How a New Manager Would Manage Small Teams - Essay Example

How a New Manager would Manage Small Teams Name Professor Institution Course Date How a New Manager would Manage Small Teams Introduction Team formation and effective management have become very important as factors of competition in the 21st century (Shapiro, von Glinow & Cheng, J 2005, p.44). However, of the two, management is more important because it determine direction for the team. As a manager, your capability to lead people and motivate them is vital for team and own success. Berg & Holtbrügge (2010, p.189) contended that the team and organization as whole count on the manager to offer leadership and navigate the team through change, make, concentrate efforts effectively on critical tasks and make tough and sound decisions. Leadership is not about being tough or domineering on the employee, but creating passion for change endeavors (van Eeden, Cilliers & van Deventer 2008, p.255). Based on the information, this paper will explain how a new manager would manage a small team of people that have become negative and unproductive under a previous manager. To put this paper into context the discussion will focus on personal leadership, gaining team commitment, strategies to overcome communication conflict and barriers, establishing clear goals and establishing team rewards. Personal leadership The significance of work teams and group setting looks to be gaining momentum as 21st century unfolds and as the operations get bigger and better, companies change to multinational and organizational structures become complex (Shapiro, von Glinow & Cheng 2005, p.46). In the current corporate world, it looks the team and not just an individual works as the key factor to success of a business. Normally, employees are people who come from different cultural background who come together to work in an effort of attaining organizational goals (Graham, Leonard & Bonacum 2004, p.89). Their background culture often shapes their behavior and how they work. When such diversities are not harmonized, organization conflict may arise as a result divide the team. In addition, Shapiro, von Glinow & Cheng (2008, p.47) posited that if other factors of the team of the team effectiveness such as cohesion, motivation, communication and clear goals are not article the team lacks direction, and becomes negative and unproductive. In a situation where the previous manager has left a dejected team, the new manager needs interpersonal leadership to improve them. According to Berg (2006b, p.21), personal Leadership is described as a state of the heart, mind and the body. This style of leadership means interacting with employees at personal level to know their strengths and weaknesses. From there, the leader can know how to how to inspire and impact personal development, interpersonal development and viewpoint about people from different background. In other words, personal leadership hold that for one to succeed professionally, another dimension of inner self should be the main including goals, mindsets, emotions and motivations (Abudi, 2011). This can only be discovered when the leader exhibits and replicate agreeable trait. This is the situation a leader relates well with his employees. Halverson & Tirmizi (2008) claimed that this gives employees courage to interact with employees and discuss what is affecting them at personal level. In return, the manager can understand them and devise a way of handling the situation. For example, a manager can train employees to learn to cope with different cultural background which other team members’ posses. Furthermore, the manager can influence the team member to drop their personal goals to pursue organization as that is the only way they can work together and learn from each other. After knowing everyone strength and weaknesses, the manager can form new team where employees share attributes and aspiration because it enable them to clique first than people who are incompatible (Wagner & Hollenbeck 2010). Managing group does not end after formation but needs frequent monitoring to know the milestone and difficult the team faces. Based on his assessment, the manager can advise on the next way forward and motivate the team to complete the tasks. Webb (2007, p.55) motivation is an important factor in the team and can take many forms such as financial incentive of promise of holiday leave. People are normally enthused things which make them feel good and motivation factors are those things which make the feel satisfied. Fortunately, managers using personal leadership style are socially and natural motivated and look for close relations within a team setting (Webb 2007, p.62). Gaining team commitment Gaining team commitment is one of the most important factors which determine success. Uncommitted team lacks the drive to perform better and attain organizational goals. Less commitment is often instigated with many different factors such as less motivation, lack of clear goals, communication break, low salary and lack of job security among others (Abudi 2011). When the manager contributing to low commitment leaves the company, then it can be a blessing to find a new manager who can inspire the team and gain their commitment towards attaining organizational objectives. Team commitment can be gained be gained through setting up a proper communication channel (Wagner & Hollenbeck 2010). This can be done through team leader. Although, it is recommended that the manager communicate with every team member as a group or as an individual to learn what affects their performance, what they offer to the offer organization and what they would like the organization to do for them. Chen, Geluykens & Choi (2006, p.693) asserted that when a company involves the employee and listens to them through open communication they feel valued and an asset to the company and get ancillary benefits. Such benefits which new manager can influence consist of developing and growing their career skills. The great managers are open to new opinions and ideas from other people, including his employees (Wagner & Hollenbeck, 2010). On the other hand, a committed team treats their tasks as their own and care for the outcomes. Other factor which normally disturbs employees and cannot allow them minds to settle is the job security. Employees want to work in a