I have to say when I think of team leadership, I immediately recall experiencing this a few semesters ago. It was one of many Psychology classes I had taken and in this one class, we had a peer group assignment writing an essay paper together. We were only 4 members in the group but the energy to meet the same goal was there. The goal was writing this 10-page paper together and this paper would receive one grade for all, typical in these types of group assignments.
As soon as we were assigned to a group, my group consisted of 5 people including myself. The first to reach out the me was a student we’ll call Gina, and she sent these friendly, open messages to all of us in the group inviting us to join a group chat she had set up through a student chatting app. She explained why she set this up stating it was easier and quicker for us to communicate throughout the course of this assignment. We were all World Campus students, different schedules, different time zones, different lives and she said we could all keep in contact with work together.
As each of us logged in, reintroduced ourselves, we got to work through the chat right away. Gina was kind, friendly, empathetic, and positive to everyone. She had also made each of us feel our participation mattered. From deciding on what our project was supposed to be about, to who was going to write what part, Gina wanted to hear from everyone, and everyone else wanted too also. We brainstormed and tackled the harder questions, and we all gave each other feedback on our writings. Northouse (2021, pg.462) writes that there are three key factors in the effectiveness of virtual teams. First, the use of technology, second, managing distance, and third, team structure. I believe our group hit all three factors, with Gina initiating communication with technology that helped us manage our distance from each other and we were all engaged in our structure as a group.
Gina never made us feel like she was our leader. She just brought us together and made clear we were all equals in the common goal: the grade from this assignment. Although she clearly displayed leadership ability, not once did she ever make us feel that way or insinuate, she was leader. It was a positive experience I had with group projects I hope to have again.
(Northouse, 2021-02-02)
Northouse, P. G. (2021-02-02). Leadership: Theory and Practice, 9th Edition. [[VitalSource Bookshelf version]]. Retrieved from bned://9781071834473