Leadership and Team Performance

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Table of Contents

Explain the difference between leadership and management
Explain why leadership is important within own team
Describe a range of different leadership styles
Describe the most commonly used leadership style within an organisation
Explain the likely effect this leadership style has on a team’s performance.

Explain the difference between leadership and management

Although the concepts of leadership and management have in the past been used simultaneously to imply comparable contexts, it is now clear that the two are distinct in major ways.

In their contextual definitions, it can be argued that leadership is distinct from management as the former involves a process of influencing others to willingly follow, while the latter underscores the capacity to achieve objectives with the resources available by maintaining the organisation in operation.

In terms of the main differences, scholars argue that leadership entails setting a direction and aligning people with organisational or team objectives, while management is largely involved in tasks such as planning, budgeting, organizing, and staffing.

Additionally, leadership employs the mastery of context and charisma to motivate people into action, while management utilises the control of the environment to achieve compliance. These elucidations clearly demonstrate that leadership has more strengths than management as it employs a whole range of human-centred factors to achieve compliance.

As an example, in team settings where participation is voluntary, a manager may have several difficulties in getting the team to deliver as he or she is unable to control the environment.

Explain why leadership is important within own team

Work teams are as effective and successful as their leaders, hence effective leadership is of primary importance within own team. The importance of leadership within own team is embedded in the fact that team members need to be influenced and motivated to achieve their personal best.

Additionally, in team settings, there is always the need to have a leader who is committed to clarifying about the expectations concerning how things might be done to achieve the set objectives.

Leadership is also important as it is charged with the responsibility of implementing metrics of performance and facilitating team cohesion, which basically entails creating an enabling environment through which members stick to each other and remain united as they pursue the team’s set objectives.

For example, most teams in work-related settings consist of multidisciplinary as well as multicultural members, implying that leadership has an important role in developing strategies aimed at enhancing members’ self-esteem and efficacy, reducing stress levels, and increasing their willingness to share ideas with the view to achieving team cohesion.

Consequently, it can be argued that leadership within own team cannot be divorced from the success or failure of the team in meeting set objectives. The implications for ineffective leadership include disengaged team members, lack of clarity in group tasks or objectives, selective communication, lack of effective conflict handling mechanisms, and failure in the attainment of set goals and objectives.

Describe a range of different leadership styles

Numerous leadership styles have been documented in the literature, but this section samples three such styles, namely servant leadership, charismatic leadership, and transformational leadership. Servant leadership basically entails leading by first making a conscious decision to be of service to followers, with the view to influencing their growth and well-being.

Available leadership literature demonstrates that servant leaders are most likely associated with the participative leadership style and that the main characteristics of being a servant leader include listening effectively to others, understanding the feelings and perspectives of others, fostering the emotional and spiritual health and wholeness of members, as well as influencing them through persuasiveness.

As an example, it can be suggested that the behaviours and characteristics of Jesus Christ fit the description of being a servant leader.

Charismatic leadership style involves the use of charismatic traits, emotions and extroverted nature of leaders to move followers or team members into compliance.

Available literature demonstrates that charismatic leaders rise to positions of authority or influence due to their achieved status, ability to inspire others and instil moral values and/or acceptable models of behaviour, and capacity to have effective communication and interaction strategies with subordinates.

In team settings, for example, a leader may be viewed as charismatic not only for demonstrating capacity to relate well with the problems or struggles facing team members, but also instilling moral values in them with the view to effecting change.

Lastly, transformative leadership style works by inspiring positive changes in those who follow through the demonstration of energy and zeal to succeed, enthusiasm, involvement, and passion to assist every member of the group succeed.

Transformational leaders are proactive, visionary, adaptable and inspired, not mentioning that they demonstrate organisational consciousness, internal motivation and self-management, ability to make challenging decisions, and enthusiasm to listen and entertain new ideas.

In team settings, for example, a transformative leader is able to take control of the group and influence others by demonstrating traits/behaviours such as ability to convey a clear vision of the team’s short-term and long-term objectives, capacity to express his or her passion for the work and commitment to the team, as well as ability to make other team members feel recharged and energized.

Describe the most commonly used leadership style within an organisation

Transformational leadership is definitely the most commonly used leadership style in own organisation, as leaders and managers have realised that employees need to be motivated using mutually fulfilling endeavours rather than rewards or punishments.

In this type of leadership style, leaders demonstrate commitment, enthusiasm, involvement and passion for the organisation and followers, with the view to not only creating a vivid organisational vision which elicits followers’ loyalty and trust, but also inspiring positive changes and prompting the highest levels of motivation and commitment amongst their followers.

In own organisation, most leaders demonstrate intellectual stimulation (challenging the status quo and encouraging creativity among employees), individualised consideration (providing support and encouragement to individual employees), inspirational motivation (articulating to employees a clear vision), and idealised influence (serving as a role model for employees), hence the justification to acknowledge that most leaders are transformational.

In own organisation, these leadership styles and behaviours are identified using a leadership assessment tool that is duly filled by employees regarding their perceptions of particular leadership styles and behaviours demonstrated by leaders.

Explain the likely effect this leadership style has on a team’s performance.

Existing leadership scholarship demonstrates that transformational leadership has many positive effects not only on team members, but also in the attainment of the set goals and objectives.

For instance, idealised influence, or the ability to serve as a role model for other team members, has been positively associated with varied intermediate outcomes such as shared vision, team commitment to the set objectives, and an energised team environment where members corroborate with each other and with the team leader to generate results.

Equally, intellectual stimulation on the part of the transformational leader has been positively associated with team creativity and innovativeness, shared vision, as well as openness and independent thinking in the team. For example, team members led by a transformational leader often develop innovative problem-solving strategies and utilise them effectively in the pursuit of the set objectives.

A transformational leader demonstrating individualised consideration, for instance, has far more capacity to influence and motivate team members than a transactional leader employing the reward and punishment system, hence transformational leadership style is more effective in team contexts.

It is important to note that, in turn, the mentioned intermediate outcomes impact positively on the team’s performance by reducing conflicts, enhancing team communication and cohesion, as well as focussing the team members on the attainment of the set goals.

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