Collaborative Leadership

Question

In this 5-8 page paper (not including the title or references pages in the page count), the introduction contains a few statements regarding leadership and engaging others. One potential concern that may occur while engaging others is noted. One potential positive outcome that may occur while engaging others is noted. The sections of the paper are identified.
Section One provides an explanation of the importance of leadership in engaging others including the role of leadership as well as challenges facing leadership while engaging others. In addition to potential role of teams or engaging others in the healthcare environment is presented. Scholarly references to support the information are required.
Section Two focuses on an evaluation of the team ability to accomplish tasks. The team, as presented in the scenario, should be evaluated for each of the following elements:

Ability to handle differences,
Maintaining team order,
Communication (both verbal and nonverbal), and
Team Cohesiveness.

Section Three is where you assume the role of supervisor in order to develop the team. The evaluation should include the following elements:

Overall summary of the discussion and team interactions as presented in the scenario
Discussion of one positive action demonstrated by a team member
Discussion of three non-productive actions demonstrated during the scenario
Discussion of one potential cause for the team dysfunction
Discussion of two actions that can foster teams with multiple generations to work as a productive group
Discussion of two actions that can foster teams with multiple disciplines to work as a group

Scholarly support for actions is required.

Summary of this paper identifies the key points from the information provides as well as insights gained (what was learned) regarding engaging others with leadership.

Sample paper

Collaborative Leadership

Introduction

The role of leadership is not as easy as most individuals take it to be. For a person to be recognized as a leader, he or she has to do the right thing, in the right manner and at the right time. Thus, leadership is the art of getting another person to do something another different person wants it to be done because he wants to do it. There are many types of leadership styles and skills that may be displayed and utilized by individuals at different levels and the organizations. However, there is no one single leadership style that can be recommended to an organization because the leadership style depends on the organization structure as well as the economic sector and industry. This essay will mainly focus on collaborative leadership which is a management style that focuses on the leadership skills across functional and organizational boundaries where all levels of workers are given an opportunity to participate in the decision-making process (Archer, 2013). One of the most notable positive outcomes of this leadership style is that it helps in setting aside personal interests and gains for the broader gains and achievement of organization goals and objective. On the other hand, collaborative leadership can lead to conflicts within a team or an organization due to different perspectives of staff as well as different working styles that can lead to a delay in doing business or organizational decisions.

Section 1

Effective leader

An effective leader is usually defined by his personal traits as well as his or her skills that inspire and motivate staff of an organization or community. Collaborative leadership operates by sharing power, duties, authority, and management among the peers, rather than direction from the top through a hierarchy of authority. Considering that for years and decades, hospital administrators and hospital professionals have worked within a challenging, rapidly changing and fragmented healthcare system, there is a need for healthcare to adopt a collaborative leadership style to reduce the impacts of these challenges. For this leadership style to work in the healthcare industry, hospital administrators need to adopt models such as collaborative patient care teams, resource stewardship, talent transformation, boundary spanning, capacity for complexity, innovation, and change, and employee engagement and well-being.

Related: Essentials of Leadership

Collaborative leadership may yield different results depending on the type and organization structure and culture. However, some of the notable importance of collaborative leadership style includes:

1) This style allows leadership to draw upon the collective insight of the group. Through the participation in the organization as a unit, the leaders can identify the need for change and training and other areas of concern to be addressed to enhance the results realized as well as improving the working environment.

2) Collaboration leadership allows staff in an organization to grow their strength from one level to another considering that different individuals have different strengths and weaknesses that complement each other. Such a situation helps in creating and developing, momentum for more specialization which creates more momentum for collaboration (VanVactor, 2012).

Despite the fact that collaborative leadership seeks to distribute authority and power among the staffs, it should remain in charge to provide a sense of direction to the overall organization and moving them at the right speed in the right direction. Some of the possible roles of collaborative leadership include:

1) Governing – governing particularly in the health care sector deals with the creation and development of policies, continuous monitoring of their implementation by members of an organization or a facility. Moreover, governance attempts to balance the power of the members of an organization and their duties.

2) Coordinating – coordinating widely deals with creating and maintaining communication infrastructures, scheduling common times and ensuring that people have access to good information when they need it to avoid any sought of confusion.

3) Facilitating – collaborative leadership has the role of intervening to assist an organization or a team in solving problems and making informed decisions to improve the productivity and efficiency of the team and organization in general.

Just like any other leadership style, collaborative leadership faces challenges, and it is for the management, leadership, and the staff to join efforts to find a solution to these problems. Challenges facing collaborative leadership include:

1) Complex decision making – this style of leadership calls for the involvement of all members of staff in decision making. Considering that different people have different opinions and views and see things from different perspectives, it takes the time to convince every person to follow a certain course of action (Orchard, 2015).

2) Power wrangles – since everyone is given authority and power to participate in the decision-making process, there are some of the members of an organization who may feel like they have higher stakes than their colleagues thus bringing the idea and concept of power conflict.

