effective team leaders and team members

Effective Cooperation in Organizations

Effective cooperation is one of the most important characteristics in organizations like corporations, non-profit institutions, and NGOs, according to the majority of research. Today, team members should feel completely at ease working together so that they can give everything they do an all-out professional touch. Every team consists of a team leader and the team members that work under him or her. The success of an effective team depends on all of its members, but each leader has an additional duty to guide the team toward its primary goals. Almost all individuals in a given group would seek to become a leader but only a few have the qualities required to assume group leader position. An effective group leader must possess a wide variety of characteristics and traits that would motivate other members of the team to follow him. Traits such as integrity and compassion or skills acquired through professional recruitment and experience. In this paper I will discuss the constituents of effective team leader as well as effective team.

Participative Leadership

One of aspects that defines an effective team leader is being participative leader. In United States many corporates have massively suffered because most of their manager do not show any interest to be in touch with their subjects as well as the consumers of their services and products. Several reasons have been given to explain this pattern which include the fear that being very close to employees would eliminate the need for executives. Other leaders ignore the workers saying that they have worked very attain the status they have and thus they think they are better that the employees (Gustafson, & Kleiner, 2013).

However, those are just assumptions and do not reflect what participative leadership is all about listening to the other team members. Application of this style allow all members of a certain team to agree on different decisions and policies in a general consensus and therefore most members will readily accept them promoting harmony within the group. Also, this will reduce the resistance that the group would have experienced in instances where leader just comes and impose policies to the team members and as a result the process of implementation of new ideas is shortened. If the group members are given chance of participating in formulation of new polices the company or the group will adjust easily the change in polices.

Participative leadership boost morale of employees because they feel personally responsible for company’s success (Gustafson, & Kleiner, 2013). The morale of members remain high because they feel appreciated when they are given an opportunity to participate in decision making process. Members will also be more active in improvement of the conditions when they bear in mind that they might directly affect the rules that govern them. Further, participative leadership, gives leaders a chance to get a wide range solutions to choose from when members are given a chance to air their opinions.

Ability to Lead Multicultural Teams

In some cases an individual has to lead a group from an international company which of course will have members from diverse cultural backgrounds (Brett, Behfar & Kern, 2009). For instance in US companies have been employing people who are not original white men leading to a mixture of different races and people from different cultures. Again, still under this context, companies have employed individuals from different ethnicity, personality, age and others. This is because of globalization that world has experienced lately and emergence of complex jobs that require a wide variety of expertise which can only be found from people of different backgrounds (Kravitz, 2005).

The cultural differences would pose serious challenges such as some members lacking of fluency in a particular dominant language of a given group which would result in other members underrating their competencies. With such hurdles groups may stalemate. When such challenges arise effective leaders must get moving by not directly intervening and instead they should choose from one of the three intervention processes. If possible leader must encourage members of the group to adapt by accepting the cultural gaps and work around them. If the group is unable to open up about their differences, effective leaders encourages them to put structural intervention into consideration a strategy that involves reassigning members duties to eliminate interpersonal rivalry. If all these do not work, a leader might use exit approach as a last option and this involves removing a member from the group.

Confident, Organized, Respectful, Integrity and Fair

Exceptional Organization skills is a crucial character of an effective leader. A leader with good organizational skills can plan strategies and objectives that will enable the members of the group to perform exceptionally (Folkman, 2010). A confident leader feels secure while making decisions and only makes those that have an effect on the team. A confident leader also reassures the members of the group of his authority within the group. Respectful leader has high chances of succeeding (Goleman, 2003). Respectful leaders empower their team members by encouraging them to give their ideas about the issues affecting them. An effective leader is also fair and of high integrity. He/she is consistent with recognition and rewarding and ensures that those who receive them are deserving winners.

What Makes an Effective Team?

Studies have revealed that there several qualities that separate an effective team from a poor performing one. Qualities such as, shared responsibilities, quick responses, focused tasks and future, definition of purpose, high communication and creative talents play a great role in success of any given group (Wheelan, 2014). In effective group, all members of the team are important and cannot do well on their own. Each and every team member has a role to play in individual tasks and in assisting other members in their duties if need be. Each member is aware of the goals and policies of the group and must follow them all the time to ensure harmony among members.

An effective Communication is key to every successful team. All of the effective teams carry out meetings time to time to assess completed work and discuss the state of the tasks in progress. All group members must take part in meetings or provided with the updates on how a certain project is progressing. In cases where all workers are group members, executives should make sure that there is a clear communication and crucial information is availed to all members. Another characteristics of an effective group is frequent review of the performance (Michan & Rodger, 2000). Meetings give the team a chance to assess its performance. Undertaking performance review is a very important practice because it gives team an opportunity to correct some errors that might have occurred during the project and if required to correct them. Performance review also allows an opportunity to obtain a proof that measures taken are effective.

An effective group also has members who are aware of the purpose that has brought them together. This means that group must generally be aware that there is existing problem and that they have come together to find the answer to that problem. They should also be aware of the individual roles that will overall help to solve the common problem. Team full of creative talents can reap massive work rewards (Gustafson, & Kleiner, 2013). Creativity propel the group to the greater heights and no problems seem so big for a group with handful of creative members. Members should express themselves honestly and openly where there is willingness to work as group in challenging instances or conflict constructively.

Conclusion

Leading a given team effectively requires one to have some qualities that are not seen in many people. Effective leader should be able to apply a participative leadership style that allow the members of the team to also participate in policy formulation and decision making process. This way, team members feel the part of the group and this allow leaders to lead smoothly. Another essential character is ability to lead a group with people from diverse cultures. Other characters of an effective leaders include being respectful, confident, fair and integrity. On the other hand an effective team must have an effective communication system, frequently reviews the performance of the group, full of creative talents and has group members who are united by a common purpose.

References

Brett, J., Behfar, K., & Kern, M. C. (2009). Managing multicultural teams. The Essential Guide to Leadership, 85.

Folkman, J. (2010). Top 9 Leadership Behaviors that drive employee commitment. Retrieved on May, 1, 2012.

Goleman, D. (2003). What makes a leader? Organizational influence processes, 229-241.

Gustafson, K., & Kleiner, B. H. (2013). New developments in team building. Work Study.

Killian, S. (2007). The ABC of effective leadership: A practical overview of evidence based leadership theory. Australian Leadership Development Centre.

Kravitz, D. A. (2005). Diversity in Teams A Two-Edged Sword Requires Careful Handling.

Michan, S., & Rodger, S. (2000). Characteristics of effective teams: a literature review. Australian Health Review, 23(3), 201-208.

Wheelan, S. A. (2014). Creating effective teams: A guide for members and leaders. Sage Publications.