Overview
The assessments in this course build upon one another and must be completed in the order presented. (this is part 2 of course, part 1, of course, is attached)
Draft a 1,500–2,000-word response to a fictional supervisor that identifies a successful leader and describes what makes him or her successful. Next, compare his or her approaches, styles, values, and other important leadership attributes to your own and make recommendations on how to lead and foster teamwork.
One of the hallmarks of successful leaders is their ability to communicate and foster team cooperation. Mastering these skills is a career-long process, but one that is sure to pay dividends
By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:
• Competency 1: Analyze leadership traits and styles.
o Analyze why a chosen leader is well-suited for a specified project.
o Compare one’s own leadership traits against those of a successful leader.
o Analyze one’s own strengths and weaknesses in the context of a project.
• Competency 2: Apply accepted leadership practices and behaviors.
o Describe an approach that would likely be effective in facilitating collaboration among a professional team.
• Competency 3: Communicate professionally and effectively.
o Address assessment purpose in a well-organized text, incorporating appropriate evidence and tone in grammatically sound sentences.
Assessment Instructions
Preparation:
Use the following documents to complete this assessment:
• Leadership and Group Collaboration Scenario [PDF] (attached/provided)
• Leadership and Group Collaboration Response Template [DOCX](attached/provided)
Instructions:
Draft a professional response to your supervisor in the Leadership and Group Collaboration Scenario [PDF](attached/provided) using the Leadership and Group Collaboration Response Template [DOCX] (attached/provided).
Additional Requirements:
Your assessment should also meet the following requirements:
• Format: Complete your assessment using the Leadership and Group Collaboration Response Template.
• APA format: Use current APA style and formatting.
• Length: 1,500–2,000-words.
• Font and font size: Use Times New Roman, 12-point font and double-spaced lines.
• Written communication:
o Express your main points, arguments, and conclusions coherently.
o Use correct grammar and mechanics.
o Proofread your writing.
Suggested Resources
The following optional resources are provided to support you in completing the assessment or to provide a helpful context.
Collaboration and Empowerment
Leaders need to foster collaboration. This can be accomplished by building trust and facilitating relationships. The following resource explores this topic.
• Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. Z. (2017). The leadership challenge: How to make extraordinary things happen in organizations (6th ed.). Wiley.
o Chapter 9, “Foster Collaboration.”
Library Research Guide
You may choose other resources to prepare for this assessment. However, you will need to ensure that they are appropriate, credible, and valid. The BUS-FP3012: Fundamentals of Leadership Library Guide can help direct your research.
Solution
Leadership And Group Collaboration
Selected Leader and Analysis
As mentioned in the earlier email, the current project is paramount because it will help address workplace diversity that appears to cripple operations at Lakeland Medical Branch Clinic. Moreover, managing this issue will require joint efforts from a committee to address the problem and provide guidance on implementing a solution. The task of steering a committee of diverse individuals into finding a solution for the underlying problem will require a transformational leader’s input. In this case, I would select Leon, a transformational leader in the nursing department, who would lead the team into identifying the required change, create a vision for them and guide them into executing the change.
For this project’s purpose, I would choose Leon because of his leadership style to enable the committee to meet its objectives. Notably, the selected individual exercises a transformational leadership style that is suitable for the current project. According to Lai et al. (2020), transformational leadership comprises four dimensions: idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration, which leaders use to engage followers and accomplish significant outcomes. When incorporated in this project, these leadership dimensions will help the committee achieve the delegated project’s results.
For the few years that I have worked in the organization, I have witnessed the selected leader incorporating the four dimensions of transformational leadership in practice while leading others. Notably, he uses his inspirational motivation to articulate clear visions to all subordinates and inspire them to meet the desired goals. Moreover, he involves his associates in challenging the status quo and encourages them to develop creative solutions for underlying problems. Time and again, I have seen him interact with others personally to offer the emotional support required to tackle challenging tasks in the firm. Besides, this leader has shown confidence in articulating multiple ideas that positively impact the unit’s staff and patients. Therefore, by leveraging the different dimensions of his leadership style, Leon will inspire the committee to act, challenge the process, encourage team members, and face the challenges and opportunities confidently.