3) Defensive participation – there is also the risk of defensive participation where participants in the decision-making process may not fully participate in the process as they feel they have the duty and responsibility to defend their respective units.

Section 2

Multiculturalism in workforce

In the recent past, teams and organization are encouraged to adopt multiculturalism in their workforce to create a diverse labor force. Notably, diverse workforce faces many challenges compared to other labor forces. Some of the situations that teams have to go through to give the best include:

Have the ability to handle differences: a team that is made of more than one individual will occasionally experience misunderstanding and conflicts due to the difference of ideologies among the members. To handle differences among the team, the team needs to have an open door policy where the team leader should listen to grievances from both parties and guide them in arriving at a decision rather than dedicating a solution to them. Moreover, workers should be encouraged to tackle conflict amicably and build a common workplace culture favoring all individuals from different backgrounds (Orchard, 2015).
Maintaining team order: to maintain order in a team, the leader should involve the team members in performing certain organization duties and in decision making to build the spirit of appreciation and belonging. Moreover, there is the need of the leader to motivate, encourage and listen to their problems and try to help them to find solutions to their problems.
Communication: Communication is very vital in the performance of any organization since communication channels are used in giving instructions to workers as well as getting feedback to the top management of the company. To maintain good communication channels, the leadership of the organization should adopt vertical, horizontal and diagonal communication styles. Moreover, it is also prudent to adopt an open door policy where employees can have access to their superiors and discuss work and other work related issues.
Team cohesiveness: maintaining the unity of any team should be the highest priority of any leader. To be in a position to maintain team cohesiveness, a team leader needs to establish a mission through deciding the goals and laying down the policies and methods necessary to achieve these goals. Moreover, the leader should look for diversity for diversity has a broader access to many people, both old and young with diverse skills and knowledge which may prove valuable to the team.

Section 3

Evaluation of the team ability to accomplish tasks

The degree to which individual members of a team willing and want to contribute to the group ability to continue as a functioning work unit determines the overall ability of the team to achieve its mission and objectives. Team unity and cohesiveness develop over time and results from individual, interpersonal and group level attraction. Group cohesiove4ness allows a group to work through a conflict and emerge as a stronger group that is hungrier to defeat all odds to become successful. Some of the factors that affect the cohesiveness of a group include the stage of the group, trust and group openness to new members (Archer, 2013). To maintain this unity, it is necessary to encourage effective communication and utilize individual strengths for the benefit of the team.

To guarantee team development, there is the need to encourage positive actions from members of the groups. An example of a positive action demonstrated by a member of the team who is willing to take the team to the next level is there when any member of the team needs them. John, the team organizer, visited mercy a team member at the hospital after she was involved in a road accident to encourage her as well as wishing her a quick recovery and this is a good sign of cohesiveness in the team.

To maintain a good and workable team, the team members with the help of the team leadership should devise a way in which they can incorporate both non-productive and productive actions that help in bringing the members of the team together. Some examples of non-productive actions that can be adopted by team members include: holding celebration parties after achievement of certain team objectives, rewarding the best performer to motivate others and assisting each other in times of need and tragedies (VanVactor, 2012).

A good team should be quick in identifying factors that can kill team spirit or bring disintegration in the team. Some of the possible causes of group dysfunction include favoritism of some members. While it is important to recognize good work from individual employees, it is important not to hand the reward to the favorites and ignoring others. Favoritism kills team spirit and cohesiveness.

In recent years, there is increased awareness of the importance of integrating both experience and young blood in a workforce. Some of the commonly, management methods used to manage such workforce include keeping employees engaged through the provision of regular education and training opportunities as well as career advice to keep all workers interested and happy with the team. On the same note, the management can also accommodate various learning styles to suit all generations in the team.

A strong team is made by different disciplines. However, maintaining the cohesiveness of such a team is challenging. To help manage such a team, the team leader should communicate clearly and widely to avoid rumors and misinformation, to raise awareness of the team’s objectives as well as building relationships with the team. Moreover, the leader should set clear objectives and ensure that every individual is aware of his or her role in the achievement of these goals.

To boost the performance of a team, the leadership should implement recognition programs that encourage quality teamwork, encourage social activities that aids in discussing variety issues among team member, and outline clearly the roles of each or department and identifying the existing problem and solving it amicably (VanVactor, 2012).

Section 4

In conclusion, it is correct to say that, leadership is paramount to any organization. However, collaborative leadership promotes team spirit and reduces chances of resistance from the members. Moreover, members of any team should seek to integrate both productive and non-productive activities to help boost the relationship among them. It is also crucial for the leaders to avoid and eliminate favoritism to zero-rate group dysfunction.

Works Cited

Archer, D. &. (2013). Collaborative Leadership: Building Relationships, Handling Conflict, Sharing Control. . Routledge.

Orchard, C. &. (2015). Collaborative Leadership within Interprofessional Practice. In Leadership and Collaboration , (pp. 71-94). Palgrave Macmillan UK.

VanVactor, J. D. (2012). Collaborative leadership model in the management of health care. . Journal of Business Research, 65(4), , 555-561.

Ethics and Leadership