BMAL-727: Leading Effective Teams
February 27, 2020
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Challenged Authority / Greater Involvement
As individuals become more integrated into the team, discomfort subsides and openness begins to saturate the team to the point that members challenge authority. Although challenges against authority transpire, team cohesiveness and involvement continue to exponentially grow. Leaders must not take the challenge of authority from the team personally, but rather understand that as the team matures, losing the edge on experience and influence will fade and this is a sign of team growth and not truly the team being disgruntled (Wheelan, 2016, 73). Leaders that take the challenge of authority personally only compound the conflict as it becomes emotionally driven as opposed to task focused (Shuffler, Diazgranados, Maynard, and Salas, 2018, p. 690). The ideal leadership response to the team is to accept the diminished role of authority and transfer some authority to the team via empowerment strategies.
Empowering Team
Empowered teams have an enhanced group relationship, steady goal achievement, and unwavering group development through key delegation processes that redistributes power to the team (Wheelan, 2016, p. 79). The ability for team leaders to empower tasks to the team are critical for team success as it demonstrates trust in team capability and enriches cross communication of the team in meeting critical suspense’s levied by the team leader (Hill and Bartol, 2016, p. 164). It is imperative leaders that empower team activities take note, that although tasks are delegated across the team, the accountability to the C-suite for completion of team requirements still resides with the leader. When teams falter with handling empowerment, leaders can begin looking for internal conflict as a potential cause.
Conflict Management
In team settings, conflict is inevitable. The most important factor during a team conflict is not assuming that it is bad, but rather what is the action by leadership during conflict to leverage the discord to further team development and not allow it to be the team’s demise. One way for leaders to mitigate conflict is to redirect the conversation from a personal issue between team members back to the efforts of the whole team and in time, tempers will subside and cooler heads will prevail (Wheelan, 2016, p. 120). Although Wheelan (p. 120) conveys another trick in conflict situations is to intervene quickly and stay focused on the task. In researching conflict, this thought process may not be most ideal. Study demonstrates that conflict is good for a team and unless it is driving factions within the team, leaders should allow conflict to be sorted through by the team and work through to resolution (Black, 2019). If leaders intervene too quickly, there may be missed opportunities for the team to develop and learn how to handle conflict from an internal perspective. Thus, early intervention would be detrimental to overall team growth as conflict is not a single action within the team. Conflict will transpire routinely throughout the lifespan of the team.
Research and describe an example of an empowered team.
There are examples of great teams in history that were empowered to succeed and they did just that. Whether the 1972 Miami Dolphins with an undefeated football season or the University of Connecticut women’s basketball team winning 111 games in a row, all pale in comparison to the dynamic twelve that were picked by Jesus. When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases (Luke 9:1, NIV). Jesus understood that leaders cannot perform every task and that delegation and power sharing are necessary and indicative of an effective leadership style (Wheelan, 2016, p. 81). That is what He did for His team. Jesus pushed His team to have a greater involvement in spreading His message. And although He was questioned (Mark 4:10, NIV) and even challenged (Luke 9:18, NIV), Jesus continually empowered His team to spread the Word of God through the harshest of conflicts.
References
Black, J. (2019). Coaching Nurse Leaders in Conflict Management and Team Building to Improve Retention.
Hill, N. S., & Bartol, K. M. (2016). Empowering leadership and effective collaboration in geographically dispersed teams. Personnel Psychology, 69(1), 159-198.
Shuffler, M. L., Diazgranados, D., Maynard, M. T., & Salas, E. (2018). Developing, sustaining, and maximizing team effectiveness: An integrative, dynamic perspective of team development interventions. Academy of Management Annals, 12(2), 688-724.
Wheelan, S. (2016). Creating effective teams: A guide for members and leaders (5th ed.). (p. 1-35). Thousand Oaks: SAGE.
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