Leading & Managing Effective Teams Assignment Sample

Leading & Managing Effective Teams

Introduction - Leading & Managing Effective Teams

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The following essay highlights the significance of perpetually developing the skills and capabilities of professionals hired by companies. Any organisation distributes its employee base into segments and smaller parts that become easier to lead and train. Further, leaders and managers are assigned to lead these teams in a way that they, by working together, provide efficient and effective outputs for the company. Thus, it is essential for the leaders to effectively lead these teams so that they become more productive and help the company to achieve success. Various theories that help managers to learn skills that are necessary for leading teams are discussed in the essay. Moreover, some approaches that help leaders to effectively lead multiple teams at a single time and focus on remote teams are elaborated on in the essay. In addition, there are specific tools and techniques that leaders use to practice the development and enhancement of their team members while working. These tools are discussed in the essay along with focusing on the significance of balance between experience and skill set of employees.

Discussion

Today there is a world where the majority of businesses are functioning at multinational levels and blooming worldwide. Thus, it becomes necessary for every business to operate with numerous branches, departments, and outlets in various countries to mitigate the risks of poorly conducted operations (Hewitt et al., 2021). Hence, every company needs to have plentiful employees who can help the company to function effectively, work productively, and attain its goals and aims. With the increase in the number of employees, it is also critical that the company makes sure that there are various strategies, approaches, and theories that it is following to ensure effective team management and leadership to enhance the overall performance and accomplish success (marketingmag, 2014). Adequate team management ensures a positive workplace environment, negates any misconceptions and perceptions among employees, and builds a solid cultural base for everyone within the organisation. It not only creates a more productive environment but allows the leaders to bind the members of the team together so that they all contribute toward the collective goals (Asmo, 2018). Various theories can be applied by companies according to their suitability to effectively manage teams in their workplace. One such theory, Scientific Management Theory, was proposed by Frederick Taylor in which he explains the significance of cooperation between employees and their superiors. He suggested that complex tasks be simplified by assigning them to the team members according to their professional expertise. This way, the team leaders can ensure the maximum productivity of their team members. Another theory is the Principles of administrative management theory suggested by Henri Fayol. He outlined various principles that team managers can use to effectively and efficiently manage their teams. Some of the principles are equity which ensures equality among all team members, an initiative where every member is free to work according to how they want, stability of jobs that secures the job of the employees, and partition of work according to the skills of the employees in the team (indeed., 2022). Bureaucratic management theory was proposed by Max Weber and is adapted by most companies nowadays to increase efficiency. He suggested that there should be a hierarchal structure within an organisation of big-scale to make sure that there are different levels of authority and clear and well-defined positions. It allows the team members to clearly understand whom they have to report to and maintain an adequate relationship with them. There are various approaches that managers can adopt to increase their skills in team management. Effective leadership not only means they can push the team members to work but understand various aspects that are related to working and keep track of the employee’s performance. If a leader has to manage multiple teams at one time, it is essential that his leadership skills are well-developed (Halvorson, 2014). This kind of situation usually arises when the individual is a regional head where the management and operations of multiple teams are their responsibility. While managing multiple teams, a manager should make sure that the procedure of executing tasks and developing employees is not changing frequently. Consistent procedures make it easier for the employees of every team to understand the similar processes the leader is going to follow and how the tasks will be executed. Another approach the leader should follow is to try to show presence to all the teams regularly. Every team member needs to know that their leader is with them throughout every process for adequate guidance (Udoagwu, 2021). It allows the leader to maintain suitable communication with their employees to provide them with the necessary feedback, which will provide them with the space to improve. In addition to these, there are some approaches that the managers can follow to lead remote teams effectively. These include hosting meetingsregularly to check on the growth of the ongoing projects. Furthermore, the expectations from every team member should be set by the team leader (Gleeson, 2020). This ensures that the remote staff knows what the company and their leader are expecting from them and work accordingly to attain those. Integrating all these approaches and theories can set a strategy for an individual that they can follow to effectively lead their teams and contribute together towards achieving the company’s goals.