place where their future and personal development is assured. Even if change is happening, employees should be assured of his job because this enables them to make up their mind and commit to the organization. In working under teams, employees acquire new skills, knowledge and attain personal development (Abudi 2011). When the new manager is ready to trust them and keep them for a long time, they give their best due to the support from the organization. van Eeden, R, Cilliers & van Deventer (2008, p. 259) stated that commitment can also be gained from employees if the manager recommends for effective training. With training, the team acquires new skills needed for the job hence making the tasks easier. Abudi (2011) affirmed that a company where effective and continuous training is offered, employees feel their personal development is catered for and work hard to reciprocate it with positive performance. Strategies to overcome communication barriers and conflicts Communication is a key factor in team management because it’s highly in showing direction and pulling together in achieving team goals (Graham, Leonard & Bonacum 2004, p.84). In other words teams, whether small or big needs concise and clear communication to forge ahead together. However, sometimes that is not the case particularly if the managers of the team do not understand their role, or if they ignore their roles. Such instances leads to communication conflicts. Berg & Holtbrügge (2010, p.191) argued that communication barriers majorly are contributed by cultural differences, attitudinal barriers, system design, linguistic ability, physiological barriers and physical barriers. Cultural contributes to the communication barrier because every culture is unique in behavior and language hence different verbal or non-verbal communication can be interpreted differently. For instance, gestures, symbols and colors bear different meaning in the context of different cultures and may cause conflict if offensively used. The strategy for reducing such barrier is training employees on different cultures of the world to help them become global citizens who can operate anywhere across the globe (Berg & Holtbrügge 2010, p.193). Continuous training makes employees drop individual culture to embrace the corporate culture is aimed at attaining organizational goals. Wagner & Hollenbeck (2010) opined that attitudinal barriers are resulted by poor management, personality conflict and absence of consultation. Correcting such barrier will require a new manager to form a close relationship with employees to understand their personality. This process will shape employee’s personality so that they can be able to fit into group setting. Without shaping up the personality, everyone is likely to pursue individual goals. Berg (2006b, p.22) argued that establishing a close relationship and relating well with the team is away of involvement and consultation because they feel free to air their views about the operations. Employees who are consulted and involved in feel appreciated and know what the company wants of them. Physical barriers entail company environment, building and equipment of communication (Graham, Leonard & Bonacum 2004, p.87). In today’s environment where technology rules barrier can be caused by outdated gadgets where the company takes long to change its communication equipments. Abudi (2011) contended that teams are sometimes operated in the field way from the physical company and needs Smartphone and sophisticated equipment to report the progress to the managers. To eliminate such conflict and barriers, a new manager ought to budget for new equipments. System design communication conflicts and barrier entail tall organizational structure where communication takes a long time to reach the manager. In such cases, communication from the team can reach the manager when the message is already distorted (Chen, Geluykens & Choi 2006, p.685). Then situation can also lead to inefficient information reaching the team. To reduce the barrier, the new manager can restructure the organization and eliminate several middle level managers to who distort the message before it reaches top level managers. Middle-level managers also affects the relationship between employees with top level managers. Identifying and Setting goals, Opportunities and Monitoring Team members usually have different goals when the team is first formed. However, different goals cannot make the team work together for a long time. Shapiro, von Glinow & Cheng (2005, p.49) argued that the key factor to success is the setting clear goals and communicating them to the team to pursue. A team with clear goals, lacks direction and commitment to the organization. The new manager coming into an organization must therefore set clear and specific goals which must be achieved within a specific time. Shapiro, von Glinow & Cheng (2005, p.51) went ahead to claim that tasks and goals provide an opportunity for individual team members to also seek career development as they learn from team members. On top of setting goals, training should be offered to the team to acquaint them with what is expected of them. Training provides personal development which can benefit the team in a long term basis, even if he leaves the company (Halverson & Tirmizi 2008). However, the outcome can only be beneficial to both company and individual if they are monitored. Employees can be dejected if their performance are not monitored and communicated to them. Monitoring is the only way a team can know if they are improving their career. Conclusion Then paper has found our strong correlation between effective management and team success at the workplace. Management factors like leadership, motivation, proper communication and clear goals has been found established to be a key pillar team effective and commitment to completing tasks. However, leadership has stood out among these factors since it serves as the determining factor to motivation, clear communication and clear goals. The manager or a leader serves through the personal, technical and communication skills influences the team to work together to achieve organizational goals. Similarly, they use personal leadership skills to discover employees’ strength and get the best out of them for good of organization. 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