Portfolio: Leadership and Teamwork in Care Home Setting Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of leadership and teamwork within a senior healthcare assistant role in a care home setting. It begins with an introduction outlining the importance of leadership and teamwork in achieving organizational objectives. The main body explores different leadership and working styles, including authoritarian and participative approaches, and collaborative teamwork. The author reflects on their experiences and assesses the effectiveness of each style. Furthermore, the report delves into strategies for bringing about organizational change, emphasizing the importance of engaging the team, empowering decision-making, and maintaining open communication. The report then applies various leadership theories and approaches to employee engagement, such as employee-centered leadership and recognition strategies, to demonstrate how these can be used to improve employee motivation, commitment, and overall performance. The conclusion summarizes the key findings and underscores the significance of effective leadership and teamwork in achieving organizational success.

Leadership and
Teamwork

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Leadership and working styles ....................................................................................................1
Explores what you will do different to bring about organizational change.................................2
Applies theories of leadership and approaches to employee engagement to demonstrate how
you will change things ................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Leadership and teamwork are the actions that have huge impact on potentiality of
business to carry out its identified objectives and mission. Leadership can be termed as art to
encourage or stimulate people for working in defined ways in order to reach common goals.
Within business, leadership is related to directing manpower with effective strategy for meeting
needs of enterprise. Similarly, teamwork is collection action of people for completing allotted
tasks in best possible way (Aubé, Rousseau and Brunelle, 2018). The portfolio is on senior
healthcare assistant that works in Care Home (Residential). The portfolio covers assessment of
leadership along with team working styles that is experiences by me as senior healthcare
assistant. Further, it explores the actions I will undertake for bringing organisational change. It
also covers application of leadership theories together with approaches related to employee
engagement for demonstrating effective ways to change things.
MAIN BODY
Leadership and working styles
I believe leadership and team working are important as they plays key role in improving
productivity and efficiency of employees to contribute in making organisation successful. In
Care Home (Residential), I work on the post of Senior Healthcare Assistant in which I help
medical professionals and lead a team of care assistants for providing basic help or care to
patients as well as their loved ones. Other than this, my duties as the assistant are to develop and
lead activities for service users, attending team meetings with professionals, maintaining
complete medication records of patient and writing care plans. For the purpose of leading a team,
it is important to adopt specific methods that are the styles of providing directions, motivation
people as well as implementing plan. In this, I experienced that my authoritarian leadership style
when there was huge load of work was beneficial to impose expectations along with define
results. As all the care assistants were new and untrained, the style was suitable to provide them
clear guidelines and directions to complete workings in form of caring patients properly (Novo,
Landis and Haley, 2017).
I believed that authoritarian leadership style benefited me in many ways as it reduces my
time for making crucial decisions and creating consistent results. Also, the style helped me in
reducing mistakes for executing plans and devising clarity in chain of command. It provides
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boost in productivity of team members and eliminated chances of wrong actions. However, the
style was not suitable in various situation which required strong collaborations. Moreover, I
assessed that all the care assistants were dependent on me that created huge leadership risks for
me. It also eliminated innovation together with progression from procedures (Edmondson and
Harvey, 2017). So, to boost innovation and improve decision making of care assistant, I adopted
participative leadership style. The main essence of using the style was to involve team of care
assistant in process of decision making as to make them feel engaged and motivated for
contributions. The leadership style have benefited me to increase work satisfaction and employee
motivation. Moreover, use of the style have helped me in building a strong team for proving
proper treatment and care to patients. It also encourages creativity and innovation of individual
care assistants. In contrary, the leadership style have made decision making process more time
consuming and resulted in communication failures.
Team is aggregation of people organised for accomplishing common purpose. My team
of care assistant was a kind of informal team which was formed with the purpose of meeting
needs of Care Home patients. The team worked together and facilitate pursuits of each other of
common concerns. The working style that I experiences to lead to the team was collaborative
working. As a leader, it was my role to communicate, encourage, inspire and encourage action
from all people in the team. With the team working style, I managed working of the whole team
of care assistants for fulfilling needs and requirements of patients promptly. It benefited in
devising mutual understanding among all people and supporting each other workings or ideas
(Moxen and Strachan, 2017). However, the style created conflicts in teamwork, instances in team
thinking and cost huge than expected.
