Throughout my analysis of the material presented, I have found myself mostly applying the ideas to workplace scenarios. I feel that this has been beneficial to me as I continue to grow into a leadership position within my career. It was not until recently though, that it dawned on me that many of the ideas and theories put forth on leadership could be applied to the job that I have many would argue matters the most. This important task is the one that my partner Sarah and I have embarked upon together of raising our two children.
Balancing our scholastic and career goals, while attempting to maintain a functional family life is a tightrope the entire family walks together as a team. Being effective requires all of the team members; Sarah, our 4 and 6 year old son and daughter, as well as me, to work interdependently to accomplish our individual goals, while coming together to accomplish our collective family goals. All of this, while Sarah and I concentrate on the overarching goal of attempting to sculpt functional, engaging, well-rounded humans ready to enter the world in a way that we hope will one day make it a little bit better of a place than we found it. Sound easy? Hopefully, with the proper use of the team leadership model, it will all work out as planned.
The Hill Model for Team Leadership provides a way to better understand and analyze the complex nature of teams by breaking down what goes on in a team into three main sections (Northouse, 2016 pg. 366). These sections start with leadership decisions at the top, followed by leadership actions, and ends with ways which team effectiveness can be displayed (Northouse, 2016 pg. 366). When thinking about this model in relation to my family, and how we function together as a team, I can definitely say that Sarah and I share the role of leader as needed. We are continually collaborating to try and achieve the best outcome possible in each individual situation we encounter as parents.
This collaboration is in full effect during the leadership decision portion of the Hill Model. Leadership decisions often consist of making a determination whether and how to intervene to improve team functioning (Northouse, 2016 pg. 372). Often after the children go to bed Sarah and I find ourselves discussing how things are going around the house in general, and what we need to do in terms of intervening with the kids and their behavior. We try to make decisions on better strategies for delegating duties around the house between ourselves in order to more effectively accomplish our simple daily goals like doing laundry, cooking meals, making sure the children are bathed and so on. The leadership decisions Sarah and I work together on making, help us more effectively lay the groundwork for the team that is our family to be successful.
After Sarah and I have collaborated on leadership decisions we find ourselves at the middle section of the Hill Model for team leadership which is leadership action. Northouse (2016 pg. 377) indicates that “it is up to the leader to assess what action, if any, is needed and then intervene with the specific leadership function” relative to the situation at hand. Recently Sarah and I have discussed how and when to intervene when the kids are fighting. As silly as it sounds, I think a little sibling rivalry is a good thing and always breaking up a quarrel before it elevates a bit isn’t necessarily always the right move. Sarah is not as inclined to this line of thinking, but when we collaborate correctly on these leadership decisions, hopefully the collective leadership actions of both of our parenting styles will aid in the ultimate goal of raising well rounded humans.
Excellent teams perform well through successful task accomplishment, while maintaining a cohesive team in which members satisfy their own needs while working effectively with other team members (Northouse, 2016 pg. 368). The last portion of the Hill Model for team leadership explores team effectiveness, and hopefully after careful decision making and acting upon these decisions with appropriate actions, Sarah and I are well on our way to leading the successful team that is our family. Things like the collaborative climate she and I work on creating for our decision making, as well as our unified commitment to our always elevating goals for our children and attempting to make them more competent team members themselves, (Northouse, 2016 pg. 369) are hopefully all characteristics indicative of team excellence.
As I continue to grow as a person, and try to present a better version of myself to the world, I am hopeful that I can continue to find other areas of my life in which I can apply, or am already applying leadership skills that I am learning about. I think it is quite possible, that with enough reflection, I may be able to utilize the leadership theories and principles presented in this course in ways I haven’t even thought of or noticed I already was yet.
References:
Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and Practice. 7th Edition. Los Angeles: SAGE
Meghan Griffin says
I was compelled to comment on your submission for a couple of reasons: the first being that I, too, have enjoyed applying what I learn in this class to what I am witnessing as a growing professional. Taking on a leadership position at work alongside this class has allowed me to grow into the role gracefully.
The second reason is that I appreciate that you apply the lessons from this week into your family. The comparison of the two works very well. In technical terms, you and your family are a group that share a common goal and, therefore, are a team. Your wife and the more obvious leaders but you are shaping your children to be active participants. How you participate with your family are recognized as an effective team as you meet the main components suggested. (PSU WC Spring 2019 L. 9)
Particularly, I recognize that your team has that results-driven structure as suggested in the commentary this week. Equally, I recognize the collaborative nature of your relationship. Which is another important component of a strong team. It is fair to state that as parents, you are participating in one final component of effective team leadership and that is the principled leadership. You are setting examples for your children through your own behavior on how to be good teammates.
Pennsylvania State University World Campus. (2019). PSYCH 485: Lesson 9: Team Leadership Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1972967/modules/items/2570494
acr5216 says
Hi Chris,
Thank you for such a thoughtful and though-provoking discussion of “team Taylor”. When I think of team leadership I immediately go into the thought of work life and never grasped how I can relate team leadership to family life as well until you gave me that. (Even though my children and I live by the mantra “team work makes the dream work”)
I am divorced and so my little team consists of my 15 & 16 year old and our little Cairn Terrier-Rascal. As I was reading your post I was thinking about we apply all the components of team effectiveness…I usually establish clear and elevating goals for the family as well as results driven structure for establishing our goals, we have competent team members for right mix of tasks we need to accomplish, we all have an unwavering unified commitment to achieving our family goals and thus our home is very collaborative. There are clear standards of excellence that we strive to live by and we have tons of external support and finally as the principled leader of the family, I motivate the team, keep us aligned and cohesive and marching forward to our family goals.
Thanks again for giving us all such an insightful way to look at team leadership!