Project Leadership and Management - Essay Example

Project Leadership and Teams Report Prepared by Student Name Code + Course University Name Professor’s Name City Date Project Leadership and Teams Report Introduction Developing a competent team and ensuring maximum performance of that team are two different aspects of good leadership. Whichever the case, great leadership does not entail a magic combination of leadership traits. However, successful leadership means applying different characteristics according to different prevailing situations. As much as many people believe that leadership is born, it can be taught as well. One can become a successful leader by understanding various leadership approaches and learning about core leadership theories formulated by theorists as a backbone of the current meaning of leadership. Apparently team building is one challenging task that requires leaders to have versatile skills and exceptional experience that can enable them to assemble a team either from scratch or existing workers already engaged in active groups within the organization. People working together as a single organism to achieve a common goal are what make a great team. The success of this team, however, depends on the team leader’s ability and success in defining directions of the team and organizing the team to maximize development along such bearings contributes considerably to team effectiveness. Therefore, this report utilizes the knowledge of group theories that help in developing groups into high-performance teams to delivering on our project that is at the execution stage. This is an assessment report that focuses on best project leadership and shows how great leaders can create high-performance teams that can accomplish group goals. For instance, scholars have come a long way trying to find a universal definition of leadership. In the process, a number of concepts such as contingency theories have developed to guide project managers in developing high-performance teams in organizations. Analysis and Discussion of Issues The execution stage is a critical phase that requires team members’ commitment to deliver the intended product, service or whatever results expected at the end of the project. Therefore, this phase calls for comprehensive attention of the project manager or project leader who is responsible for defining goals and developing and organizing the team to achieve the vision and mission of the project within the set time. In this regard, it is apparent that team leadership is a vital characteristic of effective team performance. As teams become a norm in many organizations today, team building continues to be a challenging task for project managers. According to Borkowski (2009, p.325), project managers are required to familiarize themselves with the complexity of teams especially in the work design, team composition, and various factors that facilitate the team to achieve higher levels of performance and effectiveness. Accordingly, creating a great team that is likely to achieve a high-performance requires the project manager, the leaders in this case, to choose members based on their skills, experience, and potential for their skills but not according to their personality. Essentially, teams are required to demonstrate their complementary skills that are required to perform various project tasks (Borkowski 2009, p.325). Project managers can apply Fiedler’s contingency model that was designed to match various leadership styles with different situations to develop groups into high-performance teams. According to Gaines & Worrall (2012, p.171), contingency theories show the importance of the interaction of leaders with subordinates and the current situation in the course of project implementation. The theory notes that a group that works as a team becomes most productive and is the work of leaders of the group to ensure the group remains cohesive with the team spirit kept intact. Based on the contingency theory, a project manager can build a successful team using the formal retreat method that require members belonging to the team to convene externally from the department and try to erect working relationships (Gaines & Worrall 2012, p. 171). Besides, the path-goal theory holds that subordinates accept the behavior of their leader and find this motivating especially when they believe that the behavior of the leader is instrumental to managing their immediate or future needs. The theory also holds that leaders tend to satisfy the needs of subordinates by offering them guidance, support and rewards thus making them more productive. Therefore, the project leader can build a strong team by collectively engaging and guiding subordinates toward achieving some objective or finding a solution to a problem through a continuous approach. Furthermore, we can build a competent team by applying the leader-member exchange (LMX) theory. Under the above theory, leaders usually form two groups: an in-group and out-group of members or followers. Lunenburg (2010, p.2), subordinates in the in-group category typically responds with greater that required spending of time and effort, the greater responsibility of taking up tasks, and dedication to the success of the organization. In the leader-member exchange model, the relationship between the project leader and each subordinate is treated separately; converse to the way the relationship between a superior and a group is treated. The LMX theory enables leaders to initiate an in-group or in-group exchange with members of the organization at earlier stages of the relationship. Hence, the in-group approach allows its members to participate in decision-making and assume added responsibility. Apparently team members will feel recognized, appreciated and supported when they receive some latitude in their different roles. Leaders can sometimes go off the track when situations are very complex and beyond their ability or can sometimes use their authority to make decisions independently regardless of the outcome. Thus, the in-group method will be the best method to construct more workable groups that will eventually develop into high-performance teams. Unlike out-groups where members are supervised within the tapered limits of their official employment contract, in-group members are raised to the informal function of trusted lieutenant and enjoy open communication and confidence (Lunenburg 2010, p.2). A vital point for us to remember is that team