Explores what you will do different to bring about organizational change
In today's fast-paced dynamic business environment there are number of factors that
keeps of changing and are having significant impact upon organisational functioning. It is
essential for an organisation to embrace change in order to assure more growth, profitability and
long term sustainability (Gilstrap and Hart, 2020). It has been evaluated that change acts as a key
essential element of leadership. Change will lead entity to ensure more competitive
advancements as compared to other rivals in industry. In context with care home, being a leader I
will effectively learn more about change management process in order to bring change in entity
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effectively. Along with this there are also some other effective aspects that will be undertaken by
me as to differently bring organisational change which are mentioned below.
Engaging Team and Empowering decision making:
In order to bring change successfully in care home I will engage each and every
individual of team in decision making process. Along with this, will be transparent and explicit
in order to effectively share rationales and goals. Further, I will empower senior member of team
with the decision making authority (Buchanan and Badham, 2020). This will significantly helps
in reducing delay in accomplishment of goals that will also enhance team member motivation. In
addition to this, it has been signified that by leveraging team's wisdom I can allow team members
to solve problems in a quick and time effective manner. Thus, according to the analysis it has
been underlined that by empowering senior team member with the authority of decision making I
can develop trust among employees. This automatically develop sense of belongingness and
being value among employees and persuade them to do more hard work for entity. Thus, with the
help of this practice I can encourage employees to be adaptable towards change.
Keeping the team moving forward:
It has been evaluated that if an organisation is planning to bring change it automatically
raises number of questions among employees. This also led towards developing dissatisfaction
among them if their questions get unheard (Ericsson, 2020). Thus, in context with care home in
order to bring change I will encourage daily basis conversation with employees in order to
address their issues effectively. Regular conventions will also assist me to overcome with the
negative behaviours and dis-satisfaction among employees. This practice will also facilitate me
to encourage individual in effective manner towards change. This will allows me to keep the
team moving forward in a positive direction.
Thus, according to the discussion it has been evaluated by me that with the help of some
practices or measures I can bring change in different way in care home (Pape, 2020). This will
significantly allow me to satisfy both entity and employees in effective manner.
Applies theories of leadership and approaches to employee engagement to demonstrate how you
will change things
Leadership is an essential aspect for any organisation irrespective of its size, scope,
objectives and industry. This process is being effectively undertaken by talented leaders those
who guide, lead and motivate individuals and group with different leadership styles. While if it is
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talked about employee engagement, it is defined as a process in which workers within company
are engaged in company decision making or other crucial aspects (Decuypere and Schaufeli,
2020). By engaging employees an organisation can assure contribution of each and every
employees in company aim and objectives. It is essential for an organisation to encourage the
culture of employee engagement as by engaging workers in company important activities
motivation among employees can be generated at great extent. In addition to this, with the help
of this entity can also increase contribution level of workers in organisational objectives. In
terms with care home settings, there are wide range of duties required to be performed by
individuals or employees such as monitoring patients 'vital signs like heart rate, blood sugar,
temperature and blood pressure and other essential activities. Thus, it is essential for care home
to engage employees in decision making process to significantly enhance their motivation and
commitment towards entity goals (Lee, Rocco and Shuck, 2020). It has been evaluated that, there
are different types of leadership approaches and theories through which respective entity can
optimise employee engagement as well as commitment. Some of the certain approaches and
ways to improve employee engagement is being defined below:
Employee-centred leadership approach:
With the help of this leadership approach significant improvement in employee
engagement can be assured which automatically lead towards higher contribution of employees
in entity objectives (Boyd and Nowell, 2020). It has been evaluated that with the advantage of
this leadership approach leaders within care home can effectively emphasise upon interpersonal
relationships and participatory approach. This will allow leaders to involve subordinates or
employees in decision making. Further it has been evaluated that, by undertake use of this
leadership care home leaders can focus upon employees which will later develop effectively
relationship among entity and employees. This approach will not only aid in enhancing
satisfaction level among employees but can also increase their participation and contribution in
company vision. Thus, according to the analysis it has been determined that with the assistance
of employee-centred leadership I can make significant change in behaviour of employees in day
care and can further lead them towards accomplishment of entity objectives with more
effectiveness. This skill will also benefit me as a leader to increase satisfaction and commitment
among employees towards care home objectives.
