Young and Fit was formed a year ago. The organization was an idea of five friends who like keeping physically fit. The group of five has been friends since college. The organization helps young people maintain their physical fitness by engaging them in outdoor recreational activities. The objective of forming Young and Fit was to maintain friendship among the five partners as well as share their common interest in physical fitness with other interested young people. To achieve its goal, the group divided tasks among the members. I am the newly appointed team leader. As the team leader, I oversee all the team's activities and guide the other team members to achieve the team goals. Carols Smith is the events coordinator. He is in charge of communicating with our clients and planning the activities that the clients can undertake. Cate Booker is the financial manager. She handles all the group's financial duties, while Melvin Kin is a secretary to the group. He keeps all the important records for the organization. Alex Fuller serves is the free hand to the group to run errands.
Success for the team occurs at different stages. The first instance that defines success for Young and Fit is planning an event for a client and running it to the end. For instance, the team is contracted by many companies to accompany their staff for team building activities and guide them through the activities. Being able to run such an event to the end is a point of success for the team. Another point of success for the team is walking with a client through their physical fitness journey to the client’s satisfaction. Finally, the team's ultimate success is to maintain the friendship among the partners and impact lives together.
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Group Development and Motivation
The team members have known each other for several years. However, the goal-directed team has been in existence for slightly over a year now. The team members have had their fair share of good and bad times as a team, learning how to work with each other, being able to solve conflicts and gain the trust of one another as part of one team. The team is currently at the performing stage. The team members, having known each other for quite some time before forming the organization, were able to go through the forming stage quite smoothly. The shared interest became the goal for the group. The group then went through the storming stage and was able to voice opinions, disagree, and later agree, which led to a gain of trust among the members, and the group moved to the norming stage. Having resolved the disagreements, the members created stronger bonds with each other, which put them in a good position to achieve more.
The group is currently at the performing stage. The team members have learned to work with each other, the duties of each member are well defined, and every team member is focused on achieving the group objectives. The team is working well, and the team members participate in the activities of the team well. However, as the team leader, I have to stay on the watch to keep the team cohesion to avoid reverting to an earlier stage. The team is working well and achieving its goals easier than earlier in the year when we had to handle internal setbacks such as demotivation among members when running an event.
The team is well motivated, and team cohesion is very good. As a team leader, I endeavor to maintain and improve team motivation by providing a pleasant working environment. The team members will always have the equipment they require to run an activity. I also intend to keep the team members motivated by encouraging happiness during group activities and not punishing failure. Team cohesion will be maintained by offering the team members some time to regenerate their energy and time to catch up, share, and undertake team-building activities (Levi, & Askay, 2020).
Collaboration
The team is currently collaborating well, but there is room for improvement. Each team member's roles are well defined, and the team members are working well with one another. Despite the well-defined roles, occasionally, there is role confusion where two team members end up taking the same task, leaving some duties unattended. For instance, two team members can undertake the role of marketing, leaving the duty to handle feedback unattended. As the team leader, I seek to keep reminding the team members about their roles and clarify them where need be to avoid role confusion and foster team collaboration.
Healthy competition is predominant among the team members at the moment. The team members are focused on achieving the group's common goal, and there are no inconsolable differences among the members. The team members challenge each other to do their best for the common good of the group. However, should unhealthy completion arise at any time, as the team leader, I will be ready to model the best behavior for the rest of the team to eliminate unhealthy competition, I will also allow each team member to voice their opinion and any grievances without intimidation to foster good relations among the team members.
The communication climate in the group is positive. There is no animosity among the team members, and every team member is allowed to voice their opinion, which is considered by the other members. The group exhibits a functional communication style as the most dominant in the group. The group members focus on the fine details of every plan. They are meticulous in the planning, strategizing, and undertaking the events of the group. The group works well with timelines and keeps the end goal in mind. However, occasionally the intuitive communication style takes over when the group focuses on the big picture and delivers within a short notice. The group is very keen on excellent services to the clients to keep the customers happy. The group knows that the strongest form of advertising is word of mouth from a satisfied customer.
As the team leader, to foster a more positive communication climate, I will ensure that the group members maintain a professional relationship and the right tone in their communication with team members and clients (Levi, & Askay, 2020). A positive communication climate will ensure that every member feels valued in the group. A good communication tone fosters good relations among business partners and creates a good internal environment for the business. A positive communication climate provides an opportunity for every person to freely express themselves and contribute to the growth of the business.