Leadership Comparison
Among the selected leaders’ hallmarks that make him successful in his position include his outstanding communication skills. Leon’s communication skills are supported by Wikaningrum and Yuniawan (2018), who stresses that leaders who communicate effectively are more likely to gain employees’ trust, ultimately influencing communication satisfaction between the followers and leaders. Leon is well versed in relaying and receiving all types of information effectively, which leaves each team member satisfied. For example, he relays every piece of information about potential changes in the unit and involves the staff in brainstorming some of the ideal ways of rolling out the changes. This practice fosters trust and boosts motivation among employees because they are significantly involved in decision-making in the firm.
Moreover, Leon is well-versed in articulating his ideas to others respectfully and persuading them to follow his lead. He understands that some staff may be resistant to unprecedented changes; thus, he ensures that the latter understands the need for the change, incorporates new thoughts from others, and addresses concerns regarding his views. In essence, Leon’s communication skills make him a successful leader and an ideal candidate in leading this project.
Like Leon, I also possess profound communication skills, which I incorporate when leading others. On past occasions, I have used these communication skills to articulate innovative ideas in my neighborhood on helping the youth become productive and protect them from being lured into drugs and other deviant behaviors. These skills helped me persuade the community to support the vision and our financier to offer us the required resources to operationalize the idea. Over time, I have also improved my communication skills to interact and lead others to effectively meet our corporate objectives. The possession of communication skills by Leon and I will help us spearhead the committee in addressing the diversity issue and provide guidance on implementing solutions.
Despite sharing common traits, my leadership style will somewhat differ from Leon’s. Unlike Leon, I will be a collaborative type of leader in the current situation. As the literature suggests, collaborative leadership involves cooperating and coordinating a group’s effort and transcending personal interests to pursue common goals (Njenga & Maina, 2018). In this context, the team will be working in a different landscape other than their usual positions in the organization. Therefore, I will coordinate their multidimensional expertise to establish a solution to the diversity issue, which in my view, is not solvable by a single individual in the healthcare center.
To ensure the project’s success, I will conform to my leadership style’s underlying philosophies when leading and communicating with the team. According to Markle-Reid et al. (2017), collaborative leadership emerges from interacting individuals, open boundaries, and distribution of expertise among participants. The authors also add that collaborative leadership is pillared on the reciprocity of influence and an expression of mutual influence. In conformance with these philosophies, I will lead the team by being highly involved in every aspect of the project. Notably, I will share responsibilities with the committee and inspire them to work collectively in finding a viable solution to the problem. Moreover, I will communicate with the team through open discussions rather than promoting a one-person lecture. The open meetings and collective participation will enable each team member to share their thoughts, brainstorm the suggested ideas and select those that best address the issue at hand.
In my view, the selected leadership approach may have strengths and weaknesses in this project’s context. On the one hand, this approach will instill a shared sense of purpose among the committee members, thus facilitating the set goal’s attainment. Arguably, sharing responsibilities among the team members and working together will help the team develop a shared sense of purpose to solve Lakeland Medical Branch Clinic’s diversity issue. This sense of purpose will drive the team to understand that the underlying issue is unsolvable by a single person. This shared purpose will motivate the team to work collectively to develop various innovative ways of solving the problem.
Moreover, this leadership approach will minimize potential conflicts in the group; thus, facilitating the project’s success. As noted, the committee will be a multidisciplinary team constituting individuals from various units in the firm. The likelihood of tension in such a group may be high because of its diversity. However, employing a collaborative leadership approach will help the members feel equally important and draw them closer in handling the task by assisting them in understanding how each person’s decision influences others and the project’s overall success.
However, this approach may also have a downside in this context. Although collaboration aims to find solutions to the diversity issue, this approach may fail to promote thinking among members. Arguably, the members may agree with the majority of views aired by individuals who seem more persuasive, thus leading to constrained innovative thinking in the group. However, if such aspects arise, the leaders will address them promptly to prevent them from affecting the project’s success.
Collaboration and Motivation
As noted, the planned committee will be diverse, constituting individuals from various disciplines in the entity. Working with such a diverse team may be challenging for the first time because of factors such as personality conflicts and communication issues that may inhibit collaborative efforts within the group. With this in mind, I plan to use communication technologies, implement practices such as accountability and delegation, and appropriate techniques of sharing ideas, to facilitate collaboration and maximize the team’s effectiveness.