building first begins with building strong relationships between the project leader and team members. After we build a strong team for the project, the normative decision model (an outcome of the contingency theory) can be used to guide and support the team in different situations. According to Nelson & Quick (2009, p.439), a favorable leadership condition involves a structured task for the group, a commanding situation power for the leaders, and great leader-member relations. The advanced level of the contingency theory provides the leader with decision procedures that are suitable to guide our team through the execution phase into the monitoring and control stage of project implementation. The leader should also base these decision procedures on Vroom and Yetton’s model (1973) to identify and classify situations with different decision procedures so as to ensure the effectiveness of project team leadership. Also, Vroom and Jago evaluated leadership based on quality of decision of the leaders and suggested that leadership success depends on how well leaders make decisions and importantly, leadership is delivered when leaders make quality decisions (Gaines & Worrall 2012, p.170). Applying this Vroom-Jago leadership participation model, our project leader will learn how to utilize leadership authority in different decision-making situations. Non-consultative, consultative and democratic decision-making situations are important categories of the participative leadership model that play a vital role in the collective team performance. The extent of participation in situation decision-making is predicated on the person who possesses the knowledge concerning the problem, approval of the solution, and limitations of how fast the decision should be made (Gaines & Worrall 2010, p.170). Hence, the G-II (group) category of the normative decision model represents the most effective decisional point necessary for accomplishing various goals of the project. In this decision approach, the leader can share with the subordinates the problem encountered while executing the project. Since it is a participative approach, the leader and subordinates together can generate and assess different options available so as to agree on the most workable or reasonable solution. Organizational change is another big challenge that faces managers. Leading change is an additional most vital but challenging responsibility that project managers are required to accomplish in addition to their normal duties. Change management is a complex, difficult and comprehensive process that is more involving for managers. Therefore, Kurt Lewin’s change management model can help the project managers to understand the process of organizational change by understanding the change model’s three steps involving; unfreezing, changing and refreezing. According to Lewin, change is a modification of the forces that keeping a system’s behavior stable and claims that a given set of behaviors at a given time occur as a result of two group of forces (Cummings & Worley 2011, p.22). These forces are; a strife to maintain the status quo and those pushing for the change to happen. The team leader for our project, therefore, should understand the three steps identified by Kurt Lewin. With sufficient knowledge about the unfreezing phase, our team leader will be able to reduce the forces of maintaining the existing organization’s behavior. Leaders of change should introduce information that indicates discrepancies between behaviors that members of the organization crave and those at present level thus being able to motivate members to engage in organizational change. Moreover, an adequate understanding of moving phase of the three-step model will enable the manager to learn how to intervene in the system to create new behaviors, principles, and attitudes. These three aspects are often generated by changes that in different organizational structures and processes. Lastly, applying the refreezing phase helps in the stabilization of the team at the current or new equilibrium state and involves the use of different organizational reinforcements such as rewards, culture, and structures. Equally, the project leader can then incorporate the Kotter’s change implementation steps to achieve successful change. If the team leader chooses the best team building model, follows appropriate approaches to selecting members, and proper change model, a high-performance team can materialize. Conclusion Team building is a difficult task performed by managers to establish and develop a group into a very successful team for a project. Project managers can accomplish their goals by understanding different team building theories and practices in order to be able to identify and match talent in a group into a successful team. First, a great team is formed when members work together towards a common goal. The report, therefore, succeeds in identifying suitable models that can be used by project managers in building a high-performance team and picks the most appropriate change management model. The contingency theories have been found to help the team managers to identify team members based on their understanding and proficiency rather than their personality. Also, the path-goal theory shows how a leader can motivate the subordinates through his or her behavior. The lead-member exchange theory can be integrated with the path-goal theory to boost the performance of a team towards achieving group goals. Given the decision procedures and the team, the leader can apply the Lewin’s three-step model: unfreezing, moving and refreezing steps to initiate and implement change in the team. Reference List Borkowski, N. (2009). Organizational Behavior, Theory, and Design in Health Care. Jones and Bartlett Publishers, Sudbury, Mass. [pg.325] Cummings, T. G & Worley, C. G. (2011). Organization Development and Change. 9th edition, South-Western/Cengage Learning. Mason, Ohio. [u.a]. [pg. 22] Top of Form Bottom of Form Gaines, K. G., & Worrall, J. L. (2012). Police Administration. 3rd edition, Delmar/Cengage. Clifton Park, New York City, USA. [pg.170-171] Lunenburg, F. C. (2010). Leader-Member Exchange Theory: Another Perspective on the Leadership Process. International Journal of Management, Business, and Administration, vol 13, no.1. [pg.2] Nelson, D. L., & Quick, J. C. (2009). Organizational behavior: science, the real world, and you. Mason, OH, USA, South-Western Cengage Learning. [pg.439] Read More