D6: Stand by Your Team (M3L4)

Chapter 16)

Read Team Leadership (Chapter 16, study Fig.16.1, page 465).

Research the leader of any team of your choosing and provide examples of how this leader was successful in leading his/her team utilizing Hill’s Model for Team Leadership (as cited in Northouse, 2021).

1. Provide the answer to this question in your post:  What best practices can you conclude are best for motivating yourself, or peers, on class projects or, employees at your place of employment?
2. Make sure to copy the questions and provide your answers below the questions in your post.
3. Figure 16.1 The Hill Model for Team Leadership
4. Scholars have systematically studied organizational work teams and developed standards of effectiveness or criteria of excellence that can be used to assess a team’s health (Hackman, 1990, 2002, 2012; Hughes, Ginnett, & Curphy, 1993; Katzenbach & Smith, 2008; LaFasto & Larson, 2001; Larson & LaFasto, 1989; Lencioni, 2005; Zaccaro et al., 2001). Hackman (2012) has posited six enabling conditions that lead to effective team functioning: (1) Is it a real team? (2) Does it have a compelling purpose? (3) Does it have the right people? (4) Are the norms of conduct clear? (5) Is there support from the organizational context? (6) Is there team-focused coaching? Larson and LaFasto (1989) studied successful teams and found that, regardless of the type of team, eight characteristics were consistently associated with team excellence. Table 16.1 demonstrates the similarity of these excellence characteristics to the enabling conditions suggested by Hackman (2012).

Table 16.1 Comparison of Theory and Research Criteria of Team Effectiveness

Table 16.1 Comparison of Theory and Research Criteria of Team Effectiveness

Enabling Conditions of Group Effectiveness

(Hackman, 2012)

Characteristics of Team Excellence

(Larson & LaFasto, 1989)

Compelling purpose

Clear, elevating goal

Results-driven structure

Right people

Competent team members

Real team

Unified commitment

Collaborative climate

Clear norms of conduct

Standards of excellence

Supportive organizational context

External support and recognition

Team-focused coaching

Principled leadership

It is helpful if team leaders understand the conditions that contribute to or enable team excellence. Such understanding will allow the leaders to benchmark or compare their own or their team’s performance to these standards and to determine possible areas of team weakness or ineffectiveness. Assessing how well the team compares to these established indicators of team success provides a valuable source of information to guide the leader to take appropriate actions to improve team success.