Among the strategies that I would use to facilitate collaboration and maximize the team’s effectiveness is employing communication technologies. Some of the preferable communication technologies will include emails, zoom calls, and online chats. In my view, the planned committee would consist of individuals working in different units under different schedules. Getting the whole team together at a convenient time may sometimes be challenging, yet, the current issue requires an immediate response. Therefore, I would facilitate the team’s effectiveness while maintaining collaboration by encouraging communication technologies use among the members. The use of emails, zoom calls, and online chats would enable the team to indulge in frequent discussions and avoid limiting meetings to the organization’s setting. The communication technologies would also facilitate collaborations by allowing the individuals that cannot attend the face-to-face meeting to follow and contribute to the discussion from their location. In essence, the use of communication technologies would boost collaboration and promote members’ engagement, which would enhance the team’s effectiveness in finding a solution for the problem.
Besides employing communication technologies, I would also facilitate collaboration and enhance the team’s effectiveness by implementing duties delegation. In my view, collaborative teams may not always be effective in their projects because some members may hesitate to utilize their full potential and become free riders in the group. Moreover, lazy team members may be common in a group that uses a collaborative approach in a project. Unfortunately, a lack of productivity among some members can be detrimental to the group’s overall success. Besides, failure to explore one’s full potential may inhibit the group’s innovation and ability to find a viable solution for the diversity problem. Therefore, I would delegate essential tasks to each group member to boost their involvement in the team. Delegating duties would also enhance the team’s effectiveness by enabling each member to brainstorm a different way of tackling the issue and sharing this information with the others to select the most viable options.
Furthermore, I would utilize the practice of accountability to foster collaboration and maximize the team’s effectiveness. In my view, equipping the team members with a sense of ownership for the project’s success and failure would drive them to be vigilant about their decisions. Accountability would also cause the members to monitor each other’s actions to avoid jeopardizing a project. In this context, promoting accountability would motivate the members to work together in brainstorming ideas that would lead to the project’s success. Besides, instilling a sense of responsibility would maximize the team’s effectiveness because each member would deliver the best results for the project.
Besides communication technologies and practices, I would also facilitate collaboration and maximize the team’s effectiveness by establishing appropriate techniques for sharing information and ideas within the group. I perceive that issues such as defensiveness and misunderstandings can arise if a leader fails to develop proper methods of sharing information. For example, group members may resist a particular idea for lack of adequate reasoning for the suggestion. Moreover, assuming that each team member understands a given solution may cause misunderstandings that may compromise the project’s success.
Therefore, to mitigate the negative repercussions, I would establish a technique of sharing information that involves proposing fact-based ideas and asking questions. Airing ideas that are factual or complementing with examples may make it easier for group members to understand each other’s thoughts. Asking questions would also help clarify areas of concern and ensure that each thought is scrutinized thoroughly, thus facilitating effective solutions for the diversity problem. Besides employing the idea of sharing technique and asking questions, I would also encourage turn-taking when sharing ideas and information. Arguably, interrupting others during discussions would be interpreted as rudeness, regardless of whether a team member did it on good intent. Therefore, to prevent conflicts and foster collaboration, I would encourage turn-taking for every meeting, whether conducted virtually or face-to-face.
References
Behrens, F., & Kret, M.E. (2019). The interplay between face-to-face contact and feedback on cooperation during real-life interactions. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 43(1), 513-528. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10919-019-00314-1
Lai, F., Tang, H., Lu, S., Lee, Y., & Lin, C. (2020). Transformational leadership and job performance: The mediating role of work engagement. SAGE Open, 10(1), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F2158244019899085
Markle-Reid, M., Dykeman, C., Ploeg, J., Stradiotto, C.K., Andrews, A., … & Bonomo, S. (2017). Collaborative leadership and the implementation of community-based fall prevention initiatives: A multiple case study of public health within community groups. BMC Health Services Research, 17(141), 1-12. https://dx.doi.org/10.1186%2Fs12913-017-2089-3
Njenga, N.M., & Maina, S. (2018). The influence of collaborative leadership on team’s performance (A case study of Kingdom Sacco). Journal of Business and Management, 20(12), 54-58. https://doi.org/10.9790/487X-2012065458
Wikaningrum, T., & Yuniawan, A. (2018). The relationship among leadership styles, communication skills, and employee satisfaction: A study on equal employment opportunity in leadership. Journal of Business and Retail Management Research, 13(1), 138-147. https://jbrmr.com/cdn/article_file/2018-10-03-13-48-52-PM.pdf
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