Terracog Leadership Paper
Essay by chengwu.cui • December 24, 2017 • Term Paper • 1,296 Words (6 Pages) • 1,583 Views
LEAD 2: REFLECTION PAPER
Cui Chengwu (Peter), EMBA 2019A
- Team development
We had already well recognized how important team work is, however leaders are still struggling on how to build a high efficient, cooperative and productive team. Many corporate, including my current company, are suffering from the mis-leaded team which is damaging corporate culture, frustrating employees’ dynamics and decreasing the bottom line. Before creating a team, the leader should always concentrate on examining and evaluating the personalities, backgrounds, experiences and characters of the potential team numbers. Dramatically differences in between of characters or background should call for attention as this team may generate more conflicts in future’s work. Leader should also think about the composition and number of the team. A too small team may lead to less dynamics and too big one will create chaos, less efficiency. The main task for developing a great team is to highlight the team dynamics by focusing on 3 critical points.
- Alignment on the direction with company strategy and development;
- High quality of interaction by creating an open atmosphere and communication channels;
- Strong sense of renewal to become more innovate and energetic
In the given case, it describes the disruptive effect on the team by a star performer. However, the leader (CEO) failed to align the direction with company’s strategy and was not able to provide an opened interaction which finally causes the malfunction of team work.
My personal insight is to remove the star performer if he or she really does not fit for the current team. Before launching this action, leader should work more effectively on adjusting the mis-aligned team direction. In my mind, a super-star performer’s value is always lower than an efficient and productive team.
- Social identity
Social identity is the component of self-concept that is derived from memberships in groups, which including basic need to maintain a positive sense of self-esteem and favorably compare to relevant group.
In the TerraCog case, due to wrong positioning of the products, the team is difficult to figure out the conflict between the cost and sale. General speaking, the project Aerial was a team, however the conflicts are raised due to the numbers are thinking from different perspectives. Under this situation, we could adopt the 5 dysfunctions method to evaluate the current team’s problem. As the team leader, Emma Richardson should directly report to the CEO about the positioning problem of their products. Consider from the social identity, all the team numbers are trying to avoid the accountability and get favorably advantage against other numbers. The team leader should be able to facilitate the team numbers by providing trust and commitment and opened communication channels.
- Leadership styles
Daniel Goleman has mentioned 6 emotional leadership styles in his 2002 book
Leadership style & characteristics | Appropriate situations |
Commanding Given commanding, “do it because what I say”, tight control, ect.. | Under crisis or emergency cases, or with problem employee. However, it is not quite often used in the modern business due to negative impact. |
Pacesetting Micro-managing, low on empathy and collaboration, ect.. | To get high-quality results from a motivated and competent team. However, it may generate problems and make people feel failing and less motivation |
Affiliative Promote harmony, solving conflict | To heal rifts in a team, motivate the team during the stress time, or strength the connection. Not recommended to use it alone, because this may allow the poor performance. |
Democratic Team worker, collaborator and influencer | Suitable when organization direction is unclear; to build buy-in or consensus. However, it may bring disaster in times of crisis and urgently demand quick answer |
Visionary Inspires, empathetic, tell the team where they are heading | When change requires to new vision, or when clear direction is needed, radical change. May overbearing if use too much |
Coaching Listen and help people to identify their own strength and weakness | To helping the competent motivated employee improve performance by building long term capabilities. But it can backfire if it’s perceived as “micromanaging” an employee, and undermines his or her self-confidence. |
Through the given case, the 6 leadership styles with different traits and impacts have been analyzed. There is no one leadership style could suitable for all the situations. So the situational leadership, which the leader is able to adjust his style to fit for the management, is necessary. My current boss, whose leadership style belongs to affiliative, is willing to create a harmony phenomenon and try to avoid any potential conflicts. However, many problems have been hided or even uncovered. Meanwhile, due to lacking of transformational and situational leadership ability, our company teams are composited by many poor performers, or even bad performers.
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