Charismatic leadership Essays

Charismatic leadership Essays Charismatic leadership Paper Charismatic leadership Paper A team is a group comprised of individuals who come together for one common goal. Teams face many obstacles such as conflicts, commitments, communication barriers, and leadership roles. Although a team will be confronted with obstacles, team mates must develop resolutions in order to achieve the common goal. Conflict is the result of dissatisfaction, frustration or incompatibility in relations between individuals or groups of individuals such as organizations, cultural groups, nations, management groups, age groups and in a wide range of other situations. Conflict is possible in a wide variety of situations and perspectives. This paper describes a number of different methods for effectively resolving conflict among members of a work team. The paper first characterizes the different stages of work team formation and explains when and why conflicts are most likely to arise. The paper then lays out some ground rules for dealing with conflicts within the work teams while emphasizing the importance of establishing project goals as well as good communication between members. Finally, the paper describes the three different types of conflicts that may arise. In the first stage forming, new team members seek guidance from team leaders. This is an excellent time for a leader to clearly establish goals and objectives. These goals and objectives should translate into expectations. The second stage, storming, is where competition and conflict occur. Conflict and Resolution 3 A new team must be permitted to allow for new personalities to demonstrate levels of flexibility for attitude adjustments. Patience is difficult at this stage but as conflict occurs; the group must work with the understanding that clear expectations are in place to establish rules for whom is responsible for specific tasks, for who is in charge, and what rules lead to reward and discipline. Having established clear expectations prior to or in stage one of the group process can therefore simplify aspects of this stage. In the third stage, norming, group dynamic forms. If expectations have been clearly established, the group begins to think as a unit. Thus, the group can exchange levels of creativity to meet expectations. In the fourth stage, performing, expectations are met at a new level. Here, a group evolves into individual members excelling while still adding to the dynamic of the group. Clear expectations are established when a group successfully gets to this stage. In the fifth stage, adjourning, the group should again be meeting clearly established goals. In other words, clearly established expectations help avoid apprehension during dismissal. Time management and how to achieve a successful balance in our lives among our many activities is something every person needs to know and practice. Often, prioritizing our day or week is not easy, yet by implementing some strategic personal initiatives, we can take giant strides toward meeting our goal of more effective time management. However negative conflict results in upsetting the team composition, which in turn leads to failure of the team to achieve its objectives. The notion that conflict should be avoided is one of the major contributors to the growth of destructive conflict in the workplace. The bad view of conflict is associated with a vision of organizational effectiveness that is no longer valid (and perhaps never was). Conflict can be directed and managed so that it causes both people and organizations to grow, innovate and improve. However, this requires that conflict not be repressed, since attempts to repress are more likely to generate very ugly situations. Common repression strategies to be avoided are: non-action, administrative orbiting, secrecy and law and order. There are three approaches to handling conflict: Traditional (avoid all conflict), human relation (conflict is natural and is dealt with in an appropriate manner) and interactions (some degree of conflict is required to achieve progress particularly in the workplace). A key element in understanding and adapting to these different concepts is often rooted in ones sense of self and self-disclosure. Having an array of individual differences can make the environment endlessly challenging. Growing diversity creates a view of individual differences in increasingly different ways. Conflict and Resolution 5 One important variable in organizational behavior is based on oneself concept. Ideas of self vary from one historical era to another, from one socioeconomic group to another, and from culture to culture, but all these thought patterns are part of the interplay between human beings. Conflict is an expressed struggle; it is a given consideration whenever there are differences among members in a group. An expressed struggle may be verbal or non-verbal, so long as one group communicates effectively the different sentiments that he has about the issue to the other group. A difference in the perceived incompatible goals is another antecedent that cannot be avoided during team conflicts. The individual and his or her work situation are affected by how he handles such issues as conflict resolution, stress management, interpersonal communication, and non-verbal communication. These dimensions of everyday life have to be addressed by everyone, and how well he manages to do this determines his own sense of well-being and self-esteem, on the one hand and how he is viewed. An individuals lack of an understanding of how communication skills work and how important they are to other individuals will seriously impede that persons ability to resolve conflicts, while individuals who have good strong communication skills are able to deal with emotional conflicts quickly and easily. Conflict and Resolution 6 It appears that there are many processes and structures used to teach these things to individuals but they do not always work in the way that they should and many people are left with difficulties in communication when he faces some type of emotional conflict with another individual. It is important for these individuals to develop skills in communication and collaboration that are very effective and when they learn how to deal with emotional conflict management they become assets not only for the clients that they deal with but for their employers as well. Commitment means to agree and/or pledge. In other words, you he must follow through with the commitment as promised. It requires one to evaluate a situation and figure out what can be added or needs to be accomplished. When one commits it is held as a