Importance of leading teams to achieve organisational goals and objectives Essay

1. Evaluate the role of leadership in helping teams to achieve organisational goals and objectives What is it that leaders do to help their teams achieve organisational goals and objectives? Every organisation has goals and objectives which are essential for it to succeed in an ever changing environment. Ken Blanchard’s study of leadership identified two broad types of behaviour, directive and supportive, and the extent to which these are combined are demonstrated in Hersey and Blanchard’s situational leadership model. Among other things this model suggests that a leader needs to be adaptable to a given situation and aware of the social context in which they work. There are evidently numerous ways a leader helps their team to achieve goals and objectives and these are summarised in John Adair’s model of action centred leadership which defines three core management responsibilities: achieving the task, managing the team or group and managing individuals. To help their team achieve goals and objectives a leader must undertake certain functional responsibilities which include: defining objectives, briefing, planning, monitoring and evaluating, with these being continuous as new situations develop and objectives change. At the same time a leader needs to be able to recognise and encourage individual strengths, while being aware of and facilitating improvement in areas of weakness, an awareness of team and individual motivating factors is also crucial. Leaders must also be able to adapt their style of leadership taking into account the varying factors of the task such as time, complexity, resources and individual expertise. Why are these actions  important? The importance of the functional responsibilities are evident, to get the job done! For instance without planning a team has no direction, and no evaluation means that how well the plan is working is unknown and therefore pretty useless. Motivating a team is also a high priority as morale has a significant impact upon long term productivity and hence success. The ability to adapt ones leadership style is significant as situations are open to change, a simple task with little time to complete will require a different approach to one with opposing factors, and the success of each are highly dependent on the approach taken. Individual encouragement and improvement is also necessary as a person’s attitude to the goal or objective is largely influenced by their own feelings towards it and involvement in it. In the areas of task, team and individuals the importance lies in incorporating all three as neglect of one will affect the others. Assessment unit title ILM unit no. AMSPAR unit no Understand the importance of leading teams to achieve organisational goals and objectives M5.46/1 604/1 Assessment Criteria 2. Assess the effectiveness of own organisation in measuring team performance against organisational goals and objectives. How effective is the organisation in measuring team performance – is it â€Å"fit for purpose†? In many areas my own organisations performance measures are â€Å"fit for purpose†, there are some however that could be improved. What part of measuring for performance does the organisation do well? QOF achievement is measured using a data extraction system which automatically monitors our achievement in Vision in real time, and as it forms a large part of the practice income it is essential that we have access to it at any time. This allows us to measure data entry frequency and quality. Prescribing targets. We have an annual prescribing budget for the practice which is monitored on a monthly basis, overspend is highlighted and the GP’s have to work on reducing it. An audit of incoming telephone calls is carried out periodically which gives us a good idea of numbers of calls, waiting times and how many are abandoned which in turn enables us to measure the call handling performance. We aim to process script requests within 48hrs and an audit of this is used to measure the percentage of which are completed in this time. What does it not do so well? Staff appraisals – the current format is woefully lacking. There is a very limited form given to staff members to fill out before and the appraisal itself constitutes a friendly chat with no objectives set. 100% of team members when asked express the opinion that the process is currently a â€Å"waste of time†. This results in individual performance not being measured. There are currently no reception team meetings. These would serve as a measure of on-going performance as objectives and progress can be discussed. Instead there is a predominant reactionary attitude to problems that arise instead of planning to avoid them where possible. What are the implications of your findings? The organisation performs well when staffed with appropriately skilled people  but takes a long time to bring new staff up to the required level of competence. Communication is poor at times which results in low team spirit and this is further impacted by the negative appraisal experience. The current appraisal system also fails to develop individuals as objectives and goals are not set and hence provide little motivation or progression. Assessment unit title ILM unit no. AMSPAR unit no Be able to develop and lead teams M5.46/2 604/2 Assessment Criteria 1. Critically review your own ability to develop and lead teams to achieve organisational goals and objectives Assessment unit title ILM unit no. AMSPAR unit no Understand own ability to fulfil the leadership role M5.06/1 607/1 Assessment Criteria 1. Evaluate your ability to use a range of leadership styles, in different situations and with different types of people, to fulfil the leadership role Give three examples of the different personalities or situations you have in your team. 1. New starter who has been in the team for two weeks. Enthusiastic but lacking skills. 2. Senior team member who has been in the job for nineteen  years. Highly skilled but lacks motivation. 