Leading your work team Essay

Difference between leadership and management Both managers and leaders have positive and some flawed qualities with any organisation. Leaders establish direction and have vision for the future. They tend to plan ahead by developing new ideas to achieve goals set out. Other qualities they have are that they drive people to exceed their own limitations, give others some responsibility by delegating some duties. Leading using these methods and communicating inspires trust from people, colleagues and employees. When trust is achieved respects is grown from each individual and vice versa, the leaders respect each individual and each person’s merits as everyone can make different contribution but on their own level. Through empowering people with involvement they create motivation and energise people to overcome some obstacles and can defiantly have a positive outcome and see a marked improvement or change with a team and or individual. But on the other hand, leadership can be flawed and sometimes can have a negative impact on a team, especially when leaders become too friendly, they try to please everyone and sometimes within an organisation this cannot be possible. It is then that a break in mutual respect, motivation and trust appears. There should always be a line between staff, leaders and managers. Management do tend to manage the processes such as timetable, budgets and actions on a day to day basis by controlling and allocating resources to maintain the status quo or ensure things happen according to already established plans. Another difference is that they rely on control and they work on solving problems but are focused people who focus on systems, policy and procedures. Decision-making is also amongst a managers strengths. Managers tend to monitor every result against each plan and if necessary will take corrective action which makes them predictable but on the other consistent and have clear defined order. However sometimes there can be an overemphasis on outcome at the expense of neglecting the people. Why leadership is important within own team? Team leader plays an important role in guiding team members and motivating them to stay focused as every member contributes to their own level to best achieve their assigned targets or goals. Every team should have a team leader who can hold his team together and extract the best out its team members. Leaders should be a role model and be such that individuals can draw inspiration from and seek advice and guidance whenever required. An effective leadership must be impartial, support one and all equally and discuss any goals that needs to set or issues on an open forum where applicable and make tram members aware of their roles and responsibilities and not impose things on their members. Within my working organisation, we have teams that consist of ten team members of which are of mixed skill levels and each team are assigned a clinical team leader. Team leaders are approachable and they should lead by example by providing what we as organisation set out to achieve which is the best p ossible care for each person we attend to regardless of our skill level within the trust. Guidance within our work base could be from anything from personal circumstances to any clinical issues that employees require assistance, guidance, reassurance or clarification of practices. This is why it is important to have a good leadership style and person within our teams, someone who is approachable and on top of their game to be able to provide support and drive the staff to work to the best of their ability. Team leaders need to recognise each team members needs and be able to help and guide each member of its team to achieve their best potential this could be organising further training, provide emotional support after some difficult clinical cases and also show some appreciation of the diisfulct and successful cases staff attend on a daily basis. Communication is vital in our work base as many new information, policy procedures is normally cascaded to each team member via team leaders and it is important that team leaders make sure that each individual knows exactly their new or enhanced responsibilities. Despite the best intention of organisations and team leaders, some leadership styles can be ineffective and for various reasons implications and impact of an ineffective leadership can affect teams morale, goals and standard set out will without a doubt be below the expected standard. Many reasons could be  too responsible such as environmental issues i.e. teams are not given adequate resources of equipment in my work place to do their job to the highest standard. Lack of recognition of good work can have a negative impact. Appreciation can be a big morale booster. Goals that are not set out clearly and lack of communication can lead to ineffective team and mistakes can happen. This could lead to everyone doing their own thing and poor relationship between team members including team leaders can lead to conflict and personality conflicts. These issues can be resolved with planning, processes and performance appraisals etc. Different leadership styles Democratic:- One of the leadership styles, which is effective and can lead to higher productivity, better contribution from team members and it is a style that can increase on teams’ morale. Reasons for this are because team members take more of a participative role in the decision-making process. This style has a positive effect when used in work place, sometimes I have to work with a new inexperienced trainee or even lower grade colleague. We discuss together where possible any issues i.e. diagnosis, treatment of patients etc. I ask them â€Å"What are their thoughts?