Leadership

PSYCH 485 blog

THON Organization through Team Leadership

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The topic of team leadership immediately intrigued me as I have experienced a lot of team leadership throughout sports teams and other school extra curriculars. One team in particular that stood out me when reading the chapter was my THON organization, Eclipse. The definitions of a team vs. a group varies, as a group comes from interactions and influences while a team is more interdependent with a shared goal. There are three important aspects to a group – size, stages, and roles. Group sizes can impact the possibility of shared leadership and encourage cliques within the group or social loafing. My THON group was one of the larger special interests’ groups so the size definitely impacted the outcomes of the group. There were many different cliques within the group, especially as people started to hang out and build relationships outside of THON meetings and fundraisers. It was fairly common for this THON organization to have people social loafing throughout the year as some students wanted meet people and make friends but was not interested in the effort that THON required throughout the year and during THON weekend.

Group stages consists of four stages of development that go in the order forming, storming, norming, and performing. Every year my THON organization went through these four stages as new members joined and old members graduated. We start with introductions while forming, the board of the organization often went through storming with new members, and then norming starts when all members have developed group norms. Finally, the performing stage occurs on THON weekend when all members come together to stand and dance for what we have been working towards all year. Group roles consist of expectations within the group regarding positions or jobs, such as task, relationship, and dysfunctional roles. My THON organization had a board of student leaders that all shared leadership positions, some dealt more with task roles like setting up fundraisers and ensuring THON weekend plans, and others were more focused on supporting relationships within the organization and encouraging team development. There were not any dysfunctional roles that I would say I recognized in my THON group which was what I think helped with the effectiveness of the group.

There are many critical functions within team leadership to be effective and ensure successful outcomes, including task functions, team development and performance. Leaders of teams are most successful when they have networking and data splitting skills. Throughout my experience in this THON organization I was always impressed by the skills of the leaders on the board as they were able to network with many different businesses to donate towards THON and even support the dancers during THON weekend. According to Hackman and Walton (1986) there are three components to an effective team, clear engaging direction, an enabling performance situation, and adequate material resources. Within these components there are many factors to consider such as results driven structure, unified commitment, collaborative climate, standards of excellence and many others that help improve a team. In my THON organization I felt as though our team had a lot of these components considering the event we were raising money for. THON weekend is one of the biggest Penn State events, drawing people from all over to help raise money for pediatric cancer. This shared goal and commitment helped our group have results driven structure to raise a certain amount of money, unified commitment to the families we were supporting, external support and recognition from all over the country. This approach on team leadership is an interesting way to prepare a team and guarantee successful outcomes, just as my THON organization was successful as compared to this approach.

References:

Hamel, R. (n.d.). Lesson 9: Team Leadership, 2021

There is No I in TEAM: The French National Soccer Team

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When reading through this week’s module, my initial thought was led back to the French National Soccer Team who won the World Cup championship in 2018. Being a French American citizen, having both my parents being from France, my family and I followed the World Cup extensively throughout. Team is defined as individuals having a single mission or goal, and without the team members interacting with each other this task cannot be accomplished. The team members are dependent on one another (Lesson commentary 9). The French National Soccer team demonstrates this concept a great amount. In order to have a successful world cup and make it as far as they did, they needed to communicate and work together throughout the tournament. The concept of team was proven by their accomplishment at the end of the tournament which ended in a National Championship.

A specific part of the Team Leadership Theory that fits into the example of the French National Team is Hackman and Walton (1986) three effective points of being a team. These three bullet points are a clear, engaging direction, an enabling performance situation, and adequate material resources. Firstly, a clear, elevating goal was set. The clear goal was to win the world cup tournament. Secondly, the French National Soccer team had a result driven structure. One specific aspect of this category is individuals on the team needed to know when to do certain task. In this example, these specific tasks could have been different plays they learn in order to be successful on the field. Next, competent team members is very useful for the French National Team. They need to have the right number of players on the field as well as on their team. In addition, the members of the team must all have the necessary skills to play on a National Soccer team. A specific example of a competent team member is Kylian Mbappe who was 19 at the time of the World Cup. He played in his first World cup and demonstrated abilities that are considered some of the best in the world (Ogden, 2018). One of these abilities is he is one of the first teenagers to score a goal in the world cup final. This team also demonstrated a unified commitment to each other. The members of the team are involved in all aspects of the process, where the coach Didier Deschamps allows the players to lead in their own format. The French National Team also demonstrates collaborative climate because in order to have a successful game they must trust and work collaboratively together. Soccer is a team sport and in order to win a game the individuals must work together and rely on one another. In addition, standards of excellence are also extremely important and beneficial to the world cup. The captain Hugo Lloris held his teammates accountable to performing to their best of their ability. Northouse (2019) states that it is important that the organizational construct sets up a standard of excellence in order for team mates to feel pressure to perform. Lastly, the French National Team had lots of external support and recognition from all French citizens and more. While other countries may not have been rooting for this team, individuals were still in recognition on how well the French team was playing and contributing with one another. Overall, Hackman and Walton (1986) analysis of how a team can be effective fits in extremely well with the French National Team. These components were extremely beneficial for this team and they demonstrated how important working in a team could be.

