Managing An Individual Team
...ant in a consulting firm years ago, I was mentored to believe that overcoming resistance is inevitable. Because people are inherently resistant to change, and no matter what is done, that resistance will exist. The factors a leader needs to weigh to implement a change strategy is simply that resistance is always present in complex change efforts; resistance is a good and natural response, not a bad thing; working with resistance competently will always lead to increased results; the leader should never try to "overcome" resistance; instead, they should learn to nurture resistance, use it and benefit from it. The first is preserving the status quo. This is particularly important with staff that has longevity with the company. The second is misunderstanding. The absence of facts leads to rumors and the fear of the unknown. What they do not understand, they fear and are resistant to change. The third factor is the way that the value of change is perceived. Open communication is essential to eliminate this factor. The fourth factor is where an individual does not cope with change efficiently. This is the hardest to manage. And the fifth factor is the lack of motivation or a low expectation of success. The key strategies to manage most of these are open communication and motivating morale. People and teams need to be empowered to find their own solutions and responses, with facilitation and support from managers, and tolerance and compassion from the leaders and executives. Management and leadership styles and behavior is more important than clever process and policy. Employees need to be able to trust the organization. Earlier research has shown us the following: · A Benevolent or Paternalistic leadership style in which the top level managers believe that all of his employees should be constantly guided treated with affection like a parent treats his children, is relationship-oriented, assigns tasks on the basis of his own likes and dislikes, constantly guides them and protects them, understands their needs, salvages the situations of crisis by active involvement of himself, distributes rewards to those who are loyal and obedient, shares information with those who are close to him. · A Critical leadership style is characterized as closer to Theory X belief pattern where the managers believe that employees should be closely and constantly supervised, directed and reminded of their duties and responsibilities, is short-term goal-oriented, cannot tolerate mistakes or conflicts among employees, personal power dominated, keeps all information to himself, works strictly according to norms and rules and regulations and is highly discipline oriented. · A Developmental leadership style is characterized as an empowering style, where the top managers believe in developing the competencies of his staff, treats them as mature adults, leaves them on their own most of the times, is long-term goal-oriented, shares information with all to build their competencies, facilitates the resolution of conflicts and mistakes by the employees themselves with minimal involvement from him. (Rao, 1986) Developmental style by nature seems to be the most desired organization building style. However, some individuals and some situations require at times benevolent and critical styles. Some managers are not aware of the predominant style they tend to use and the effects their style is producing on their employees. (Stewart and Rao, 1976). The major aspect I gained from the simulation was that communication and keeping morale high goes a long ways. I learned that improving employee comfort and coordination through better faculties and establishing processes and documentation procedures go a long way in solving the problems and keeping morale high. I chose to improve employee competencies. By creating a job rotation program, giving specialists the responsibility of growth, and implementing a performance-based compensation package I gained support from the employees due to fact they will take ownership in helping the team build a better business. I also fashioned innovative processes and procedures that nominated performers as key process owners, installed documentation procedures, set up process improvement forums, and offered rewards for innovations in the process. I personally based these decisions on Lewin's major contributions to management theory. I focused on the concepts of field theory, action research, the study of group dynamics, and aspects of sensitivity training techniques. His ideas promote communicat...