A group of people always needs a reliable leader who will manage their activity and set the right direction. Otherwise, the productivity of people’s work, no matter what they do, is often low. Only led by the right person, a group of people can become a closely-knit team. Surely, a leader should behave in a particular way.
What is leadership?
It is hard to define the term “leadership”. It would be correct to say that this word has different meanings to everyone. However, leadership can be understood as a process when one person has an influence on a group of others, so he or she can set a direction and make people move forward.
Leaders’ responsibilities
First of all, a leader should create a vision of the future and present an idea to implement. Then, it is necessary not only to give the tasks to people but to inspire them as well because inspiration is the best motivation. It can cause additional efforts, so, the work will be done better and quicker. Without inspiration, people will do only the required minimum.
Another important task is to win the team’s trust. A leader should always be honest and open to others. Besides, it is important for leaders to stay confident, logical, and consistent to conquer the confidence of others.
How to drive the team?
A crucial issue of leadership is how to drive the team. For this purpose, leaders often use their power over others. According to Lunenburg (2012), there are several forms of power: legitimate, reward, coercive, expert, and referent. Leaders often use all of them, in different ratios. For example, influencing others because of his or her positions, a leader uses legitimate power. By promising a reward (in the form of salary, for instance), leaders use reward power. By punishing or threatening people, they apply coercive power. The expert and referent forms of power mean that a leader is respected, and his or her opinion is evaluated. Surely, not all of these types are to be regularly used. Coercive power, for example, should be applied only as a last resort. To drive a team in the best way, a healthy balance between all power types mentioned above is necessary.
How to improve productivity?
Firstly, it is important to “paint a clear perspective between the overall picture and the details of day-to-day activities” (Folkman, 2010, p. 2). In other words, every member of the group should clearly know their tasks, as well as see the final result of their efforts. All of them need to see how their work can make a difference and how it is necessary for achieving the main goal.
The next step is to provide cooperation within the group to create a positive working atmosphere. It can speed up the whole process and help to avoid conflicts between the group members. Besides, with a leader involved in the project and working as a part of the team, productivity level also increases because “leaders need to be role models and set a good example for their workgroup” (Folkman, 2010, p.2).
To sum up, a leader’s behavior has a crucial role in teamwork. Without a leader, there will be a lack of enthusiasm and motivation, and that will lead to the much lower productivity of work.
References
Folkman, J. (2010). Top 9 Leadership Behaviors that Drive Employee Commitment. Web.
Lunenburg, F. C. (2012). Power and Leadership: An Influence Process. International Journal of Business Management and Administration, 15(1), 1-9.