Pmbok Guide Need Help With Short 1 Page Essay
PJM460 MOD4 Peer Discussion responses
Please reply to both POST1: and POST2: in at least 200 words
Initial Post:
Think of a situation in which you observed a particularly effective
team leader. What actions, behaviors, and attitudes contributed to the
effectiveness of this team leader?
Then, think of a situation in which you observed a particularly
ineffective team. What actions, behaviors, and attitudes contributed to
the ineffectiveness of this team leader?
Reflecting upon these two situations, what would you have done differently as the leader in this situation?
My Post:
Hello Class,
Team Leadership
The success of an organization or a project exercise depends on the
effectiveness of a leader. A leader can be effective or ineffective
based on the types of skills used. I have worked for an organization
that had a very effective leader. The leader created a culture of
shared decision-making when handling different organizational issues.
He believed in consultation to brainstorm for multiple solutions to
problems. The leader’s actions toward employees were remarkably good
since he was ever concerned about the well-being of everyone. For this
reason, he encouraged employees to share their problems. Besides, the
leader used an assertive style, which encouraged employees to express
their suggestions freely. Assertive leadership is a guarantee for an
appropriate relationship with subordinates (Lussier & Achua, 2016).
Furthermore, the leader acknowledged the hard work of employees and made
friends with subordinates to create a united team.
I have also witnessed ineffective team leadership. The leader of an
institution relied on the executive team when making any decision. The
executive team was his mouthpiece, and employees could only access him
through this team. The leader always threatened junior workers to
become productive or risk being fired. In doing so, workers were in
constant fear of their job security. In addition, the leader was
aggressive towards junior employees because he was a professor.
Aggressive leadership discourages the possibility of mutual staff
support (Black, 2015). For this reason, he believed a worker could not
challenge his opinions. Lastly, the leader was quick at making decisions
whenever the executive team suggested such a move. He could not conduct
a personal investigation to ascertain the truthfulness of the
information provided by this team.
Ineffective leadership hinders the success of an organization and
damages public reputation about the same organization. I would encourage
shared decision-making if I were the leader of the institution. This
approach makes employees feel valued and respected. In doing so, workers
become more productive at work.
References
Black, S. A. (2015). Qualities of effective leadership in higher education. Open Journal of Leadership, 4(02), 54.
Lussier, R. N., & Achua, C. F. (2016). Leadership: Theory, Application & Skill Development. Australia: Cengage Learning.
POST1: (A question from the professor concerning my post, please reply)
Hello Darby,
Thank you for sharing your experiences with effective and ineffective
leaders. I have to say that the scenario you described regarding
ineffective leader is quite shocking and unacceptable! Could and did any
of the junior employees seek HR help with the toxic leader?
Dr. Harrison.
POST2:
A
specific situation I can reflect on where I observed an effective team
leader, was during my professional transition from being an hourly team
lead to becoming a supervisor. The hiring manager at the time (which is
now my current role) was a very effective leader. His effectiveness can
be measured in multiple ways, including employee development, fostering
innovation, engaging individuals to think critically, continuous
improvement, and finally though the team’s performance and delivery of
meeting schedule, cost, and quality goals and objectives. The actions,
behaviors, and attitudes he displayed all led to his effectiveness as a
leader and manager. One specific action he continuously did was simply
ask “Why____?” 99% of the time, he already knew the answer. His purpose
for doing this was to get individuals to think critically about
situation or cause the to think about them in a different way. The Power
of Why was synonymous with the father of the TPS, Taichi Ohno, and is
often a trait of effective Lean leaders, ensuring the continuous
improvement of processes and people.
A specific situation I can reflect on when I observed a particularly
ineffective team was the team I eventually absorbed into my scope as a
supervisor, which was the Paint department in production operations at
my current organization. The leader at the time of ineffectiveness had
shortcomings in basic leadership skills and managerial aptitude,
including the inability to effectively communicate and facilitate, lack
of strategic foresight, and inability to understand basic business and
managerial metrics, as well as, their interdependencies. Operations
wise, he had the team practicing conventional Batch & Queue
production, continuously increase production lead times and WIP
inventory, as well as, decreasing throughput.
As the leader in this situation (which I eventually because) I
started performing differently from the ineffective supervisor in 2
distinct ways, including focusing on the team (their development and
education, fostering innovation and inclusion, facilitating and
delegating, and being empathetic), as well as, focusing on the processes
(establishing basic lean concepts like standard work, Pull, continuous
flow, kaizen, 6S, and tiered accountability, as well as, focusing on the
strategic foresight of the shop and the triple constraint. Ultimately,
the day of inception, the team was successfully able to burndown 3000
hours of behind schedule work in a little over 3 months.
References
Liker, Jeffrey K. (2004). The Toyota Way : 14 Management Principles
from the World’s Greatest Manufacturer. New York :McGraw-Hill,
Lussier, R. N., & Achua, C. F. (2016). Leadership: Theory, Application & Skill Development. Australia: Cengage Learning.
Project Management Institute [PMI]. (2017). A Guide to the Project
Management Body of Knowledge (Links to an external site.) (PMBOK ® Guide
— 6th ed.). Newton Square, PA: PMI Publications