HUBERT KAIRUKI MEMORIAL UNIVERSITY

SUBJECT: BEHAVIORAL SCIENCETOPIC: LEADERSHIP AND TEAM-BUILDING

FACILITATOR: PROFESSOR MASALAKULANGWAPRESENTERS: SALIHA DAWOOD

RAHMA S A BAABDE ANUSHKA SOMAIYA

TABLE OF CONTENTS• Introduction• Definitions Of Terms• Benefits Of A Team• Team Elements• Qualities Of A Leader• Team Leadership• Common Problems• Team Building Courses• Knowledge Tug-of-War Game• Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, Adjourning

Introduction

A team is a group of people coming together to collaborate. This collaboration is to reach a shared goal or task for which they hold themselves mutually accountable. A group of people is not necessarily a team.

Team members are deeply committed to each other’s personal growth and success. A team outperforms a group and outperforms all reasonable expectations given to its individual members. That is, a team has a snyergistic effect – one plus one equals a lot more than two.

Definitions

• Team – a group of people with a high degree of interdependence geared towards the achievement of a common goal or completion of a task rather than just a group for administrative convenience.

• Group – a number of individuals having some unifying relationship.

• Leader – a person who leads or commands a group, organization or country.

A team has benefits for the organization:- It maximizes the organization’s human resources.- Each member of the team is coached, helped and

led by all other members of the team.- A success or failure is felt by all members, not just

the individual.- Its output is superior, even when the odds are not

in its favor. This is due to the synergistic effect of a team – a team can normally outperform a group of individuals.

- There is continuous improvement.- Personal motives will be pushed to the side to allow

the team motive to succeed.

Team Elements

• As a leader, there are a number of elements that you must help to create in a team. Teams learn and demonstrate behaviors that are not exhibited by mere groups. These characteristics represent the essential elements of an effective team. A team normally doesn’t form on its own, rather there is almost always someone who was the catalyst for bringing the team together – this someone is the leader.

Common Elements• A team goal – although your team might have a number of goals,

one of them must stand out. Everyone must know, agree upon, and be committed to accomplishing the team goal.

• Productive participation of all members – this has four levels:1. Contributing data and knowledge2. Sharing in the decision-making process and reaching consensus.3. Making the decision.4. Making an imposed decision work.

• Communication – open, honest and effective exchange of information between members.

• Trust – openness in critiquing and trusting others.• A sense of belonging – cohesiveness by being committed to an

understood mandate and team identify.

• Diversity – this must be valued as an asset. It is a vital ingredient that provides the synergistic effect of a team.

• Creativity and risk taking – if no one individual fails, then risk taking becomes a lot easier.

• Evaluation – the ability to self correct.• Change compatibility – being flexible and

assimilating change.• Participatory leadership – everyone must help

lead to one degree or another.

Qualities Of A Leader

• All teams must shape their own common purpose, goals and approach.

• An effective team leader has a variety of traits and characteristics that encourage team members to follow him. The qualities of an effective team leader inspire the trust and respect of the team and stimulate production within the workplace.

• Communication – quality verbal and written communication skills allow leaders to present expectations to team members in a way workers can understand. It also allows team leaders to listen to the input of others.

• Organization – these help team leaders plan objectives and strategies, which allow team members to perform optimally. Organized team leaders put systems in place that maintain order and guide team members toward meeting company goals and objectives.

• Confidence – an effective team leader is confident in his abilities, as well as confident in the abilities of his team members.

• Respectful – it is necessary to be respected and respect all members. A respectful leader empowers employees by encouraging them to offer ideas about decisions that affect them. This lets team members know that the leader respects their input and opinions.

• Fair – all members are treated fairly. A leader is consistent with rewards and recognition, as well as disciplinary action.

• Integrity – the leader is honest and open with his team members. Leaders who possess integrity gain the trust of team members because he does what he says he will do and treats others the same way he wants to be treated.

• Influential – influential leaders help inspire the commitment of team members to meet company goals and objectives.

• Delegation – they should know how to share leadership through delegation. Delegating certain tasks to trustworthy team members allows the leader to focus on improving workplace functions and productions.

• Facilitator – as a facilitator, team leaders help workers understand their goals. They also help organize an action plan to ensure team members meet their goals and objectives more efficiently.

• Negotiation – leaders utilize negotiation skills to achieve results and reach an understanding in the event of a workplace conflict.

Leaders are supposed to..• Build commitment and confidence – effective team leaders are

vigilant about skills. Their goal is to have members with technical, functional, problem solving, decision making, interpersonal and team work skills.

• Manage relationships with outsiders – team leaders are expected by people outside of the team, as well as the members within, to manage much of the team’s contacts and relationships with the rest of the organization. One must communicate effectively the team’s purposes, goals and approach to anyone who might help or hinder it.

• Create opportunities for others – one of the challenges is providing performance opportunities, assignments, and credit to the team and the people within it.

• Create a vision – a vision is the most important aspect of making a team successful. Teams perish when the don’t clearly see the vision – why they are doing what they do and where they are going.

