There is an old saying if you want to go fast, go alone and if you want to go far, go together. Anytime anyone that has ever achieved something great, there was a team of people involved in helping them to achieve that goal. Although the team leader is often the one that gets the credit, it is crucial to understand their work was not accomplished alone. Let’s take a look at Community organizing as an example of Team Leadership.
Before President Obama became the President, one of his jobs was a community organizer. A community organizer coordinates efforts to be carried out by local residents to promote the interests of their community. Interest could include, parks, road improvements or reporting a slum lord. Team leadership suggests that there are “two critical functions of leadership, helping the group accomplish its task and keeping the group maintaining and functioning” (Northouse, 2013, PSU WC, 2016, L. 9, p. 5). This would have been Barack Obama’s task. He was the one to ensure that that each group within the community had what they needed, as this would also ensure that the overall goal was achieved. As a leader of a team, part of his role was to make pertinent decisions and solve insurmountable problems.
Furthermore, when a community is set to organize, there are several components that will make it a success. Just to name a few, we will look at competent team members and unified commitment. These group members are the right people to accomplish the given task. There have just the right amount of group members and members are involved in some regard. (PSU WC, 2016, L. 9, p. 9) Northouse adds that in order for a teams to be successful, the culture needs to support member involvement (p. 364). This could include the community at large supporting decisions made by the team and group leaders, which important because the decisions made will affect the entire community.
On the other hand, group members within the group can have their share of problems too. Every group has to also have a group leader. Some may want to assert themselves as a leader while others may feel that they are better at the jobs. According to Northouse, the leader has special ability for functioning in a manner that will help the team achieve its effectiveness (p. 366). In essence, Barack Obama had to make sure that those that were in group leadership roles would serve effective for the overall goal of the team. This can cause conflict at times, but decision like these often have to be made by team leaders so that they are effective as a group.
To conclude, community organizing is a great example of team leadership and how the members involved aid in a team to achieve their goal. Team leaders are always observing how can make the group members more productive. This also includes making adjustments to the structure of team, therefore making overall decisions a lot easier.
Reference
Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership theory and practice (7th ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications.
Pennsylvania State University World Campus. (2016). PSYCH 485 Lesson 9: Team Leadership. Retrieved June 19, 2016 from https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/su16/psych485/001/content/05_lesson/01_page.html