Key to the Team Performance: Leadership Strategies

Introduction

The understanding of leadership has overcome meaningful transformations over the past decades. Today, one realizes that efficient leadership is not just the power to convince and persuade, but also an efficient tool for regulating team activity and relations between its members. Thus, a principally new approach to the concept’s interpretation makes one consider leadership as a determining factor of successful team performance (Mullins 2010).

The basis for pointing out the leadership’s significance

The role of leadership in a successful team’s performance is widely debated. Despite the fact, that there is an opinion that leadership is required only in connection with the decision-making, modern tendencies are inclined to suggest a wider application of a leader’s participation in the common activity (Wilson 2010). One should note that a leadership concept has a lot of common points with the general idea of management. Its main characteristics, such as group cooperation, targeting strategies, and influential measures coincide with the basis constituting a managing process (Torrington et al. 2011). The importance of leadership for the team’s performance then becomes unquestioned. A leader, therefore, is reliable for a number of operations vital for the effective functioning of a group. As well as a manager, a leader is in charge of wise targeting, monitoring, controlling, and making necessary allowances (Gilmore & Williams 2013). However, a leader receives a number of extra duties an average manager is not obliged to bear. The point at issue is about the inspiring and encouraging implications the role of a leader implies. Leadership performance requires a high rate of trust from those who follow him. (Crossman 2004) Hence, it is crucial for a good leader to find the strongest motivation possible. One should necessarily note that a leader might not be a manager; his hierarchical position can be equal to the one of his colleagues. Thence, the presence of a good leader can, to some extent, encourage the team’s first steps to a self-management organization (Barker 1993). This fact is of great importance, as a group is more likely to receive encouragement from within rather than from above. In other words, the initiatives coming from a colleague can turn out to be more eagerly welcomed than the managers’ strategies presented as a non-discussed order (Fong & Snape 2015). Therefore, in the context of the current shift in diversity policy, natural leadership might present a beneficial alternative to authoritarian management (Beardwell & Claydon 2010).

Company case studies at the supporting arguments

The best way to estimate the extent of a leadership’s impact on the quality of a team’s performance is to refer to a company’s case study. Thus, according to the case of the Jaguar, the management reorganization proved to lead to the performance’s improvement in general. The introduction of the leadership approaches aimed at encouraging the employees to integrate into the reformation process has helped to increase the staff’s motivation significantly. According to the company’s report, the personnel began to show a more qualified team performance since they became aware of the aims and targets their authority was pursuing. Based on the example of the Jaguar’s leader Hudson, one can pursue how successful management contributes to teamwork efficiency. Due to his charisma and skillfully built interaction, the leader managed to earn the employee’s trust and respect. As a result, Hudson’s team was eager to live up to his expectations and did its best to show efficient results. A new organization of the team culture and relations led to the rise of the Jaguar’s productivity and the profit markup (Addy 2013). For this very reason, one of the largest British recruiting companies Tesco places special emphasis on the team leading qualities of a potential employee. The organization suggests considering six working levels within which a potential worker chooses. According to their requirements, a successful candidate for five of these levels is to possess leadership skills to a varying degree (Recruitment and Selection at Tesco 2008). This requirement serves as the evidence of the awareness of the leadership’s significance by the top world companies.

The conditions required for leadership’s development

As far as the considerable meaning of leadership for team performance seems to be evident, the question arises in relation to the factors that determine a successful leading management. Some specialists claim that leadership skills are to be obtained through training. Thus, Redrow Home, famous for its high-quality managing performance, points out the significance of proper training to prepare professional leaders (Redrow, 2015). The competence development approach is widely applied in management as it is efficient for delivering all kinds of specialists (Marchington & Wilkinson 2010). Nevertheless, there is another opinion that implies the natural character of leadership and, thus, the impossibility of preparing a skilled leader via training. Thus, Jacquart and Antonakis believe that the principal attribute of a good leader is the inner charisma that is problematic to be acquired artificially (Jacquart & Antonakis 2015). Another proposition suggests considering self-esteem as the basic condition determining one’s chances to make a leader. According to the researchers Matzler, Bauer and Mooradian, the adequate evaluation of one’s own abilities have a direct influence on leadership performance (Matzler, Bauer & Mooradian 2015).

Conclusion

In conclusion, one can claim that leadership is able to play a key role in team performance. Firstly, one of the primary benefits of group leaders is that they do not necessarily take higher positions than their colleagues. Thus, the new initiatives can appear within the team instead of being imposed from the outside. In addition, a group usually tends to be in a closer connection with the leader it independently chose. Moreover, efficient leaders naturally improve the team’s performance via their personal qualities. Hence, inspiring orator’s skills are sometimes more persuasive than a logical strategy. Finally, case studies illustrate the significance of leadership for a group work’s efficiency. According to the Jaguar’s report, one can make a conclusion that proper management reorganization might lead to a considerable increase in a team’s working capacity. Therefore, despite the fact that the management concept is experiencing grave transformations and changes, successful leadership is still one of the principal factors determining groups’ performance (Anderson et al. 2015).

References

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