† and get their valuable input and opinions. I find that trainees become more confident, will ask more questions and become more eager to learn new techniques, and take more responsibility. Benefits of democratic leadership are appropriate in my field of work; staff become more involved and cares more about end result. It does have its flaws, the process of consultation can turn into procrastination and if a business has urgent issues or in my work place if we have time critical patient then democratic leadership style is not a trait that is required. Democrats can’t normally work to these tight timescales. Talking to lots of people and gathering opinions take time but true democrats are unwilling to cut corners. They can also appear indecisive and unwilling to make a decision. Coercive:- This leadership style demands immediate compliance. It is more that the leader rules by fear â€Å"my way or the highway†. Coercive leaders take charge drives to achieve and have self-control but can have an overall detrimental effect on team members. This style would not be suitable in my role, as our working ethics on a day to basis is reliant on team work and a leader of this style could cause animosity between staff and leader and could possibly lead to mistakes being made on the frontline which could be catastrophic for patients. Bu these leader ships qualities could be useful when a company is in crisis or an organisation in trouble. Pacesetter style:- This leadership style sets high performance standards to all members including him. The style sounds very admirable but has more of a negative impact on members as they tend to have a problem with trusting their team. They rest on being smarter, more thorough than everyone else and can unintentionally undermine the effects of their team members. A pacesetter would have negative impact in my work place as trust in each other is required when working as a team to achieve our goals. Undermining even if unintentionally can have a negative effect on working relationships. But on the other hand can also be effective in other field of work especially if the team are highly motivated and the members’ style and competence already fit the expectations of the pacesetter. Paternalistic:- This style is by acting as a father/mother figure by taking care of their team members as a parent would their child. They receive complete trust and loyalty from their team when they lead with complete concern of their members. Teams are expected to become totally committed to what the leader believes. Relationships are solid, but can have a negative impact if the leader starts showing favouritism in decisions and could lead to breakdown of relationships. Most commonly used leadership and its effects on own team Within the organisation I work, there are a couple of main leadership styles used. As an organisation of uniformed and non uniformed public sector, and depending on the level of leadership or where in the chain of command the style vary somewhat. The higher the chain the more bureaucratic method of leading is used. They have fixed official duties under a hierarchy of authority, applying a system of rules of management and decision-making. Bureaucratic leadership can be broken down into different components which also outline the basic structure of the NHS. Fixed official duties – Accountability Authority Responsibility Hierarchy of authority – lower grades are answerable to and under supervision of level above CEO, Directors etc Technical expertise- – Medical director has a medical background as well as management. System of rules- behavioural and technical rules i.e. scope of practice – conduct and performance management, policies and procedure Written documentation – policies, procedures to help with accountability, decision-making guidance etc. However, if this style of leadership is used inappropriately then it can have negative impact, consequences causing lack of flexibility and work throughout the team from hierarchy through to the structures below. Democratic leadership style is also used within my immediate work place, especially when working with lower grade or new trainee staff during a shift. This approach encourages staff to become part of decision-making process. For example, whilst working with a new member of staff we can attend to numerous different patients with each requiring thorough can careful examination to help us be able to treat each patient to the best of our a bility. I try to encourage new staff and lower grades to become more confident and help in making decision, deciding on treatments by asking their opinions and what their thoughts are. I find this has a positive  effect on team members, improve communication, gain respect and can produce good working ethics. The leader still has full control of its members and still has final decision but it is a decision with input from team that is encouraged. But this is very time consuming and as public service we may not have time to do this, on a more personal note some patients are time critical and this leadership style would not be appropriate at that specific time as decision need to be made very quickly and make sure that team members, colleagues, patients are safe and not harmed. Laissez-faire leadership style is also commonly used in my field of work. This is a style that can be used between team leaders and its members as the leader doesn’t get involved with our day to day work and tends to leave staff to it. Team leaders need smart, dedicated and motivated team members that they can rely on to complete a task and work to the highest standard. For example, within the ambulance service during a major incident a team leader/ officer will leave paramedics to treat patients whilst he or she is outside securing and organising resources etc. They must have trusted in its team members for this to work effectively. Like many other style it can have a downfall and can be somewhat ineffective as some times teams can feel that they have no guidance or support when they are left to get on with it! Own leadership style I believe that I have a couple of leadership style and it totally depends on the situation. As long as patients are not time critical and time is on our side I think I use a coaching style leadership because it is a style that develops people by offering hands-on advice to problem solving. It can be summed up in a phrase â€Å"try this.† It works best when helping staff to build a lasting personal and professional strengths and confidence and make them more successful overall but I suppose it can be hampered if my colleagues are defiant and unwilling to learn or change. Along with coaching style I think that I adopt a bit of a democratic leading method. As we have teams of 10 members to each team leader it is a good quality in my opinion to lead in an open style, we discuss issues openly as a team and as individuals when necessary. Ideas move freely amongst the group and discussion is relatively free flowing. I believe this style is needed in our work place as it dynamic  and rapidly changing environment. The style means facilitating the conversation, encouraging staff to share their ideas, issues and opinions and using these to make the best possible decision. I can communicate very well and communicating is one of the key elements of democratic leadership where you must be able to communicate decision, information etc back to your group, this then keeps unity, good solid relationship m trust and mutual respect between leader and its members. I would like to think that leading in this way brings out an experienced, confident and professional team.