After analysing the various theories and approaches of how a manager can lead multiple and remote teams effectively to make sure that the overall growth is enhanced, it becomes important to shed light on the tools and techniques that can be used for identifying and developing several skills of the team members. It is essential for the team leaders to detect the skills and experience they have within their team members and develop them according to the needs and requirements of the company. Also, how the development of these employee skill sets can be used by the company for future projects should be kept in mind by the leader. There are few tools that are used widely by companiesworldwide to identify, analyse, and improve the individual performance and skills of the employees. These tools include Training Needs Analysis (TNA), Skills Audit, Mentoring, Empowerment, and Coaching. Every team working in an organisation has a training need for their set of skills and abilities, which can be completed with the assistance of learning, training, and development procedures. If, in a company, there is a lack of proper training of employees for completing their responsibilities, it can prevent the organisation from attaining its goals. The main goal of Training needs analysis (TNA) is to analyse the present performance of the employees via various methods like employee surveys, observations, and conducting perpetual performance rounds (BLEICH, 2022). After this, the TNA also helps the organisation to evaluate future problems that may arise. Combining all these together, TNA provides a detailed development plan that can be conducted in the company to improve and develop every employee’s performance, which, in turn, will guarantee the company’s growth. Skills Audit is the process of identifying, measuring, recording, and analysing the skills of employees in a team. Often by managers, skills audit and TNA are the terms that are used synonymously. Skills Audit focuses on the skills that the organisationneeds to attain its goals. It is not solely focused on improving the skills for the future but also recognises the skills required at present (Lieberman, 2022). The skills that are not used by the team leaders but exist within the members of their teams are identified by the skill audit process. This process helps in times when the requirement of the organisation is to restructure and improve its working strategies. Mentoring refers to the process of employeedevelopment with the assistance of guidance, support, and encouragement provided by the mentor, who is generally the team leader, to the mentees, who are the members of the team (Lee, 2021). It is essential for the employees to have self-awareness, be knowledgeable, and become confident in developing capabilities and skills. The practice of mentoring encourages the mentees to attain these by receiving constant guidance, feedback, and discussion about work-related issues with their mentors. Mentoring has advantages for all the three parties concerned, that is, the organisation, the mentors, and the mentees. Empowerment is a tool that provides the employees with the freedom to make specific decisions and to act on them without consulting their leaders. This encourages the employees to take responsibility for their actions and allows that department to operate more efficiently. It empowers the employees to use their abilities that often remain unused, through which they can further contribute to the company’s overallsuccess (Wong, 2020). Most importantly, this enables the employees to enhance their decision-making and problem-solving skills and pushes them to think about new innovativeideas and take the initiative toward them. It also assists the team leaders in boosting the level of morale among their team members and providing them with job satisfaction. Another tool is coaching the team members to improve their overall performance. It refers to the method of developingself-awareness among employees about their skills and pushing them towards personal and professionalgrowth (Spring, 2021). This process identifies the gaps between the employees and their improved performance and helps them with methods to fill those gaps. It also helps the leaders in balancing the experience and skill set of employees in a manner that will be beneficial for the company and the employees. Both experience and skills are important for the company’s success, and thus it becomes essential for the leaders to balance them adequately.

The student is currently pursuing a course in business management which makes it important to comprehend the processes involved in managing teams and making sure that all the members are working productively. For that, the student will use an analysis tool first to assess the strengths and weaknesses the student has in the various aspects of the career. In addition, the opportunities that the student will receive because of the experience gained and the threats that might affect the continued success of the student will be analysed. The strengths of the student in leadership and management are that the student has continued to lead all the groups and teams in the academic space till now. This has helped the student to comprehend how people work in a team and put in their efforts toward accomplishing the task. It has become a strength since the student will be able to use this in managing teams in the future. Another strength that the student has is understanding where people lack. This is an important factor in efficient team management since it instills a feeling of empathy for others and assists in guiding them to improve their flaws. The weaknesses are that the student has not been able to implement these factors in the professional field yet, due to which it still lacks practical knowledge. The opportunities are many since the student can improve a lot in enhancing its values and ethics to a certain point where it helps the student to become a value-based leader. The course in business management will also help to gain an in-depth knowledge of how efficient management is conducted with the help of various theories and methodologies (Crosby and Bryson, 2018). In addition, this course will help the student to understand the implementation of tools and techniques that help in developing various skills of employees and team members who will be working under the student in the future. The threat that can harm the student’s overall success is improper time management habits. It has disturbed the learning practice of the student and will disrupt the leadership management if not mitigated adequately. The student feels that for guiding or leading a team, it is essential to comprehend the feelings, culture, and ethical values of the members operating in the team. The student will try to attain this by regularly communicating with the team members and explaining to them the values and ethics that the student believes in as a leader and manager. It is necessary to shape the current values and ethics in such a way that will allow the student to achieve the skill of assessing the skills and experience of those working in the team and trying to balance them. The student will focus on understanding the methodologies behind the transformational leadership theory to comprehend it in a way that will guarantee success in professional endeavours (Kwan, 2020). For this, the student will focus more on the course modules as well as conducting research from external sources, which will help in attaining a deeper understanding. The student will measure the success by trying to take feedback from the module teachers and by following self-assessment procedures (Brown et al., 2019). In addition, the student has kept a target of one month for adequately understanding this process in-depth and how it will impact the student’s professional life. Also, the personal objective of the student is to learn as much as possible throughout this course. It is very important to gather an understanding of the subject before entering the professional and practical world to thrive in it. This can be achieved by practicing all the positive methods in the student’s daily life and trying to implement as many theories as possible (Bozyi?it, 2019).

