Leadership And Facilitation Roles

Develop skills to become an effective team leader

TITLE: Unit 06 Leadership and facilitation roles

Overview 3

What makes a good leader? 4

Leadership styles 4

Identifying problem roles and negative leadership 7

What matters—team or task? 9

Task orientation and maintenance orientation 9

Goals, planning, time management 11

Priorities and time management 12

Consultation skills 13

Managing conflict 15

Avoiding a conflict crisis 16

Collaborative problem-solving 18

Mentoring and coaching 18

Self-managed teams 19

Evaluating and reflecting on team progress 20

Points to consider 20

Feedback methods 21

Summary 23

Overview

This topic is designed to introduce you to the skills and knowledge you need to become an effective leader and facilitator.

Inside this topic

As you work through this topic you will look at:

·  what makes a leader/facilitator

·  leadership styles

·  considering the people and the task

·  goals, planning, time management

·  consultation

·  acknowledging team members’ contributions

·  resolving conflict

·  collaborative problem-solving

·  mentoring and coaching

·  evaluating and reflecting on team progress.

What makes a good leader?

Some people may think that the word ‘javascript:void(0);leader’ suggests someone who leads the team by telling them what to do. The ideal leader is someone who encourages the team members to:

·  function autonomously and democratically as adults.

·  share responsibilities with those who are best at doing the tasks.

·  helps others to come up with answers

·  take on leadership roles.

The characteristics of successful leader/facilitators include:

·  drive

·  honesty, self confidence

·  creativity

·  flexibility

·  knowledge of the business

·  cognitive ability.

The most important characteristic seems to be the desire to lead. A successful team relies on the leader/facilitator having good interpersonal skills.

Leadership styles

What leadership/facilitator styles does your organisation seem to promote? Leadership/facilitator styles have an important influence on teamwork within the organisation.

The type of team you have will influence the leadership/facilitator style, just as the leader/facilitator style can influence the type of team you have.

The role the manager or leader/facilitator takes on will depend on the task, as well as the level of skills and experience of the team members. In a new organisational structure with well-trained and enthusiastic team members, problems will occur if the person is leading in a supervisory manner and not giving team members any autonomy. They will be frustrated and the organisation will not make use of all their talents.

There are three leadership styles in the workplace.

·  Supervisor

·  Facilitator

·  Team leader/facilitator

Different leadership styles are useful for different types of work place activity. The members of the teams will behave differently because of the different style of leadership.

Examine the team leading chart below. It shows that leadership style is not fixed. You can change your behaviour to become a team leader or facilitator to suit the tasks and the team members.

Figure 1: Team leading

People in a team can contribute leadership skills in many ways. The more variety in the roles people play, the richer the team. The chart below identifies some of these roles within a team.

Table 1: Team roles

Role / Behaviour
Initiator / Suggests tasks and ideas, defines the issues with suggestions
Helper / Offers help in response to problems
Motivator / Likes to get things done and encourage others
Observer / Watches the others
Doubting Thomas / Doesn’t think any ideas will work
Clarifier / Makes sure everyone understands the issue
Influencer / Can convince others
Surpriser / Always comes up with new ideas
Summariser / Pulls ideas together, makes decisions, suggestions
Mediator / Tries to keep harmony, conciliates, offers compromise solutions
Gate keeper / Helps other to take part, keeping communication channels open
Follower / Accepts others’ ideas, can be an interested listener and positive team member
Activity 1: Your teams

Think about the teams you have participated in. This team might be work-based but could also be a social or community team.

Explain below how you have acted in at least three of these roles as a member of a team. An example is given to show you.

1 As a member of the P & C Committee at my children’s school, I often act as a clarifier. I often think that some of the teachers don’t really understand parents’ concerns so I try to talk to them in ways that I think they will understand. I guess that I am also a mediator at these meetings as I try to help sort out any conflict that comes up by finding common ground between two different points of view.

Role 1:

Role 2:

Role 3:

Comment

Each person’s experience as a team member is individual. It is important to reflect on how you contribute (or don’t contribute!) to the teams that you belong to. There will always be different personalities in a team and some will contribute more than others.

Help and encourage each member to contribute as much to the team as they can. You can help to lead or facilitate your team’s goals by taking positive roles yourself.

Identifying problem roles and negative leadership

These are some roles that make working in teams difficult. These roles may be used to influence the team in a negative way.

Figure 2

Activity 2: Team roles

What names would you give to each of these roles?

In the following table, draw lines to connect the comments with the correct role.

Did you hear the joke about? / Criticiser
That’s stupid. Can’t anyone come up with a decent idea? / Joker
This is so boring! How much longer will it take before I can escape? / Timeserver
I don’t know what you think this meeting will achieve! / Distractor
Did you hear about Julie? She’s going to Surfer’s Paradise for a week. / Negator

Comment

Did you hear the joke about? / Joker
That’s stupid. Can’t anyone come up with a decent idea? / Criticiser
This is so boring! How much longer will it take before I can escape? / Timeserver
I don’t know what you think this meeting will achieve! / Negator
Did you hear about Julie? She’s going to Surfer’s Paradise for a week. / Distractor

As a leader of such a team, or a fellow group member, you would need to consider what action you would take to help the meeting be successful.