Recognition Strategy:
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It is one of the most effective practice that not only increase satisfaction level among
employees but also assist in increasing their performance at great extent. It is important for an
organisation to provide recognition to employees for their hard work (Khodakarami and Dirani,
2020). It will significantly aid in increasing their commitment towards organisation. If it is talked
about care home it is important to recognize employees for their work. With the help of this,
employees can feel sense of being valued which automatically maximise their contribution in
company objectives. In context with care home, by paying attention towards recognition system I
can assure higher employee engagement. For this employees will get appreciated in care home
annual employee meeting, in this they will be recognised with certificates and also get offered
with developmental and promotional opportunities and effective training and development
opportunities. It has been evaluated that career development is a significant and impactful way
through which employees can be engaged in company operations and practices. Along with this,
I will also recognise employees in not formally and informally manner for their contribution and
hard work.
Thus, as per the above mentioned discussion it has been evaluated by me that with the
assistance of these approaches and theories of leadership I can maximise employee engagement
effectiveness and can further influence or encourage behaviour of employees towards care home
objectives. It has been evaluated that, recognition strategy employee-centred leadership approach
is an effective measure with the help of which I can change behaviour and perception of
employees and can further increase their performance and productivity for care home growth,
development and satisfaction level of patients.
CONCLUSION
From the portfolio, it is concluded that leadership and teamwork are elements that assist
business and its people to reach common objectives. It is responsibility of leader to ensure that
the whole team is motivated and committed for contributing towards organisational success. The
leadership styles that are experienced while managing a team are authoritarian and participative
style. Collaborative style is also adopted for managing teamwork in the organisation. For
bringing organisational change, a leader in company will work differently through engaging
Team and Empowering decision making as well as keeping the team moving forward.
Employee-centred leadership approach and Recognition Strategy are some of the approaches
through which leader will change things at workplace.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Aubé, C., Rousseau, V. and Brunelle, E., 2018. Flow experience in teams: The role of shared
leadership. Journal of occupational health psychology. 23(2). p.198.
Boyd, N. M. and Nowell, B., 2020. Sense of community, sense of community responsibility,
organizational commitment and identification, and public service motivation: a
simultaneous test of affective states on employee well-being and engagement in a public
service work context. Public Management Review, pp.1-27.
Buchanan, D. and Badham, R., 2020. Power, politics, and organizational change. SAGE
Publications Limited.
Decuypere, A. and Schaufeli, W., 2020. Leadership and work engagement: Exploring
explanatory mechanisms. German Journal of Human Resource Management, 34(1),
pp.69-95.
Edmondson, A. C. and Harvey, J. F., 2017. Extreme teaming: lessons in complex, cross-sector
leadership. Emerald Group Publishing.
Ericsson, D., 2020. Reflections on constructing time in organizational change processes: a
virtuous managerial interest. Journal of Organizational Change Management.
Gilstrap, J. B. and Hart, T. A., 2020. How employee behaviors effect organizational change and
stability. Journal of Business Research. 109. pp.120-131.
Khodakarami, N. and Dirani, K., 2020. Drivers of employee engagement: Differences by work
area and gender. Industrial and Commercial Training.
Lee, J. Y., Rocco, T. S. and Shuck, B., 2020. What is a resource: Toward a taxonomy of
resources for employee engagement. Human Resource Development Review. 19(1).
pp.5-38.
Moxen, J. and Strachan, P. eds., 2017. Managing green teams: environmental change in
organisations and networks. Routledge.
Novo, B., Landis, E. A. and Haley, M. L., 2017. Leadership and its role in the success of project
management. Journal of Leadership, Accountability and Ethics. 14(1).
Pape, M., 2020. Gender segregation and trajectories of organizational change: The
underrepresentation of women in sports leadership. Gender & Society. 34(1). pp.81-105.
Wang, C. C., Hsieh, H. H. and Wang, Y. D., 2020. Abusive supervision and employee
engagement and satisfaction: the mediating role of employee silence. Personnel Review.
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