discussion

Leadership within teams is essential because an organization must swiftly navigate through the market, adapt to change efficiently, and sustain an innovative and motivated workgroup. With a leader in place, teams feel supported, guided, and cared for, which can create a dynamic within the team that promotes motivation and engagement. A defined leader can help with problem-solving, decision making, individual development, and meeting deadlines. The leaders can help define specific goals with specific directions on how to meet those goals. A team can fail at points because they have a vague task and then are required to work out the details and to problem-solve on their own (Northouse, 2018, sec. 14.1).

Additionally, teams often fail because they allow something else to blur their purpose. This is the reason that the leader plays such an important role. They should be effective in keeping the momentum, dedication, and objective in the forefront.

To ensure team success, the leader must be able to navigate through several obstacles during the leadership journey. They must know when to apply specific tactics, jump in and problem solve, and be able to monitor the on-goings of the group at all times to ensure effectiveness. The leaders, the followers, and the group should always be working toward a common goal. It should be the leader's responsibility to react if that is not the case or to have a routine pulse check with the group to ensure everyone is on track.

In a previous role, I was part of a project team that had a great leader, which made the team very successful. The purpose of this team was a change management group. The leader was very effective in her navigating the change team and teaching the group how to become a change ninja for the department. We met weekly with an agenda and always took notes. The leader was very skilled in her communication as well as her tactic to ask open-ended questions to stimulate ideas and more questions from the group. We always created plans of communication, launch, had test environment as well as prepared for the worst. Being that the leader was so detailed oriented and organized in her project development, the team was very successful in their initiatives. I would say this leader was very participate, and supportive in her leadership behaviors, which made it easy to work with her and created a highly engaged and motivated workgroup.

References

Northouse, P. G. (2018). Leadership theory and practice (8th ed.). SAGE.