Six Key Lessons for Leaders in a Team Environment


Six Key Lessons for Leaders in a Team Environment

While there have been thousands of research studies on the topic of leadership over the last one hundred years , the findings have not been all that consistent. It appears that leadership is as much an art as it is a science. However, a few things seem clear. The essence of leadership in a team environment is influence, not control. The key is developing collaborative partnerships while helping others help themselves . A review of the literature establishes six key lessons for leaders in a team environment to learn.

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EXERCISE 1

Lessons from Experience

Phase I: Sharing Experiences

Directions: Pair up with another person. Decide who will share experiences (the " sharer ") first and who will take on the role of being an effective listener (the "listener"). The listener will also take on the role of providing feedback. After completing the exercise, switch roles and repeat the exercise.

ROLE OF THE SHARER

Share your perceptions of yourself as a leader by answering the questions below. You will be given the total, undivided attention of your partner (the listener) for five full minutes.

  • If you could take a leader (from today or the past) to dinner, whom would you choose, and what questions would you ask?

  • Who is the person who has most influenced you as a leader?

  • What was the best or the worst team you were ever on? What did your experience on that team teach you about teams in general?

  • What has experience taught you about creating change and helping others?

  • How would you describe the characteristics of your leadership style?

  • What are your strengths as a leader?

  • How does your organization's situation affect your approach to leadership?

  • How much credibility do you have as a leader?

  • What behaviors do you need to work on in the upcoming year to become a more effective leader at your level?

ROLE OF THE LISTENER

  • Give your total undivided attention to the sharer

  • Just listen very well ”don't direct the conversation

  • Don't interrupt too much

  • Help the sharer feel comfortable but keep the focus of attention on the sharer.

Phase II: Providing Feedback

Directions: In your role as listener, provide your partner (the sharer) with constructive feedback. Be sure to describe what you hear before you interpret it. Try not to judge whether what the sharer said about his or her experiences, or what he or she learned from those experiences, is good or bad, right or wrong. Try answering the following questions in this order as you provide feedback.

  • What did you hear or notice? (describe)

  • What did it mean to you? (interpret)

  • What did you learn? (summarize),

Phase III: Identifying Learning

Directions: Together with your partner, identify what you learned about

  • Listening

  • Sharing skills

  • Providing feedback

  • Characteristics of effective leadership

  • Characteristics of teams

  • Creating changes in people and systems

  • Each other.

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  1. Leaders are made, not born. Some individuals will be born into more opportunities for leadership than others, but they are not actually born with the skills needed to succeed as a leader. Despite the expression "He's a born leader," researchers have yet to discover any DNA patterns that determine leadership talent. Some people develop their skills and nurture their opportunities and some squander them. What have you done to discover your natural talents and put them to use? What have you done with your opportunities? To what extent have you truly learned from your experiences? Have you learned from, or merely survived, your experiences? If you want to be a leader in a team environment, you must be willing to apply and develop your talents. Some people start this process quite late in life and others much earlier, but it is very difficult for people to change their basic values or even habits.

  2. No set of traits predicts leadership success. Many candidates for leadership positions have technical knowledge and skills but have undeveloped "people" skills. Some others have people skills but are not technically competent. Research has found that there is no one set of physical, mental, or personality traits that leaders require, though it helps to be about as smart as the team you are trying to lead ”if you are a lot less smart or a lot smarter , you will likely experience difficulty. No one set of personality traits predicts leadership effectiveness. Some extroverts make good leaders, and some just don't seem to be able to focus enough. Some introverts make good leaders by listening and thinking through issues in depth, but others fail to convert this trait into the actions teams need to succeed.

  3. You need to be both task and people oriented. The key is being fully devoted to getting the job done well and simultaneously showing full respect for the people you are working with. Effective team leaders clarify goals and set challenging standards. They let others know that getting the job done well is very important to them. But if they are not as relationship oriented as they are task oriented, they are not likely to have long- term success. Team leaders seek input on how to get things done ”they listen and encourage effort. They don't see being task versus relationship oriented as a trade-off. They simultaneously exhibit both orientations.

  4. Leadership style must correspond to the work that needs to be done and the people available to do it. A good team leader is like a quarterback who reads the situation as he comes to the line of scrimmage. He has worked with the coaching staff and the players to select a good plan during team meetings and in the huddle but is flexible enough to adjust the play to gain successful execution. In general, a participative style of leadership is most conducive to a team environment. This style gains commitment rather than mere compliance. However, situations of crisis and chaos, including when members are new to the task and to each other, occasionally require a more directive style to address more short-term concerns. A directive "tell and educate" style may be needed for a while, but its overuse can destroy a team approach. It creates either resentment or overdependence. Team leaders need to be flexible but must lean more toward the participative style over the long haul.

  5. You need to establish and maintain credibility. Kouzes and Posner (1993) studied over thirty thousand leaders and found significant evidence that a leader's most important quality is credibility. You cannot be a leader without followers, and followers must believe in you. In order to be credible you must be trustworthy. Trustworthiness is a function of reliability and dependability , not likeability. It is basically doing what you said you would do. If you want to be a leader in a team environment ”at any level ”your actions must be consistent with your words. Be careful about what you promise; keep your promises small but make very visible signs that you are following through on those promises.

    Credibility also requires that you be perceived as competent. Teams won't expect you, or want you, to know it all ”but they will expect you to know something about the tasks , the operations, the organization, and the people. You cannot bluff your way through; you must be willing to put out the effort to continually enhance your knowledge and skills to be competent.

    Finally, credibility requires that you show genuine enthusiasm in what you do and say. If your team senses that you are saying things just because you have to say them, or you present ideas (even competent ones) too matter-of-factly, you won't generate sufficient energy for the team to cope with the inevitable changes in business.

  6. Improved leadership effectiveness comes from a focused approach. Leaders have so much to do and so much to keep track of ”they need to stay focused. This is true even when it comes to improving themselves as leaders. They need and must want feedback in order to become more aware of their style and its impact and to develop a conscious plan to capitalize on the strengths inherent in that style. Effective leaders have strong egos but are not narcissistic. They like themselves and believe they have something important to offer the teams they are trying to help, but they are also well aware of their weaknesses. But instead of claiming to try to improve on every weakness they have, effective leaders take a focused approach to development. They don't try to improve on more than a couple of weaknesses at a time. They model continuous improvement through their actions. They do not try to be all things to all people and they focus their efforts to become better leaders.




Tools for Team Leadership. Delivering the X-Factor in Team eXcellence
Tools for Team Leadership: Delivering the X-Factor in Team eXcellence
ISBN: 0891063862
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 137

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