Tels 4371 - Leading Change in the Workplace

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Next, goals and expectations should be established and roles should be delegated. This function allows team members to fall into roles where they might find comfort and begin a timeline for progression and the team can enter the next structure of planning and coordinating how the tasks will be carried out. The next phase is training and developing the team in areas that are needed to carry out the needs of the project and fulfil what is expected of the team. The next process in the structure is sensemaking. This is identifying any factors or events that might be disruptive to the team and interpreting what is the cause and how it is affecting the team. This information will then be communicated to the team in efforts to lessen the impact of what is to be achieved. The next process is to provide feedback. This is important to keeping a project on track and motivating team members based on what they have produced based on the metrics, milestones, and expectations of the project or task (Johnson2008).

Once these processes have been accomplished, the leader must move the team into the Action Phase where teams are strictly focused on achieved goal directly related to what is to be accomplished. The leader now moves into the role of monitoring the team and managing the team’s boundaries. This entails keeping the team aligned with activities that correlate to what is expected of the team (Johnson, 2008). The leader then finds ways to challenge the team and motivate them to surpass what is expected. This then leads to performing task that will lead to problems that need to be solved. The leader is expected to be able to offer resources to assist the team with information, tools, or personnel that is needed. When a leader reaches this milestone with a team, they can encourage self-management and support the social climate of the team. This is when the leader shows the team that their individual efforts are recognized and the continued motivation of the team to exceed the results of the given tasks.

These functions of leadership have been assessed to structure what is needed to enhance the effectiveness of a team (Smith, 2011). A leader must be willing to employ these functions to be successful. From composing the team to encouraging self-management or supporting the social climate of the team this is a great approach to understanding the structures and processes needed to be a successful leader.

The most essential skill in leadership is communication. This skill allows for the rest of the puzzle pieces to connect and enable the most important aspect of leadership which is teamwork. Teamwork cannot exist without leadership and leadership cannot be successful without teamwork. The balance between teamwork and leadership must exist in a manner that they draw inspiration from each other. Neither can thrive is the other is unmotivated. The leader has the vision of the organization that must be communicated to the team in efforts for the vision to be made into a reality. Leadership is not about power, authority, management, or supervision. Leadership is the action of influencing and empowering others to accomplish tasks and goals beyond the expectation.

Leadership is a role and a mindset that people act on to build, maintain, and motivate relationships. A team is a group of people put together to accomplish a task. Teams might be comprised of individuals of various backgrounds, abilities, cultures, and roles that need leaders to motivate them to achieve common goals that have been set before them(Holt, 2012). The leader’s role is to empower and delegate. The team’s role is to create creative solutions. The leader must take on the act of creating the team, communicating the goals of the team, motivating the team and managing conflict amongst the team. The team should be empowered to solve problems with the objective, make decisions, and communicate effectively with the leader(Holt, 2012).

The Five-Dimensional Leadership Competence Model describe the abilities that well-rounded leaders should possess. These are transformational, transactional, organic, contemporary, and ethical. Transformational leaders are charismatic and influential. They use this to motivate their teams to meet goals and accomplish more than what is expected of them while nurturing healthy relationships. Transactional leaders deal rewards for performance among team members. This helps with the motivation of the team. Organic leadership seeks to create an outpour of a team member’s own leadership skills. This leadership style promotes interaction, respect, and strong working relationships amongst team members. Contemporary style leadership focuses on persuasion rather than fear. They communicated difficulties as opportunities for development. Ethical leaders have high integrity and lead based on their social power influences their decisions. They operate on strong integrity and influence.

Successful teamwork demands functional relationships amongst the team and the leaders. It involves constant communication and feedback of what is expected and what is being done. To balance leadership and teamwork there are 8 named tenets that must be put into place: vision, integrity, communication, collaboration, creativity, goal orientation, empowerment, and team building. At the minimum this relationship must have integrity to build the trust, respect, and credibility that is needed to manage the creativity and collaborations that enable a team to move progress toward the vision. Communication is, again, the most important in fostering this relationship through goal orientation, empowerment, and team building.

Leading change in the workplace has many challenges. One of the greatest challenges is aligning the adaptability of the people within the organization. It is very important to understand the idea of adaptability because one of the most common reasons for failure in leadership is the inability to adapt. Adaptability is being able to go with the flow of change. The ability to go with the flow of things is less stressful and reduces anxiety and frustration when faced with adversity if the workplace. In leadership, adaptability is conforming your leadership style to meet the needs of changing business demands. Change happens very quickly and if forces great leaders to adapt to new circumstances. The business environment, needs of clients and employees, technology, and demand of the business constantly changes. A leader will also be faced with crisis situations, stress of employees and their issues, problem solving, new tasks and procedures, and things such as interpersonal differentiation. Being able to cope with these changes produces a much more successful leader than a singular, one-dimensional leader.

One of the biggest challenges in leading people is getting