MANM4000: Reflective Report on Team Project & Leadership Experience

This report is a critical reflection on the author's role and experiences within a team project for an Introduction to Management course (MANM4000). It discusses the influence of personal power in leadership, the importance of influential skills, and the need for a common purpose within a team. The author reflects on their leadership style, emphasizing the importance of understanding team members, fostering a collaborative environment, and providing clear communication. The report also addresses challenges faced during the project, such as team incompatibility and conflicts, and suggests improvements for future teamwork scenarios, drawing upon academic literature on teams and leadership to support the analysis. The author acknowledges their responsibility in certain team failings and intends to address those in the future.

INTRODUCTION TO MANAGEMENT

INTRODUCTION TO MANAGEMENT
Table of Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................3
Interpretation:.............................................................................................................................5
Conclusion:................................................................................................................................8
Reference:..................................................................................................................................9
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Introduction:
Influence of personal power that creates progressive advancement in community towards the
common purpose is known as Leadership. As opined by Klinge (2015), efficient team leaders
have varied number of characteristic and nature which encourages team members to listen to
the instructions of the leader. Team leader naturally impose some qualities which includes
learned leadership skills through formal training and experience. According to Collinson and
Tourish (2015), the qualities of an efficient leader are to encourages the trust and respect of
the team and stimulate productivity of the workplace.
According to me, leadership skill depends on five master rules. The first rule is “Leadership
is personal power" it depends upon one's management skill that is how well they can have
control over a team and understand them well and give a proper direction to follow to
complete the task. It is a subjective factor depending upon individuality. As Gurr (2015) said,
leadership skill may vary from person to person. In this regard, one thing has to be very clear
that leadership is not a positional power. It is not the power one holds due to the positional
issues it is completely based on personal ability.
Next comes the “Influential Skill” that suggests as stated by Sutherland (2013), a skilled
leader enriched with personal leadership abilities knows the right techniques to influence the
motivational levels of their team members. This is to get the best possible outcomes from
their performance but, on the other hand, if a leader is mainly concerned with the positional
power, then they may try to dominate the team members. This can be a huge drawback as the
team members may originate a defensive attitude towards the leader which can drop down
their efficiency and thus hampering the entire task.
Next is that a good leader tries to "progressively advance' the team performance. This attempt
of progressively advancing the team skills is not an activity it is a process by which the
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variations and diversities are effectively amalgamated in such a way that a standardised goal
is efficiently reached. According to Edwards, Elliott, Iszatt-White and Schedlitzki (2013),
this process is ever increasing, growing, expanding, improving and it does not depend on any
particular incident. The next point is, a leader should be efficient enough to build up a
“Community” by winning the trust of a community of people as opined by Murtadha-Watts
and Stoughton (2017) and in order to achieve this trust the final point is essential, and that is
"Common Purpose".
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Interpretation:
A group need to have a common purpose, and for this reason, it is the responsibility to narrate
the group instructions clearly by keeping in mind the requirements and individuality of team
members. To build up a community, as suggested by Khalifa, Gooden and Davis (2016), a
leader should successfully win the hearts of its team member which is not an easy task. A
leader should be responsible enough to arrive in the workplace at first before anyone else and
leave the place after everyone departs, should appreciate the team members and check all the
affairs. As Bolden (2016) opined, an ideal leader needs to be concerned about every member
of the group individually and be genuine towards them and love them, value them by
showing positive attitudes towards them and finally last but not the least is thanking, greet
and serve the team members when they leave the room.
As a leader, I always prefer giving a reminder to my team members by saying “I appreciate
what you do as a team member, I am not here to take all your time for granted, you are free to
do the task in your possible way. I am just here to help you in all possible ways, so if you
have any questions or quarries, you can freely communicate with me. So whenever you feel
any problem inform me let me take care of you so that you all can take good care of the task".
To perform a task under my leadership, I prefer to follow certain tips. I try to make my team
member understand that in a workplace family comes second, business comes first. Fook
(2016) stated that we have a common compelling, exciting story. We have common
organizational belief. We should try to identify one common purpose and then with required
consent I prepare the team because I believe some people come with hands and legs and
others come with head and heart.
The people who come with head and heart are the desired one who helps to build up the
common organizational belief. As a leader, I do not let my team chase my goals. I believe as
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a team leader it is essential to understand whether the team member is working specifically