Conflict Resolution Style
The group is at a good stage to discuss conflicts and come up with amicable solutions. The group currently uses the rational problem-solving style to deal with conflicts. The group can sit down and discuss the problems to develop the best lasting solutions for the group. The group members settle conflicts without emotional attachment. The members do not take conflicts personally. The group members can communicate well with each other and handle conflicts slowly without jumping into conclusions. Occasionally the team members tend to compromise on their stand to get a solution for a problem.
The potential pitfalls for conflicts in the organization include a high level of competitiveness among the members and expansion of the business scope. Therefore, as a leader, I will endeavor to promote healthy conflict resolution among the members by providing a level ground and a being a neutral party in the conflict resolution (Levi, & Askay, 2020). The team leader will ensure that members do not engage in unnecessary and unhealthy competition, leading to conflict among the members.
Power and Empowerment
Power is the ability to influence other people. Power can be either personal or positional. There are seven bases of power. These include legitimate power, information power, coercive power, and reward power. These three bases of power are positional bases of power. Legitimate power is acquired through a position in the organization, while reward power is acquired by rewarding people to control them. On the other hand, coercive power is based on denying people rewards and administering punishment to gain control over people. Information power is the power to access and or control information (Turner, & Schabram, 2012). The other three bases of power are expert power, referent power, and charismatic power. These are personal bases of power. Expert power is based on the possession of specialized skills, while people gain referent power from respect and admiration. Charismatic power is based on someone's magical persona that earns them admiration.
Status differences among team members cause unequal power in a group. Team members must be considered equal to avoid unequal power in a group. According to Turner & Schabram, 2012, unequal power leads to conflict, mistrust, and poor performance. As a team leader, I would assess for the use of power in my team by observing how each team member treats the other members when they are in charge of a situation. The team does not have unequal power. The team members treat each other with respect. In the case of power disparity, I would handle it by reducing the more powerful party's power to reduce their control over others.
The team members are empowered to perform their duties. They are motivated; they have a sense of responsibility, are confident, and engage well with each other. To ensure the team members stay empowered, it will be crucial to improve their assertiveness through positive recognition, active listening, and stating clear expectations (Turner, & Schabram, 2012). The group makes decisions by consensus most of the time. However, occasionally all the group members fail to agree, and the group has to vote to come up with the way forward. The group has a risk of falling into groupthink. As the leader, I will control that by putting in place norms to encourage critical thinking, reserving my opinion at the begging of a discussion, and evaluating the final decision to ensure it is the best (Phillips,2010). As the team leader, I use the participative leadership style to encourage participation from all the group members in the group's decisions. This style is effective for the team since the team is small, and every member is considered equally in decision-making.
Productive Relationships
The team has healthy and professional relationships. The team members can solve problems amicably. As the leader, to foster a positive problem-solving environment, I will provide equal opportunities for each member to share their ideas. The team members are very creative. They can come up with new ideas for every client. To foster group creativity, the team will employ brainstorming together to generate more ideas. The team members will also have specific duties assigned to each of them to allow them to sharpen individual creativity. The team members are very open to new ideas. They embrace diversity well and can work with clients from different lifestyles. As a leader, the team's diversity provides an opportunity to widen the pool of ideas for different occasions (Griffin, & Moorhead, 2011).
The organization has a strong culture that values people and their abilities, which helps the group maintain their focus to influence people's lives. The team will be evaluated by feedback provided by clients through email. It is important to evaluate the team to keep them motivated and encourage them to improve on their weaknesses. Upon evaluation, the team members will be rewarded by offering them financial incentives according to their performance. The members will be able to put the money into the best use.
Team Training and Development
The team members will receive annual training on healthy living and self-care to pass it on to the clients and implement the same for them. The team building activities for the team will be recreational activities to rest and re-energize their bodies, minds, and souls.
Good to Great Team
As the team leader, it is paramount to be humble, respectful, selfless, trustworthy, positive, and finally great (Levi, & Askay, 2020). The attitude allows the leader to be a good team player. As a leader, I will encourage these attributes by modeling them to my teammates. The Bible supports these attributes in a leader, as exemplified by King David. I will ensure ethical conduct among my team members by teaching them Christian values. The Christian and personal values will be passed on to the team members during team building sessions, problem-solving, and decision making.
References
Griffin, R. W., & Moorhead, G. (2011). Organizational behavior . Nelson Education.
Levi, D., & Askay, D. A. (2020). Group dynamics for teams . SAGE Publications, Incorporated.
Phillips, L. D. (2010). Group dynamics processes for improved decision making. Wiley Encyclopedia of Operations Research and Management Science .
Turner, R. A., & Schabram, K. F. (2012). The bases of power revisited: An interpersonal perceptions perspective. Journal of Organizational Psychology , 12 (1), 9-18.
