Guided Leadership Reflection: Five Dysfunctions of a Team

This assignment is a guided reflection on leadership, focusing on the principles discussed in the book "Five Dysfunctions of a Team." The student analyzes a case example of a CEO, highlighting the importance of strong vision, effective communication, and team integration. The reflection explores key concepts such as trust, conflict resolution, and the impact of transparent communication on team performance. The student discusses how these learnings can improve their interpersonal skills, organizational behavior, and ability to frame trustworthy relationships. The assignment also emphasizes the importance of accountability, constructive feedback, and applying effective communication strategies in various aspects of life. The student references several sources to support their analysis of leadership and team dynamics.

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21 Feb 2019
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What
The given book describes leadership through a case example, where a newly appointed
CEO first analyzed the organizational behavior silently, understand the team structure,
recognized suitability of internal environment, and identifies the traits that can help the
organization to achieve its objectives (Davies, Dodgson & Gann, 2016).
The foremost thing that I learned is, leadership require strong vision, clear approach to
integrate the team as “one”, and effective communication across the organization. To bring team
effectiveness in this context, it includes framing a trustworthy relationship, engaging in
constructive conflict, individual commitment to the framed plan of action, and focusing on
achievement of collective results (Lencioni, 2012).
The leadership example given by CEO of Decision Tech Inc. - Kathryn, is that
integration of individual team members require respect to support each other and involvement in
to accurate accountability are the key traits for achieving success for any organization.
So What
The absence of trust and fear of conflict are two major challenges, which inhibits the
potential of any organization (Razmerita, Kirchner & Nielsen, 2016). In my opinion, clear and
transparent communication as well as cooperation among the team members are the factors that
is essential for any organization to achieve optimal performativity. To develop trust, the team
culture should orient towards offering and acceptance of apologies without hesitation, asking for
help and feedback, admitting the weakness and mistakes, and focusing on important issues rather
than politics. Likewise the fear of conflict can be avoided by minimizing the internal politics and
extracting ideas of team members, with objective to include them in the decision-making
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process. The critical topics must be discussed actively rather than focusing on interpersonal risk
management, which in turn can bring innovative perspectives and overcoming the stereotype
restraints, present at the workplace. Both of these changes can be easily implemented within any
organization but using clear and transparent communication, as described by Aten & Thomas
(2016).
Additionally, Taiminen, Luoma-aho & Tolvanen (2015) have also described that
communication practices are the most efficient ways to bring positive emotions into the
workplace. This further helps in increasing the cohesiveness of team, and the corresponding
energy of members can be used for paying attention to its result, considering critics for
constructive future work, and developing abilities to learn from mistakes. Of note, in my opinion,
it is very much essential to focus on results and achieve conclusion with discussion and critics
from subordinates and coworkers. The results lies in maintaining quality, as well as developing
future strategies for analysis. However, every team member in this context must have
responsibility to offer constructive suggestions and not opposing comments for improvement.
Now What
With these learnings, I will improve my interpersonal skills and organizational behavior
attitudes. For example, I will be open for discussion and criticism. However, I will also focus on
my responsibilities regarding analysis and paying attention to accuracy. Another important
improvement which I will implement in my routine course of activities is framing trustworthy
relationship with my coworkers and using appropriate communication strategies. Although this
require practice, which in turn can improve my networking skills, negotiation and delegation
activity, and making collaboration with people (both internal and external to the organization).
The application area for effective communication practices is open to all avenues of routine life,
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including office, institution, home, and at community places. On the other hand, developing
ability to frame partnership and trustworthy relationship will be applied to workplace.
From the philosophy of this book, I also learned that maintaining accountability on self-
part is of high importance. This behaviour not only develops a sense of responsibility but also
motivates to deliver high standard performance. For application, it will be important to remain
open for learning, asking, and seeking help. This real-life application will be helpful in avoiding
hesitation from learning and improving competencies. Likewise, the sense of responsibility also
assumes that contribution to the team should always be offered in the form of ideas, probable
solution, and experiences. Also, here the concept of “fear of conflict” will also come into act,
such that there should be no fear from negative feedback or rejection.
In my opinion, the impact of these learnings will have direct effect on the overall
performativity and outcomes. For instance, framing partnership will be helpful for learning and
developing competencies, landing on accurate conclusion, and identifying the requirement of the
team. Likewise, the commitment to the organizational plan and contribution to the team will
render accountability for the responsibilities. Above all, the implementation of effective
communication strategies in routine life will help in sustaining key networking and managing
positive environment at the workplace (Payne & Calton, 2017).
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References
Lencioni, P. (2012). The five dysfunctions of a team. Pfeiffer, a Wiley Imprint, San Francisco.
Davies, A., Dodgson, M., & Gann, D. (2016). Dynamic capabilities in complex projects: The
case of London Heathrow Terminal 5. Project Management Journal, 47(2), 26-46.
Aten, K., & Thomas, G. F. (2016). Crowdsourcing strategizing: communication technology
affordances and the communicative constitution of organizational strategy. International
Journal of Business Communication, 53(2), 148-180.
Razmerita, L., Kirchner, K., & Nielsen, P. (2016). What factors influence knowledge sharing in
organizations? A social dilemma perspective of social media communication. Journal of
Knowledge Management, 20(6), 1225-1246.
Taiminen, K., Luoma-aho, V., & Tolvanen, K. (2015). The transparent communicative
organization and new hybrid forms of content. Public Relations Review, 41(5), 734-743.
Payne, S. L., & Calton, J. M. (2017). Towards a managerial practice of stakeholder engagement:
Developing multi-stakeholder learning dialogues. In Unfolding stakeholder thinking (pp.
121-135). Routledge.
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