Working in a team environment can be rewarding but also very troublesome. Every workplace consists of different personalities; however, when these different personalities collide and deadlines, performance and budget are all on the line—the office because a jungle and those who survive the tension, stress and all the drama associated with opposing personalities remains in the office.
Thus begs the question, “Does work have to be a jungle?” Work does not have to be a jungle. The answer is strong leadership. With strong leadership, the office becomes a cooperative and integrated team. A good, supportive and strong leader can manage team dynamics as well as the task at hand.
The problem is that good leaders, managers and supervisors are difficult to find; however, if companies do not invest time to ensure their management staff are properly trained, companies will continue to lose good employees.
Content employees do not quit for no reason. Most of reason why people quit their jobs is due to poor management. Have a look for yourself. http://www.businessknowhow.com/manage/whyquit.htm
2 comments
Comments feed for this article
July 23, 2008 at 3:26 am
d a morton
While I agree with your premise that strong leadership is needed in a team environment, I think your post falls short (as many do) because you do not define what strong leadership is. Without that definition your post diminishes its ability to be useful. Too often we all assume that we know what that means and most of the time it cannot be articulated in a comprehensive definition. I would love to hear what you think strong leadership actually means. I have some thoughts.
July 24, 2008 at 4:25 am
constantlythinking
Thank you for your comment.
According to organizational theory, organization, companies and corporations are “highly integrated systems whose performance is determined by the degree of alignment between its major components.”1 Therefore, the leader’s responsibility within the organizational structure is to achieve a balance between the organizational climate such as team dynamics and the various projects and task at hand. In other words, strong leadership is the ability to balance the organization climate with the operational side. Burns posits that “essentially the leader’s task is consciousness-raising on a wide plane and . . . values exist only when there is consciousness and, where nothing is felt, nothing matters. The leader’s fundamental act is to induce people to be aware or conscious of what they feel—to feel their true needs so strongly, to define their values so meaningfully, that they can be moved to purposeful action.”2
Although there are numerous definitions of strong leadership, “strong” is not an accurate word to encompass what is required for a person to lead. To supplement Burns viewpoint of leadership, Hofman advocates for a “a conscious-authentic leader in the workplace is offered as one who reaches deeply within to provide genuine cognitive consciousness and relational characteristics, and is transparent in decision-making and interconnectivity with people in a way that positively impacts employee perception and provides positive organizational behavior in order to achieve specific organizational outcomes in the workplace.” 3 This description of a leader encompasses the role, responsibilities and skills that leaders must have to lead successfully.
1 Nadler, D. A., & Tushman, M. L. Competing by design. New York: Oxford University Press. (1997). p. 23
2 Burns, J. (1978). Leadership. New York: Harper & Row. p.44.
3 Hofman, Robert E. Jr. ,Journal of Leadership Studies, Volume 2, Number 1, 2008 p.19.