for incentives or chasing their dream. The people who work hard to chase their dream are
way ambitious people, and this goal-oriented gesture of them gets reflected in their
motivational level as well which has a positive impact on the ultimate task.
To do this assignment, I have followed certain rules which are planned and executed by me.
They include developing strategy, giving proper training to the team members about how I
want the execution of the task. I communicated my instructions. I minutely heard my team
members' feedback. I also tried regulating the participation of the team members for making
sure that their providing was much effective and also to look on the mattwr that if any
training additional to the existing is required.
The day to day operations were managed by me and reports were created to update the teams’
progress and distributed the reports to the appropriate personnel. I tried to be a clear
communicator. Through quality verbal and written communication skill as suggested by
Beech, McGill and Brockbank (2017), I tried to expressing my expectations in front of team
members. I even tried effectively to listen to the inputs of others. I tried to be organised.
As I believe an efficient team leader need to possess unique organizational skills. It helps to
plan objects and techniques, which allow team members to perform correctly. The systems
which I have put has maintained and has guided the members of the team for meeting the
goals of the task along with the objectives. I tried maintaining a gesture that looks confident
as the abilities of a leader shoul be able to influence the members of the team. maintaining
my self confidence I tried securing the decisions I have taken as wrll as I have shown respect
to the members of my team.
The members of my team were encouraged by my empowering and they initiated towards the
delivery of certain ideas that will affect the firm. This activity of mine accounted to make
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them believe I had trust in their very actions. There was a consistency in my ways of granting
them rewards and definite recognitions along with some actions that are disciplinary. I made
sure that all the fellow members receive the same kind of treatment from me and I maintained
the honesty with all my subordinates. Behaving like an influential head I inspired them for
the completion of the task that is assigned to them along with providing them with my
helping hands for organising different action plans for the attainment of the desired goals and
objectives that are identified. I also made use of the skills of negotiation for the achievement
of the results and for reaching and understanding in the event they are working in to avoid
any kind of negative consequences and conflicts. The process of decision-making was very
efficiently and effectively aligned by me on the task for better outcomes and contributions by
my subordinates towards the effective outcome of the task. I also made sure that all my
subordinates are trusting my instructions and planning for the achievement of the desired
purpose.
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Conclusion:
The probable teamwork drawbacks I faced while doing this project was Team
Incompatibility. Some of my team members were self-concerned and tried to shine on their
own, other people on the team were not communicated well with, by them thus the
information and resources were not circulated properly. There were potential conflicts which
reduced the team productivity as they were concerned mainly on who is correct and who is
incorrect and which side to take rather than focusing on the main job. The entire team was
anxious and stressed which caused the morale and productivity of the team to spiral
downwards.
I had a few lazy team members who created problems among the rest of the team, which, in
turn, disturbed the productivity through negative impact. Everyone was making decisions; my
outlook became blurred by the power of the team. They felt higher level directives, because
they felt that the teams’ solution was better. The driven the task its goal, in which they have
convoluted what everyone, is trying to accomplish. I make myself responsible for this mis-
happening because I had given complete freedom to do their task in their comfortable ways. I
did not want to impose autocratical powers on my team members, but I never thought things
would turn out to this. Next time I will surely look into this matter carefully.
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Reference:
Beech, N., McGill, I. and Brockbank, A., 2017. Reflective learning in practice. In Reflective
learning in practice (pp. 30-40). London: Routledge.
Bolden, R., 2016. Leadership, management and organisational development. In Gower
handbook of leadership and management development (pp. 143-158). London: Routledge.
Collinson, D. and Tourish, D., 2015. Teaching leadership critically: New directions for
leadership pedagogy. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 14(4), pp.576-594.
Edwards, G., Elliott, C., Iszatt-White, M. and Schedlitzki, D., 2013. Critical and alternative
approaches to leadership learning and development. Management Learning, 44(1), pp.3-10.
Fook, J., 2016. Critical reflection and organizational learning and change: A case study.
In Social work, critical reflection and the learning organization (pp. 67-84). London:
Routledge.
Gurr, D., 2015. A model of successful school leadership from the international successful
school principalship project. Societies, 5(1), pp.136-150.
Khalifa, M.A., Gooden, M.A. and Davis, J.E., 2016. Culturally responsive school leadership:
A synthesis of the literature. Review of Educational Research, 86(4), pp.1272-1311.
Klinge, C.M., 2015. A conceptual framework for mentoring in a learning organization. Adult
learning, 26(4), pp.160-166.
Murtadha-Watts, K. and Stoughton, E., 2017. Critical cultural knowledge in special
education: Reshaping the responsiveness of school leaders. Focus on Exceptional
Children, 37(2), pp.146-151
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Sutherland, I., 2013. Arts-based methods in leadership development: Affording aesthetic
workspaces, reflexivity and memories with momentum. Management Learning, 44(1), pp.25-
43.
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