Team Leadership Breakdown

I remember when we started the MBA class “Leadership and Management in the Changing World,” the professor told us that it would be hard to teach us how to be a good leader or put a grade on us based on our leadership skills. For that reason, she explained to us that we would be graded based on our group projects, presentations, exams, participation in class, and evaluations from our peers. During class, we learned different leadership theories, which included but were not limited to the traits and styles of leaders. According to the contingency theory, there is no good or bad leader, and there is no right or wrong leadership style, because every situation is different from each other, so it is important to consider situational variables in order to use the leadership style that would be better suited for that particular situation. Working in a team and making group decisions may seem easy, but sometimes it can get somewhat complicated due to the lack of different internal and external leadership actions. Regarding internal task leadership actions, our team seemed to have a clear goal, which was to finish the paper and PowerPoint presentation by Monday and Wednesday respectively, prior to the presentation day. However, we failed to achieve both goals. Even though, we finished everything before the presentation, we did not meet the dateline that we established as a group.

One of the problems was that we did not assign a leader in our team, so we did not have that one person who would facilitate decision-making. We went with whatever the majority of the members said. This was reflected at the time of choosing the date and time for group meetings, picking the two leaders of the presentation, selecting the way were going to share the information, and whether or not to dress up for the presentation. Not having an assigned leader, created confusion in the team because we were divided in two groups based on the leader we were doing research for, and instead of reporting to someone, we just posted on Blackboard the information we gathered but no one took initiative to put all the information together at first.

A lesson learned from this is that it is important to assign a leader that would delegate responsibilities to the members of the team. For example, in our group we all did research about the two leaders but there were some members who probably put more effort than others. In order to make everyone participate equally, the leader needs to be able to delegate responsibilities, and trust all the members in his team. Otherwise, if someone tries to do everything, that person would feel it is unfair that he worked more than the other members. It is important that the leader shares the information at the beginning, not at the end of the teamwork process, and that he or she shares it with all the members of the team not just few of them.  Another lesson learned is that it is important for a team to take internal task and relational leadership actions in order to achieve team effectiveness. For example, by structuring the team for results, the team would have a clear plan, vision, and goal. Also, by collaborating and building commitment, the team would have all the members involved and more tasks would get accomplished.

Another problem we had was the lack of effective communication. In many occasions, some members of the team sent e-mails to everyone, and nobody answered, or maybe one person replied. The lack of communication played an important role in our team leadership breakdown. Even though, we had competent members in our team, all our knowledge and skills were not maximized because we were not able communicate effectively what we needed from each other. In addition, we did not maintain standards of excellence, meaning that we did not assessed the team members or confront inadequate performance right away. The day we were going to start writing the paper, some team members went home, and some of the ones who stayed kept complaining about their lack of collaboration. This issue should have been addresses immediately, but since some of us wanted to avoid conflict, we did not say anything. Nevertheless, these members who were missing made it up later on by working on the paper or PowerPoint. 

A lesson learned from this is that since communication is an important factor when working as a team, we need to make sure that all the members feel comfortable asking questions regarding their duties and responsibilities, and also feel free to make suggestions. In addition, they should avoid gossip. In order to have an effective communication, leaders should encourage their team members to speak their minds during team meetings. Also, leaders should make sure that the team is on track by checking the progress of all the members’ work in a timely basis and compare it to the objectives that were established at the beginning. It is important to have a clear and open communication among all members, depending on the situation it can be via e-mail or face to face. This would lead to better decision-making and will satisfy the needs everyone.

Another lesson leaned is that it is important to have all the members of the team motivated in order to achieve the goal. In this way, the performance of each member would not decrease. Instead, they will be performing at their highest potential. Discipline, stress tolerance, and integrity are also important factors that we should keep in mind in order to work well in a group. By having discipline, we are able to stay on track and achieve our goals. By having stress tolerance, we would be more patient with other members, and work in harmony. And, by having integrity, we would make the right choices and be fair with everyone in the team.

Team leadership is complex and there are no simple recipes for team success.

Based on Larson and LaFasto’s studies, there are eight characteristics of team excellence which include clear goal, results-driven structure, competent team members, unified commitment, collaborative climate, standards of excellence, external support and recognition, and principle leadership (Northouse, pg 299). In this case, our team lacked many of the characteristics previously mentioned. We faced some challenges including team meetings, communication barriers, and share responsibility that we were not able to overcome. This resulted in our team leadership breakdown. However, we learned a lot from this experience, and writing this paper helped me realize how important it is for a team to have a clear goal and a leader who would encourage team members to collaborate, stay on track, communicate effectively with everyone, and stay committed to the team. I believe it is important for the leader to be optimistic and enthusiastic so there would be emotional contagion among all the followers. Finally, it is important for all the team members, especially the leader, to figure out if something is getting in the way of the team’s goal accomplishment and take action immediately. Otherwise, the team would fail.