3. Team member been in job three years. Very capable but lacks confidence to work alone. How does this affect the way you manage them? If I class these individuals using Hersey and Blanchard’s development levels their differences influence the approach I try to take when dealing with them. Person 1 needs a high level of both direction and support, whereas persons 2 & 3 need high support but less direction. Think about each of the different styles you have chosen (e.g. Telling, Selling, Consulting & Delegating). For each style†¦ Style 1 (name this style and describe it in twenty words or less) Telling or Autocratic – Roles and goals are extensively clarified, the leader defines objectives and standards with performance being closely monitored. Give an example showing when you have used this style. Centralised computer system failure requiring emergency procedures to be put into place to maintain a safe level of patient care. Was it effective? Give yourself a score out of 10†¦ 10 Explain why you gave yourself that score: why was it the right (or the wrong!) thing to do? The nature of the problem meant that there was no time for discussion. Operable working practices needed to be adopted instantly with team members being assigned specific tasks. The problem was short term. Does applying this style come easily to you? Why or why not? Yes – my natural tendency leans heavily to a directive approach and I easily trust my judgement in situations which need immediate response. Style 2 (name this style and describe it in twenty words or less) Selling or Coaching – The leader provides direction with two-way communication used and support provided, allowing the team to buy into the process. Give an example showing when you have used this style. Explaining a new method of recording instances of pharmacies losing prescriptions and the benefit of having the subsequent data. Was it effective? Give yourself a score out of 10†¦ Explain why you gave yourself that score: why was it the right (or the wrong!) thing to do? Because retrospectively I wasn’t aware of all the factors which would affect the outcome or best working practice. Other team members were therefore the idea was very hard to sell as its failings were quickly apparent. The situation would have benefited from a more participative approach. Does applying this style come easily to you? Why or why not? No – I find it much easier to either tell people what I want to happen, or to open the process with input from everybody. I doubt my sole decision if I there is time to analyse it. Style 3 (name this style and describe it in twenty words or less) Consulting or Participative – Emphasis is on joint decision making, with team members allowed more freedom to take initiative and regular support maintained. Give an example showing when you have used this style. When considering changing the appointment system due to low patient satisfaction a meeting was held with the reception team. Was it effective? Give yourself a score out of 10†¦ Explain why you gave yourself that score: why was it the right (or the wrong!) thing to do? The reception team were the most knowledgeable about the day to day demands upon the current system and the most significant shortcomings. Their involvement in the decision making created a revised system which best addressed the current failings. Does applying this style come easily to you? Why or why not? Yes – despite scoring heavily towards a directive approach on questionnaires, I feel comfortable discussing problems within a group and value the input of others in an area where their expertise is greater than mine. Style 4 (name this style and describe it in twenty words or less) Delegating – The leader remains involved in decisions but passes responsibility for tasks and processes to the individual or group. Give an example showing when you have used this style. When requesting that a senior team member be responsible for producing the annual significant event report. Was it effective? Give yourself a score out of 10†¦ Explain why you gave yourself that score: why was it the right (or the wrong!) thing to do? The report needed updating periodically and completing by the end of the year. The team member in question had the required capability and could be trusted to fulfil the objective in a way that they saw fit. There was no specific format that the report had to take. Does applying this style come easily to you? Why or why not? No – I worry that people will have a negative response to being asked. Thinking about how easy (or difficult) you find it to apply each style†¦ What factors should you take into account before deciding which style to use? There are a number of factors that I would take into account: The ability of individuals or the team as a whole, the time available to complete the objective, the complexity of the issue and who has the most expertise, not always the person in charge! What score would you give yourself, out of ten, for your ability to apply different leadership styles? Explain that score here: 6 – Some styles come easier to me than others, on a situational leadership style scoring sheet my score was highly directive, suggesting that I subconsciously tend towards a more autocratic approach. Feedback from other team members has also shown this to be the case and coupled with my inexperience in a leading role results in me not always making the most appropriate choices. Assessment unit title ILM unit no. AMSPAR unit no Be able to develop and lead teams M5.46/2 604/2 Assessment Criteria 1. [Be able to] implement changes to your leadership style in order to more effectively develop and lead teams Change proposed (Specific, Measurable) How best to implement this (Achievable) Resources Schedule (Timed) Create new staff appraisal system for reception team, which will improve knowledge of individual strengths. Up to 75% of team members to answer on feedback forms that appraisal was of â€Å"some use† to them. Ask practice manager if I can attend upcoming seminar which includes section on appraisals. Practice manager to be consulted about possible budget for training and time available. Training completed by 30/09/13, one month before start of appraisals. Improve self -confidence. Do confidence scoring questionnaires now and in six weeks’ time. Complete daily visualisations from self-help book. Guided visualisation CD and questionnaires. Review with questionnaire six weeks. Create a more balanced leadership approach, currently heavily directive. Complete leadership style questionnaire now and in eight weeks’ time. Ask for anonymous feedback from team. Contact consensus training provider to clarify cost and duration. Set time aside to complete training. Practice manager to be consulted about possible budget for training and time available. Review with questionnaire and feedback in eight weeks. References Cherith Simmons Learning and Development 2013 Leadership, supervision and team building information pack. Mind Tools Ltd (2013) The Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership Theory. Available at: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_44.htm. Date accessed 06/06/13 businessballs.com (2013) action centred leadership. Available at: http://businessballs.com/action.htm. Date accessed 06/06/13.