Conclusion

The above essay concludes the theories that leaders are utilising for effectively managing multiple and remote teams together to produce productive work for the company. It can also be concluded that these theories have assisted companies in the last few decades in managing the teams working within them in a way that has proved to be profitable. In addition, major tools and techniques that companies have used over the years to identify and analyse the used or unused skills of their employees. These have also assisted the leaders in guiding the team members in utilising their experience and enhancing the skills they have to make the most out of themselves. Overall, these have helped the leaders to engage the employees and maintain adequate communication to ensure maximum efficiency. Finally, the reflection segment in the essay concludes with the ethical and cultural values that the student will focus on to enhance leadership skills and become an effective leader in the future. A self-development plan is included in the essay to showcase the future possibilities and reflecting the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the student.

References

Books and Journals

Bozyi?it, E., (2019). The importance of leadership education in university: Self-leadership example.

Brown, M., Brown, R.S. and Nandedkar, A., (2019). Transformational leadership theory and exploring the perceptions of diversity management in higher education. Journal of Higher Education Theory & Practice, 19(7).

Crosby, B.C. and Bryson, J.M., (2018). Why leadership of public leadership research matters: and what to do about it. Public Management Review, 20(9), pp.1265-1286.

Hewitt, L., Dahlen, H.G., Hartz, D.L. and Dadich, A., (2021). Leadership and management in midwifery-led continuity of care models: A thematic and lexical analysis of a scoping review. Midwifery, 98, p.102986.

Kwan, P., (2020). Is transformational leadership theory passé? Revisiting the integrative effect of instructional leadership and transformational leadership on student outcomes. Educational Administration Quarterly, 56(2), pp.321-349.

Websites

Asmo, (2018). The Art of Effective Team Management. [Online]

Available at: https://zenkit.com/en/blog/the-art-of-effective-team-management/#:~:text=Not%20only%20is%20it%20crucial,in%20most%20cases%2C%20more%20enjoyably.

BLEICH, C., (2022). How To Conduct A Training Needs Analysis. [Online]

Available at: https://www.edgepointlearning.com/blog/training-needs-analysis/

Gleeson, B., (2020). 13 Tips For Leading And Managing Remote Teams. [Online]

Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/brentgleeson/2020/08/26/13-tips-for-leading-and-managing-remote-teams/?sh=5cb09402577b

Halvorson, C., (2014). Tips For Managing Multiple Teams in Multiple Locations. [Online]

Available at: https://wheniwork.com/blog/tips-for-managing-multiple-teams-in-multiple-locations

indeed., (2022). 7 Types of Workplace Management Theories. [Online]

Available at: https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/types-of-management-theories

Lee, S., (2021). 10 reasons leaders should mentor others. [Online]

Available at: https://torch.io/blog/10-reasons-leaders-should-mentor-others/

Lieberman, S., (2022). The Necessity of a Skills Audit. [Online]

Available at: https://skillsdbpro.com/necessity-skills-audit/

marketingmag, (2014). Why managing a team effectively is so important, and how to do it well. [Online]

Available at: https://www.marketingmag.com.au/change-makers/why-managing-a-team-effectively-is-so-important-and-how-to-do-it-well/

Spring, K., (2021). How leadership coaching helps leaders get (and keep) an edge. [Online]

Available at: https://www.betterup.com/blog/leadership-coaching

Udoagwu, K., (2021). 6 Different Team Effectiveness Models to Understand Your Team Better. [Online]

Available at: https://www.wrike.com/blog/6-different-team-effectiveness-models/

Wong, K., (2020). Employee Empowerment: Definition, Benefits, and Factors. [Online]

Available at: https://www.achievers.com/blog/employee-empowerment/