In conclusion, team leadership is a significant concept that allows for success. In the example I described above we can understand how concepts of team leadership were able to play a role in the successful outcome of the French National Team winning the 2018 World Cup.

 

Downing, J. (2021, January 22). Success of French football team masks underlying tensions over race and class. Retrieved March 18, 2021, from https://theconversation.com/success-of-french-football-team-masks-underlying-tensions-over-race-and-class-99781

Lesson Commentary 9, Team Leadership

Northouse, P.G. (2019).  Leadership: Theory and Practice.  Los Angeles: Sage Publications.

Ogden, M. (2018, July 15). France world Cup win proves Kylian mbappe is the sport’s future king. Retrieved March 18, 2021, from https://www.espn.com/soccer/fifa-world-cup/4/blog/post/3566256/france-world-cup-win-proves-kylian-mbappe-is-the-sport-future-king

Sports Team Stages

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When reading our lesson there was one idea that stuck out to me a lot. This idea was Tuckman’s (1965) idea about group stages of development. This stuck out to me because I actually learned about this in a previous class which if I remember correctly was sports psychology. Tuckman’s idea involves four and sometimes five stages; forming, storming, norming, performing, and sometimes adjourning (PSU WC, L9, 2019).

I experienced these stages last spring when I played intramural soccer. My team consisted of me, my friends, and some friends of friends. Everyone didn’t know each other and so before our first game we entered the forming stage. This stage is when group members, or in my case team members, gather information about each other (PSU WC, L9, 2019). Before the start of the game we all got in a circle and introduced ourselves. After learning names, we then discussed our experience playing soccer and areas of our game that we excelled at and areas that we weren’t all that good.

The next stage my team entered was the storming stage. This is when a group or team may experience some conflict. It involves discussing how the task will be accomplished (PSU WC, L9, 2019). With my soccer team, we experienced this when discussing how we would win the game. Each of us offered ideas on different styles of play and different formations we could use to help us win the game.

Norming is the next stage and that is when a group leader emerges and group norms develop (PSU WC, L9, 2019). After playing a few games, a leader did arise on our team. Since most of us didn’t have much soccer experience, this leader happened to be our best player. He became the leader because he did the most for the team and also he knew the most so he was qualified to be telling us what to do and how to do things. Group norms also developed. We got into a groove of who would play and with who on the field. After a few games, we also found out what aspects of the game our team was good and bad at.

The performing stage is group members play functional, interdependent roles in an effort to reach a goal (PSU WC, L9, 2019). Our goal was winning games and after each of us learned each others playing styles we got better at knowing how to play functionally together. The fifth and final stage of Tuckman’s (1965) group stages is called adjourning. Adjourning is when the group splits up, either because the task is completed or through attrition, such as someone quitting (PSU WC, L9, 2019). This happened to our group when we played our final game. After our last game we all took off our cleats and went home and have yet to get everyone in that exact group back together again.

References:

Pennsylvania State University World Campus (2019). PSYCH 485 Lesson 9: Team leadership. Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2008237/modules/items/27074716.

A New Era in Leadership

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Team leadership has become a very popular form of leadership and work experience in recent years, especially when examining companies in Silicon Valley.  Many of these companies utilize teams for “maintaining a competitive advantage.  Team-based organizations have faster response capability because of their flatter organizational structure” (Northouse,2015, pg. 363).  A team can be defined as, “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 these goals” (Northouse, 2015, 363).  One of the most successful at utilizing teams and team leadership has been Google.  Google has taken the team leadership theories and researched them significantly to try to determine what makes the best team.

Google surveyed and researched their own teams within the company to determine what made a team successful, and what made some teams unsuccessful.  Their research very closely matched up to the model of Team leadership discussed in the Northouse textbook (2015, pg. 367).   The textbook claims that the conditions that enable team excellence are clear, elevating goals, results-driven structure, competent team members, unified commitment, collaborative climate, standards of excellence, external support, and principled leadership (Northouse, 2015, pg. 368-372).  Google found that the things that enable successful teams are psychological safety, dependability, structure and clarity, meaning, and impact (Kim, 2017).  When you read into the research done by Google, it bares an eerie likeness to the research discussed in the textbook.