promise to self and/or others. In a learning team environment members of the team are assigned various tasks. Each team member is responsible to complete his tasks. When other people are affected by the commitment it is important to complete the tasks. Learning Teammates are committed to complete his assignment s in an orderly manner. It is also important to give your team mates the best. Maintaining a commitment to yourself gives one a sense of pride and accomplishment. It also allows people to accomplishment their goals. Renewing commitments is important because each person is able to evaluate and assess the various goals that have been set. Conflict and Resolution 7 This is also used as a tracking system so that you are aware of what goals have been achieved and what areas still need work. It is difficult to commit to something by verbally communicating the commitment to others. Therefore, it is advantageous to write the commitment on paper. This can also be used as a tracking system. When you are able to document your progression, it is easier to visually see your progression and failures. This tracking system allows you to evaluate and strategize their goals. Barriers to effective communication spring up just about everywhere in day-to-day life but they can often be most apparent in the work environment. In the past, a major barrier to communication may have been the distance separating one business location from another, but in the modern world of the Internet and satellite communications, there are still many other barriers, which get in the way of effective communication in the workplace. A barrier is anything that gets in the way of the purpose of the organization, or causes people to misunderstand each other. Since communication is a key to just about every aspect of every organization, it is an important and valuable tool for every person in the organization, and if used effectively, it can add to the success and value of the organization for everyone involved. As one communications expert noted, Without communication, not even the first steps can be taken toward human cooperation, and it is impossible to speak about organizational problems without speaking about communication, or at least taking it for granted. Conflict and Resolution 8 Communication refers to the process of creating shared understanding between two individuals or between an individual and a group. This includes that communication is a process of interacting with others. For example, talking is not communication. Having someone hear that talking and create meaning from it is communication. This illustrates one of the main features of communication that it is a transactional process. A transactional process is defined as, a process in which two or more people exchange speaker and listener roles, and in which the behavior of each person is dependent on and influenced by the other There are many different methods of Leadership. Most groups and teams generally use five levels of decision-making: command, consult, majority, consensus and unanimity. It is easy to understand that these decision types are very closely related to the time constraints before a decision is determined. When the command type of decision-making process is used, the leader identifies the tasks at hand and designates responsibilities to all the members. This type of decision-making can be accomplished in the shortest possible time-it however, has a major drawback. It will be difficult for the leader to get buy-ins for the task from team members if the members do not agree with the decision made. Another method is leading highly motivated and skilled people, who have produced excellent work in the past, and have a history of efficiency. Conflict and Resolution 9 Once a leader has established that his or her team is confident, capable and motivated, he or she can step back and let them get on with the task. In this type or organization, if the leader interferes, he or she can generate resentment and detract from his effectiveness. By handing over ownership, a leader empowers his or her group to achieve their goals. What is important to note about this leader, in handing over the ownership, he or she has also relinquished their own active involvement in the process, and thereby diminished his or her influence, and thereby his or her level of effectiveness. There is also the leadership with power. It has different levels of power. The first being reward power or the ability to provide rewards for a job well done. The next is coercive power or the ability to punish for an unacceptable performance. The last type of power that a leader has within an organization is legitimate power or his actual position that gives them the right to have authority. A leaders degree of power in the organization is given with the status of his position. A manager will use these powers at different times depending on the details of the situation. The first one is the talker and the one who receives the communication is the listener. Conflict and Resolution 10 Often, one hears the term lack of communication when some misunderstanding occurs between these two parties, which most of the time implies that whoever delivering the message did not do an effective job. This may not always be true. Unfortunately, few know how to be good listeners. Statistics indicate that the normal, untrained listener is likely to understand and retain only about 50 % of a conversation. One has to develop appropriate skills and techniques to be a good attentive listener during individual conversations and during meetings and lectures. Strange as it may sound, there are courses and training sessions conducted to develop listening skills Other forms of leadership involve direct and indirect leadership. Direct leadership involves those activities which the principle does himself/herself, with very little assistance from anyone else. Alternatively, those activities that are carried out through teachers are regarded as indirect leadership activities. The ability of a leader to lead and appeal to others around him is important. Charisma is defined as charm, personality, appeal, magnetism that an individual possesses. It is a trait most think they are born with-charisma can however also be taught with varying success to people who do not possess it. Emotional resilience and rational thinking in addition to the qualitative leadership skills are important requirements for a charismatic leader. Conflict and Resolution 11 Organizational motivation is an area where charismatic leadership can be used very successfully. The art of knowing how to lead and the ways of leading may differ between various leaders.