What is it like to be on a team?
As I look back at the days of playing sports, I remember how much work and time it took for everyone to pull together to attain our mutual goal, to win the goal and be number one. As a member of the national swim team for my country, I found myself competing against various people each with their own strengths in each stroke. I say team as we were individuals who each possessed a great skill and ability with each stroke, but we could only reach our goal by communicating with each other and working together.
As a team, we were able to influence each other, motivate each other and encourage each other to perform well.( Northouse, 2013) Although our team was fairly small compared to other countries, this group size allowed our coach to have a close relationship with each of us and be more interactive.
As Northouse, 2013 mentions, a great leader possesses two critical components: task function and maintenance function. Over the season, our coaches took the time to observe our performance and help to develop our skills so that we could not only improve our skills to accomplish our personal goal, but maintain it to achieve our group goal of winning the competition. During this process, our coach practiced what we in our course refer to as the task performance and task development. ( PSU, 2014) When it came time to select a relay team for the regional competition, Both the members of the team and our leader recognized what each individuals strengths were , what our goal was and what our team would need to get there. As a result of the close relationship she had with each member as well as the knowledge of each persons strengths, the decision of which person to choose for which position became easier.
As Hackman and Walton ( 1986) mentioned, “ a team is judged on their performance and their achievements”. A great leader ensures this result will be good by setting clear direction for the team, reinforcing and supporting its success and providing coaching. ( Hackman, 1986) Ginnett, 1993; 1996 mentions that the effectiveness of a leader can be measured by performance and how effective it is. By taking what is available to a team which is referred to as a inputs, a leader can help to improve this input by using tools such as encouraging, motivating and influencing them to be more effective. (Northouse, 2013) This was seen in both the power and influence theory as well as the leader-member exchange. ( PSU, 2014)
In the end, I have come to see that when a leader can impact other peoples behavior beyond their own, it shows how much all the theories prior affect team leadership.
References
Northouse, P.G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Los Angeles: Sage Publications.
Penn State WebAccess Secure Login:. (2014, September 30). Retrieved from https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/fa14/psych485/002/content/06_lesson/printlesson.html
Hackman, J. R., & Walton, R. E. (1986). Leading groups in organizations. In P. S. Goodman & Associates (Eds.), Designing effective work groups (pp. 72-119). San Francisco: Josssey-Bass.
Ginnett, R. C. (1996). Team effectiveness and leadership model: Identifying leverage points for change. Proceedings of the 1996 National Leadership Institute Conference. College Park, MD: National Leadership Institute.
Ginnett, R. C. (1993). Crews as groups: Their formation and their leadership. In E. Wiener, B. Banki, & R. Helmreich (Eds.), Cockpit Resource Management. Orlando, FL: Academic Press