or compliant. He or she is neither decisive nor wishy-washy when making decisions. Instead, he or she tries to avoid the situation all together. While this can lead to chaos when making business decisions, it can be effective when dealing with personal matters in the workplace that do not require a manager’s intervention. For example, if two coworkers are not getting along, the manager may decide to avoid the situation altogether to see if the situation resolves on its own.

Compromising: This type of leader values a collaborative style. He or she realizes the potential for achieving strategic goals when all parties are working together toward a mutual agreement. This type of leader will ask for input from his or her followers and make sure that all sides are well represented when a dispute arises. This style can take longer to get to the end result but may allow all parties to feel empowered and valued.

Accommodating: This style incorporates some of the collaboration style of the compromising leader, but this leader will focus more on bringing harmony to the decision process. In the compromising style, there is some give and take while parties try to meet in the middle on an issue. In the accommodating style, the goal is for all parties to feel that their needs were met without having to give up anything or compromise.

Collaborating: This style reflects assertiveness and cooperation so that everyone feels like they won. This style combines elements of the compromising and accommodating styles and is often used when substantial negotiation tactics are needed. Each party offers solutions to a problem and then works together to come up with a consensus.

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Reference Daft, R. L. (with Lane, P. G.). (2018). The leadership experience (7th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

Learning Activities (Nongraded) Nongraded Learning Activities are provided to aid students in their course of study. You are not required to submit these to your instructor but are encouraged to keep a copy for your personal files. If you have questions, contact your instructor for further guidance and information. Apply the Concepts: Take the Self-Assessment! No matter your role, chances are you will eventually be part of a team. In your current organization, are you a contributing team member? How do you typically handle team conflict? Take the Chapter 10 Self- Assessments to find out. Click on Unit VII in the course navigation menu, and then click on Nongraded Learning Activities.