What matters—team or task?

Part of ensuring the success of a team depends on the team leader’s ability to assess the strengths of each team member. Task-oriented people focus on getting the job done while maintenance-oriented people focus on keeping the group together

When leaders/facilitators are co-ordinating the work in a team, they need to think about which members are task-oriented and which are javascript:void(0);maintenance-oriented. Both types of behaviour are important in a team.

Task orientation and maintenance orientation

In a team we all assume various roles according to:

·  our own personalities

·  the task

·  the behaviour and interests of the others in the team.

Some of us like teams because they are a useful and efficient way of getting the task done while others like the interaction between the people in a team. Look at the table below. Think back to your answers to Activity 17.

Consider how you contribute to the team in terms of tasks or team maintenance. The table below gives examples of both task and maintenance roles.

Role / Behaviour / Task or maintenance?
Initiator / Suggests tasks and ideas, defines the issues with suggestions / Task
Helper / Offers help in response to problems / Task
Motivator / Likes to get things done and encourage others / Task and maintenance
Observer / Watches the others / Maintenance
Doubting Thomas / Doesn’t think any ideas will work / Task
Clarifier / Makes sure everyone understands the issue / Maintenance
Influencer / Can convince others / Task
Surpriser / Always comes up with new ideas / Task
Summariser / Pulls ideas together, makes decisions, suggestions / Task
Mediator / Tries to keep harmony, conciliates, offers compromise solutions / Task and maintenance
Gate keeper / Helps other to take part, keeping communication channels open / Maintenance
Follower / Accepts others’ ideas, can be an interested listener and positive team member / Task and maintenance

An effective team leader/facilitator will get to know the team members and allocate tasks to them with their orientation and strengths in mind.

An ideal team will survive and produce good results if it has a mix of task-and maintenance-oriented members.

Goals, planning, time management

Every project has a goal and a time limit. It’s a good idea to start by looking at the ‘big picture’, then breaking it down into tasks and allocating these to the most appropriate people.

Activity 3: Task priorities

Look at the list of tasks below. Put in numbers to indicate the order in which you think the tasks should be done.

Order / Tasks
Allocate tasks
Set a main goal
Hold regular meetings
Create a schedule
Get team members to report on their progress
Set a timeline
Set some standards
Monitor progress
Keep the team informed about what’s happening
Keep a record of what’s happening
Break the main goal into tasks
Keep the team motivated

Comment

See if you have put the following order in your answer as this would help your team to achieve its goals.

Think about the reasons for this order.

1 Set a main goal

2 Set a timeline

3 Break the main goal into tasks

4 Allocate tasks

5 Set some standards

6 Create a schedule

7 Hold regular meetings

8 Monitor progress

9 Get team members to report on their progress

10 Keep a record of what’s happening

11 Keep the team informed about what’s happening

12 Keep the team motivated

You could undertake tasks on the list in a slightly different order, but to complete any project, the team leader/facilitator needs to:

·  set goals

·  break them down into tasks

·  work out which team members will do the tasks.

It is the team members’ responsibility to offer each other cooperation and support so they can complete their tasks. The role of the team leader or facilitator involves reviewing and prioritising the tasks to keep the project on track.

Priorities and time management

Once you have decided on the goals of the team, establishing priorities is the next task. The leader/facilitator, in consultation with the team, must decide which jobs deserve the most attention and the order in which the team will handle them.

Coupled with this is the consideration of time management. When is the best time for the meeting to take place? What is the best day? Where is the best place?

Plan - Do - Check - Act (PDCA)

Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) is a quality-planning tool. It can be a useful method of solving problems and making decisions in a team. This method helps to keep the team on track by following an established plan.

The initial planning is the most important step. At each step you must check on the progress before the final action.

The following diagram shows how these four steps work as parts of a continuous process.

Figure 3

Keeping a team on track means having a plan. However, to keep a team on side also means knowing about using effective interpersonal skills, encouraging assertiveness and active listening.

Consultation skills

Consulting all the members of a team is important if you wish to make a decision that all members are prepared to follow. It also makes the best use of the talents of all members—one of the main reasons we form teams.

There are many ways you can consult with other people in small groups or teams.

Remember that consultation isn’t just a matter of saying ‘Are you OK?’ It requires agreement and commitment. A leader may need to use a variety of problem- solving tools to encourage their team to work harmoniously.

Acknowledging team members’ contributions

If you are an experienced team leader/facilitator, you will realise that team members like to feel appreciated. Sincere praise and encouragement from the team members, as well as the leader/facilitator, will help the team members to encourage each other.

You must consider the personal needs as well as the needs of the organisation. The leader or facilitator’s role is to ensure that support and encouragement are given, whether they come from the leader/facilitator or the other members.

Every contribution should be acknowledged, even if it can’t be used this time. One useful method is to set up a whiteboard and note on it any ideas not used. They can be referred to later. This encourages all team members to participate.

Managing conflict

Conflict comes from a breakdown of interaction between people. If we want to deal with the conflict, we have to look at what causes the breakdown.

Conflict in our lives comes from our differences in attitudes, values and beliefs.