From all the research listed above, it seems that effective teams want team members that they can count on to show up, do their fair share of the work, and have a basic understanding of the goals and expectations.  Groups also need structure, stability, and support provided by the overseeing company to make sure that they know what the end-goal is, and that they have the resources to reach them.  Groups also want their work to produce results and make a visual impact in the field.  When a team has these things, it is almost sure to be successful.  The team leadership model is a very complex model meant to be used in complex situations and allows for different situations and people which is a very big strength of the model (Northouse, 2015, pg. 384).  There are few criticisms of the model other than that due to the fact that the leader of a group may change over time, it requires each individual member to have a diverse skills set including leadership (Northouse, 2015, pg. 384).

Google has taken the research of Hackman, Larson, and Lafasto and made it mainstream.  The interesting thing is that most companies did not even consider team organization until the innovative and flashy companies like Google and Apple decided to do it.  The more interesting thing is that the companies that have really made a push for team-based work, are almost always on the cutting edge and seem to be leading the way in their industries.  When employees understand their goals and roles in the team, and are able to interact with a group of like-minded individuals, the impact is immediately seen.  Teams and team leadership seem to be the way many of these millennial companies are going, and it seems to be working out so far.

 

Kim, L. (2017, November 08). The Results of Google’s Team-Effectiveness Research Will Make You Rethink How You Build Teams. Retrieved from https://www.inc.com/larry-kim/the-results-of-googles-team-effectiveness-research-will-make-you-rethink-how-you-build-teams.html

Northouse, P. G. (2015). Introduction to leadership. concepts and practice. Los Angeles: Sage.

Leading Virtual Teams

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With the invention of tools like GoToMeeting, Skype, Cloud Based Servers, and Office 365, companies have been given the opportunity to allow more flexible work environments for their employees. Virtual teams can be a great asset to an organization. This new “team-based and technology-enabled” (Northouse, 2016) structure allows an organization to hire the most qualified individuals, increase employee satisfaction, support customers all over the globe, and take advantage of overhead savings. However, with these innovations come new difficulties. How does one successfully lead a geographically disperse team?

Lead, Don’t Manage

First, one must understand that a virtual team cannot be managed they must be lead. This means you cannot control your team; you must “influence, motivate, and enable” (Harvard Business Review, 2013). The lack of direct contact greatly reduces the amount of control a manager has over their team, as such the manager must learn encourage self-control.

Select the Right Team

A good leader understands that for a virtual team to be successful, it must be comprised of motivated and capable individuals. A leader needs to recognize their strengths and weaknesses to enable effective collaboration. The best candidates for remote employees are people that are highly experienced in their positions, have suitable technological expertise, are thick skinned, and have excellent communication skills.

Communicate, Communicate, Communicate

Communication is essential to leading a virtual team effectively. In person communication will always be the most efficient and effective way of communicating, because only 10% of communication is made up of what is said. “30-35% is tone and 55-60% is body language” (Forbes, 2015). Because of this, a remote worker needs to accept ambiguity easier than others do. They need to be able to distinguish between what is being written and what is being implied. They also need to understand that most likely, what is being said is not personal. It is all about perception. In addition to being more accepting of others communications, they themselves need to be able to communicate effectively. I suggest using a technique called BLUF or Bottom Line Up Front. Get to the point quickly and reduce the amount of ambiguity in lengthy stories. If the person needs supplemental information, they will ask for it.

Promote collaboration and relationships

Next, a leader needs to encourage relationships outside of the work environment. The more time spent with an individual the easier it is to communicate effectively. This is more difficult because subordinates will be in geographically dispersed areas. A great way to overcome this obstacle is to use tools like Skype, or some kind of instant messaging tool. This allows for instant communication that does not clog up inboxes and encourages employee engagement. While we do not want subordinates to get too far off topic, it is still integral to get some kind of social bonding. According to Huhman, (Entrepreneur, 2014) “Employers should encourage workplace friendships because they will boost employee morale. Supportive and trusting relationships help employees stay engaged and maintain a sense of belonging at a company.”

Works Cited:

Bradt, G. (2015). Team Geographically Dispersed? Leverage All Senses To Keep Connected. Forbes.com. Web. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/georgebradt/2015/01/21/team-geographically-dispersed-leverage-all-senses-to-keep-connected/#2cfe597e4ffb

Huhman, H. (2014). The Hidden Benefits of Happy Co-Workers (Infographic). Entreapenuer.com. Web. Retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/238122

Northouse, P. (2016). Leadership: Theory and Practice (7th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA SAGE Publications. Kindle Edition.

Vineet, N. (2013). Three Differences Between Managers and Leaders. HBR.com. Harvard Business Review. Web. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2013/08/tests-of-a-leadership-transiti

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