Case Study 12.3
Utilizing case study 12.3 to demonstrate the concepts of team leadership I have found in my experience, Kim Green is not experiencing something new to what difficulties lie within teams. The team was initially excited at the prospect of being selected for something that would affect the university. I would advise Green to follow the four functions as noted by McGrath (Northouse, 2013). The first step would be to diagnose the team’s deficiencies. Based on the scenario of our lecture, I see the following issues: 1. the task is ambiguous. 2. The teams resources (their time) was causing their “real” jobs to suffer resulting in poor attendance and failure to produce and lastly the university president appeared to lose interest.
The second step would be for Green to take action to remove those deficiencies. The first thing she should do is go back to the university president and get clarification on the task as well as how much time should the committee dedicate to the task from their regular jobs. After getting this clarification, Green would report to the team with the information she received. I feel that this would have alleviated most of her problems as well as those of the team. As each team member understood the task and the importance to the university, they would dedicate the allocated time to be successful. These actions are described as Internal Leadership Actions. Under the task column of Hill’s Model for Team Leadership, Green would be addressing Goal Focusing where the team’s goal would be very clear and gaining the teams agreement on what the task actually was (Northouse, 2013, p 296). Under the relational column, she would be Satisfying Needs, as she would demonstrate that the task is important enough to merit their full attention and that the leadership of the university understands the cost with regard to their normal jobs and reinforce the importance of the task to the university (Northouse, 2013, p 296).
Furthermore, Green should schedule at least one meeting with the university president and the team. This meeting would be to inform the university president on the status of the task and allow the team members to ask questions of the president. However, this is not only to be informative but also rather to demonstrate to the team how important this task is to the president and the university. It is also understood that the president would reiterate the charge and inform the team just how important the task is as well as how much s/he personally appreciates their efforts. This would be an External Leadership Action primarily addressing the advocating aspect of the environmental column (Northouse, 2013, p 297). .
I feel strongly that the few areas that Green would address would put the team back on track. From the scenario is seems that the ambiguous task is the catalyst of the teams loss of momentum. I was involved with strategic planning which this scenario implies and I too have been in Greens shoes. In one of my previous organizations, we would quarterly brief the commander on our progress and what objectives have been accomplished in achieving the organizational goals. The commander would reiterate his commitment to the strategic plan and not only did the strategic planning team go above and beyond, when the organization as a whole saw his commitment, there was widespread organizational commitment to the accomplishing the goals and objectives. It was imbedded in every employees rating objectives and inculcated into every aspect of the organizations processes and programs. If an office need to purchase something or have an employee attend training, the justification had to be tied to an organizational goal or objective.
Green’s task is not easy but understanding the needs of each team member and responding to those needs will result into what I described. The team members will understand that they are taking an active part in paving the way for the future success and relevance of the university and indirectly ensuring their job security and that of their peers.
REFRENCES
Northouse, P. (2013). Team Leadership. In Leadership: Theory and practice (6th ed., pp. 287-318). Thousand Oaks: SAGE.
Pennsylvania State World Campus (n.d.). Module 9 Team Leadership Retrieved from
https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/sp15/psych485/001/content/09_lesson/printlesson.html
GMC says
Hi!
It would seem we have two of the same classes 🙂
I also was intrigued with Kim Green’s dilemma but I thought the first piece of advice for her problematic “group” would be to decide whether the people she is working with would be considered a team or a group of people. I did not see where it specified. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason as to how they were going to approach their task of planning a mission for the university for the next 20 years.
We have learned that there is a distinct difference, unbeknownst to many people, between the two. “A team is a type of organizational group that is composed of members who are interdependent, who share common goals, and who must coordinate their activities to accomplish those goals”. (Northouse 2016, Pg 14) A group on the other hand involves two or more people who interact with one another in a manner that each person influences and is influenced by the other. It is my opinion that a team would be more compatible with the goal they are trying to achieve. A team has individuals who each have separate pieces of a task or goal, which is then combined into the final product. It is different from a group in that team members are critically reliant on one another throughout the completion of the task.
After this is done, then yes, I completely agree with you that the task is indeed ambiguous and they would need to get a handle on a better strategy to make more practical use of their time. This was actually where my second piece of advice came about. I thought a plan to delegate responsibilities and form “a leader” for that team should be decided. In reviewing Susan E. Kogler Hills’ model for team leadership, “the leader’s job is to monitor the team and then take whatever action is necessary to ensure team effectiveness”. “The leader has special responsibility for functioning in a manner that will help the team achieve effectiveness”. (Northouse, 2016 Pg 366) Under the team leadership, we take into account the changing role of leaders and followers in organizations which leads to shared leadership. In order to take appropriate steps to manage a team effectively, a leader follows a set of actions as such set up through the guide based off of the Kogler Hill model for team leadership and which states that “effective leaders have the ability to determine what leadership interventions are needed, if any, to solve team problems”. (Northouse, 2016 Pg 367) The effective leader monitors and takes action and assigns tasks for internal and external goals. Internal includes task and relational actions and pertain to anything that is within the confines of the group such as for tasks, goal focusing, structure and facilitating, training and maintaining standards. And for relational it encompasses coaching, collaborating, managing conflict, building commitment, satisfying needs, and modeling principles. Kims’ team was completely lacking in this area. External goals pertain to matters such as those outside of the group such as networking, advocating, negotiating support, buffering, accessing and sharing information. It is very important as a leader to have control and maintain all of these actions. Doing this will result in the teams overall effectiveness.
The teams’ effectiveness should first include a competent team that consists of the right people for the goal in mind. They must have unified commitment towards that goal. They should have a clear and elevating goal with a purpose in mind. They must have a result driven structure that leads to effective teamwork such as task design, team composition, and core norms of conduct. There must be a collaborative climate in which members feel comfortable to participate, willing to take risks and to collaborate without distinction. And they should stop nothing but short of the standard of excellence that they wish to achieve for the desired outcome.
I agree with you that once Kim decides to take charge and gets things implemented to start running everything smoothly, she will no doubt have success with her team.
Strategic planning as described by the Balance Score Card Institute “is an organizational management activity that is used to set priorities, focus energy and resources, strengthen operations, ensure that employees and other stakeholders are working toward common goals, establish agreement around intended outcomes/results, and assess and adjust the organization’s direction in response to a changing environment.” And it is often a mundane, long drawn out sometimes expensive task that takes a lot of time, effort and dedication of those individuals involved.
I enjoyed reading your post!
References:
Balance Score Card Institute (2015) Strategy Management Group http://balancedscorecard.org/Resources/Strategic-Planning-Basics
Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice (7th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.