5. Leadership Flashcards
Describe characteristics of an effective team
- A good blend of skills and social types.
- Team morale and motivation is high.
- The team works together, and everyone participates actively and positively in meetings and activities.
- Everyone is focused on the ultimate goal of the project.
- Team goals are understood by everyone.
- Everyone is supportive of the project and of others.
- There is trust between team members.
Benefits of an effective team
- They can generate a wider range of ideas and innovation than individuals.
- They are able to motivate themselves.
- They can bounce ideas off each team member.
- They often take more risks than individuals.
- They have a range of personalities such as workers, thinkers, leaders, who contribute the right balance of skills necessary to achieve high performance.
- They support each other and are not just task oriented.
Describe factors which impact a virtual team
Difficulty in building deep relationships within the team and getting them to gel due to the lack of informal interaction.
Increased likelihood of misunderstanding, lack of trust and conflict.
Loss of morale and team spirit.
Different working hours.
Cultural differences.
Factors which influence team development
The skills that the individuals have and the skills that they need to deliver the project. This may change over the life of the project and continuing development may be needed and factored in to plans and timescales.
• Character ‘types’. Some will be introverts with a high level of specialist knowledge while others will be extroverts who have the drive and the ability to organise others.
• Location of team members. Some members may be working from home while others may reside in different countries and time zones.
• Availability of resources. Individuals may be working on other projects or business as usual and not be 100% available.
Tuckman’s
Forming, storming, norming, performing
a) Using a recognised motivational model, explain three ways how leadership impacts on team performance – 30 marks
McGregor’s Y-style empowers
- Empower members as a whole
- Encouraging input increases confidence
- Develops to greater ownership
- Increases morale
- Leader still retains accountability
Y style is positive
- Leadership with positive feedback and rewards
- Recognise different people are to different motivators
- increases chance of positive response so long as equitable.
- As commitment increases, better performance
- Reduce people churn as more fulfilled
X can be over control
- Could negatively impact performance
- Over autocratic can lead to missing signs of struggles
- Can lead to then pushing harder leading to stress
- team members may leave
- Takes time to train up new members
b) Explain two reasons why it might be necessary to change leadership styles to ensure effective management during a project – 20 marks
A situation may arise that threatens the achievement of the project’s objectives.
• Leader may need to adopt a more directive style, to ensure that tighter tolerances are adhered to.
• Leader may have additional demands placed on them by the project board, thus more info.
• Ensures better compliance with reasonable governance requirements, such as additional reporting or audits.
• Ensures that risks are reported, escalated if necessary and better controlled at the right level.
Leads to a better managed project.
New, more experienced team members could join the project.
• Initially leader more supporting style as the new member integrates into the team. The project team should be supportive of this and this minimises any potential disruption to project delivery.
• Eventually the leader will be able to take a more delegating approach, which frees their time up to manage the wider team more effectively. • This enables the leader to focus on supporting and developing less experienced members of the team as part of his/her management style. • They may use the more experienced members to coach others, freeing the leader to focus more on strategy and wider team development.
a) Using a recognised model, explain three factors which influence the creation, development and leadership of teams – 30 marks
The character make-up of the team (using Belbin)
- Types will impact how teams gel together
- Some will be introverts with a high level of specialist knowledge / other extroverts. Need to adapt style to cover both
- Important to get a balance of all types
- If balance not possible, need to find a way to cover gaps
The way the team is initially formed (in the Tuckman model)
- Team don’t know each other so wont be high performing
- If not addressed team may be ineffective.
- Can address through kick off meeting and clear objectives.
- Set clear roles and responsibilities to avoid ambiguity and help others know their part.
- Managing the initial phase will help future phases.
The way conflict is managed (Tuckman)
- Teams go through storming stages where cliques form and may be power struggles
- Need leadership to ensure focus on project not emotions
- Teams can regress if there is a significant change to project
- These Hygiene factors need to be managed to keep on track
Describe two characteristics of an effective team
Take More risks
- Teams have learnt to trust each other
- Risk averse may be carried by group decisions
- Can lead to group accountability decisions as individuals do not feel the burden.
- Reduced blame culture
Teams support each other more
- Not just focussed on own goals
- If finish early team members may then help others
- By appreciating what others bring will be more tolerant of their weaknesses
- ie shaper less frustrated by a monitor -evaluator if they see the improved quality.
Using a recognised model, explain how three aspects of leadership impact on the motivation of a team– 30 marks
Leaders need to understand and satisfy the needs of a team (Maslow)
• Team members will not progress to high levels of motivation until basic needs met.
• Leader must ensure issues dealt with to enable progression. May involve providing job clarity
• The leader must create the environment for team bonding. ie Team events
• Leader should provide challenging tasks for the team to increase buy-in.
A good leader will address hygiene factors (Herzberg)
- Remove poor hygiene ie lack of trust / poor processes. Shows care for team.
- Leader can deal with poor hygiene factors like unequal pay.
- Also need to incorporate motivators like self development leading to increased productivity.
Using Positive style (McGregor)
- Y style leadership empowers members which makes them more engaged.
- Trusting team leads to proactive not reactive team
- Involving team increases confidence
- Increases morale and productivity
- Leader is still accountable
Explain two factors which impact on the leadership of virtual teams – 20 marks
Relationships between team members.
• Hard to build deep relationships within the team due to the lack of informal interaction.
• Virtual working can be draining, as may not see how project fits as a whole thus despondent.
• Leader should ensure there is clarity of roles and responsibilities and plan carefully to increase social interaction.
• Ensure group have a common objective, access to good communication channels such as group chat and regular interactions with individuals is key to leading a virtual team and building relationships.
Communication factors.
• Different time zones and working hours.
• Maybe different languages involved. Leader should agree on a common business language, the use of translators and a glossary of terms. Written communication should be scrutinized and simplified without the use of local terms.
• Cultural training, body language and facial expressions to remove confusion, ambiguity and any resultant conflict.
Describe 2 models to facilitate team building
Belbin - Use a scoring method to define behavioural traits into 9 groups. Help define who people work together. Need a mix and to appreciate other people’s contribution.
Tuckmans Forming, storming, norming , performing (adjourning). Leader needs to make individuals into an effective team and progress to preforming ASAP.. Forming requires a lot of leadership and direction, people may test boundaries.
Storming - Decision not easy, vying for positions. Need to focus on goals not emotions. compromises needed.
Norming - Clarity of roles. Decisions can be delegated. Team engage socially and discuss working style.
Performing - Team strategically aware, knows what doing. High degree of autonomy.
Describe 3 leadership models
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs - Need to sort each level before can progress to next. Leaders can facilitate progression to higher levels to increase overall motivation of team. Basic / Safety/ Belonging / Esteem / Self realisation
Herzberg Hygiene - There are factors that will motivate people to work harder if present and hygiene factors that will demotivate if not present.
McGregor’s X and Y theory - Type X over analyse, autocratic, ultimatums, deadline driven ant cost of others. Assumes people don’t want to work.
Type Y gives people choices, trusts and empowers them. Positive feedback and involves then in decision making whilst retaining overall power. Assumes people want to do a good job.
Describe some benefits of adapting leadership styles to a situation.
- Increased confidence of the individuals in the team.
- Improved likelihood of getting results
- Increased motivation of the individuals
- Builds trust and respect from the team as they see a leader applying different styles for different situations – this, in turn, benefits the leader/project manager.
- Helps junior, less confident, less competent individuals develop and gives those with high competence and confidence the room to get on with their allocated work.
- Ensures urgent decisions made when time is short – this benefits the organisation.