Common Problems• Leaders select too many members in their own image. As a result, teams become

unbalanced with too many people overlapping in the same areas, while there are skill gaps in other areas.

• Leaders do not understand their own strengths, abilities and preferences.• Individuals in unbalanced teams feel their talents and abilities are not being used.This leads to/ is caused by:- Loss of productivity or output- Complaints- Lack of clear goals- Confusion about assignments- Lack or innovation or risk taking- Ineffective team meetings- Lack of initiative- Poor communication- Lack of trust- Employees feel that their work is not recognized- Decisions are made that people do not understand or agree with

Team Building Courses

Team building is a process intervention aimed at helping individuals and groups examine and act upon their behavior and relationships. This process is not to fix any problems but to bring forth what is both good and bad with the team in order to formulate future plans.

Matrix teams – these include work groups, cross functional teams, task forces, problem solving teams, committees, special project teams, etc.

They are normally composed of a small number of people from different department, functions or organizations who have banded together to solve a common problem or achieve a goal through collaboration.

Katsenbach and Smith defined team as a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and a common approach that they hold themselves mutually accountable:

- The small number normally ranges from 2 to 25 members, with somewhere between 5 and 9 as normally the most manageable and optimal.

- Complementary skills provide synergy when the team is diverse and various ideas and multiple skills are combined.

- Common purpose is the driving force of teams. The team must develop its own purpose that must be meaningful and have ownership by all individuals

- Performance goals are the acting, moving and energizing force of the team. Specific performance goals are established, tracked, met and evaluated in an ongoing process.

- Common approaches are the means in which members agree on how they will work together. Teams should develop their own charter or set of rules that outline the expected the behaviors of its members.

- Mutually accountability is the aspect of teamwork that is normally the last to develop. It is the owning and sharing of the team’s outcomes, both successes and failures.

Knowledge Tug-Of-War GameOne of the main inhibiters of a team obtaining its goal optimally is

knowledge hoarding rather than knowledge sharing.- Lack of trust- Different cultures vocabularies, and frames of reference- Lack of time and meeting places; narrow idea of productive work- Status and rewards go to knowledge owners- Lack of absorptive capacity in recipients- Belief that knowledge is prerogative of particular groups- Not–invented-here syndrome- Intolerance for mistakes or need for help

A basic tenet of communication theory states that a network’s potential benefit grows exponentially as the nodes it can successfully interconnect expand numerically.

Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, Adjourning

• Forming – in this stage, team members are introduced. They state why they were chosen or volunteered for the team and what they hope to accomplish within the team. Forming includes these feelings and behaviors:

- Excitement, anticipation and optimism- Pride in being chosen for the project- A tentative attachment to the team- Suspicion and anxiety about the job- Defining the tasks and how they will be accomplished- Determining acceptable group behavior- Deciding what information needs to be gathered

• Storming – the team’s transition from the “As-Is” to the “To-Be” is called the storming phase. All members have their own idea as to how the process should look, and personal agendas are often rampant. Storming includes these feelings and behaviors:

- Resisting the tasks- Resisting the quality improvement approaches suggested by other

members- Sharp fluctuations in attitude about the team’s chance of success- Arguing among members, even when they agree on the real issues- Defensiveness, competition and choosing sides- Questioning the wisdom of those who selected the project and

appointed the members of the team- Establishing unrealistic goals- Disunity, increased tension and jealousy.

• Norming – the norming phase is when the team reaches a consensus on the “To-Be” process. Everyone wants to share the newly found focus. Norming includes these feelings and behaviors:

- An ability to express criticism constructively- Acceptance of membership in the team- An attempt to achieve harmony by avoiding conflict- Friendliness, confiding in each other, and sharing of

personal problems- A sense of team cohesion, spirit and goals4establishing and

maintaining team ground rules and boundaries

As team members work out their differences, they have more time and energy to spend on the project

• Performing – by now the team has settled its relationships and expectations. They can begin performing by diagnosing, problem solving and implementing changes. Performing includes these feelings and behaviors:

- Members have insights into personal and group processes- An understanding of each other’s strengths and weakness- Constructive self-change- Ability to prevent or work through group problems- Close attachment to the team

The team is now an effective, cohesive unit.

• Adjourning – the team briefs and shares the improved process during this phase. When the team finally completes that last briefing, there is always a bittersweet sense of accomplishment coupled with the reluctance to say goodbye. Many relationships formed within these teams continue long after the team disbands.

SUMMARY

• In summary, leadership and team building skills are necessary to control and guide a team on the right track. Therefore the analysis of the benefits and consequences of proper and improper leadership abilities are essential enough to enable any and all leaders to bring in the succession of their team.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Looking at the knowledge gained analyzing leadership, it is important as medical personnel's to have this knowledge at our fingertips and put it into actions effectively.Medical personnel's need to show effective leadership and cooperation if we are to save precious human lives in cases like surgery, diagnosis, medical discussions and critical situations like resuscitation and such.

REFERENCES

• ucsfhr.ucsf.edu/index.php/pubs/hrguidearticle/chapter-14-team-building

• wilderdom.com/games/InitiativeGames.html• www.sagepub.com/upm-data/47444_chp_12.

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