Introduction
Great managers have some characters in common which can be learnt by upcoming and young managers through simulation, that is, the imitation of the leadership styles of great managers to achieve results. Some criteria is required which is predictable from the simple aggregation of individual characteristics of the agents (Gilbert, 1996). If novices can painstakingly learn from and imitate characters of experts, they will surely develop their skills.
Managing a team with more than two people is not an easy task because of the fact that sub-teams will emerge from the bigger team and this existence of smaller teams in a team have its challenges and opportunities if well managed. Nobody is an island on his or her own and projects are easier to execute where there is more than one collaborators, especially with mutual understanding and team spirit. Synergy is the factor that helps teams to do what individual members will not do. The whole team performance is more than the sum of the perormances of individual members of the team. This is due to the geling of the team members and the dynamism therein.
Great leaders have exhibited different kinds of leadership styles. All these leadership styles are beneficial depending on how they are used. Great leaders are visionary people who are able to achieve results using people. They exhibits authority in themselves and exhume confidence in their team members. Circustances make men, just as much as men make circumstances (Marx and Engels, 1947, p.29). Some leaders are democratic, allowing team members to air the opinions. Some are dictatorial, explaining what the want from their teams to the team members to execute. All styles have opportunity and challenges and may be used in certain circumstances.
Great leaders share some features in common. Experience is their priceless jewel which makes them to be in control of their situations. Their functions are the same irrespective of their field, that is, to lead others purposefully and achieve objectives. Great leaders are in sports management, business management, educational management, politics etc.
The leadership traits of selected successful business and sport leaders are analysed below for simulation of up-coming leaders. These leaders have a least one in common - using people to achieve results.
What is a Team?
Teams are groups of people with predetermined purpose of achieving a goal or set of goals, through the use of collective efforts, resources and collective responsibility for the results achieved. Teams have been used since time immemorial by common men to achieve uncommon results. Teams are formed for challenges (objectives/goals) especially to compete with another team or teams either for award/s, for leisure and for vocation or a combination of these.
No matter the purpose for which a team is constituted, the procedure is usually: selection or election; induction, training or both; performance and adjournment. Teams where used to construct the Pyramids in Egypt; The church of Babylon, built in 11th century, the Great Wall of China and the Empire State Building completed in 1931. Numerous projects have been completed and built before the advent of project management through the help of teams.
According to Katzenbach and Smith (2003) a team is "a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach for which they are mutually accountable". "A team is a group in which members work together intensively to achieve a common group goal" (Lewis-McClear and Taylor, 1998). A team is "a group that works towards a single, common, objective" (Team Technology, 2009).
In actual fact, team members might have different individual qualifications, skills and objectives, but those qualities contribute to the overall objectives of the team. Good team managers take full responsibilities for the mistakes of theiir teams and do not blame or apportion blames for any erring team member unless where the mistake is glaring and to correct others.
For example, in a football team, one person might be a keeper, one is a right full back, one is a pointman (goal getter) etc. We may also devide a football team into sub-teams and say that the keeper and the defenders are all a sub-team making sure that goals are not scored in their home. The strikers and midfielders are also a sub-team making sure that goals are scored against the opponents. These midfielders are to ensure that balls are linked from the defenders to the attackers. All these team members are working towards making sure that the opponents are beaten.
Before a group can be referred to as a team, the following conditions must be present:
- Presence of more than one person in the group,
- Common predetermined objectives/goals,
- Commission of resources, for example time, labour, materials or finance,
- Team leader.
A mob which have common purpose of beating somebody and group of passengers in a train cannot be referred to as teams because they lack predetermined purpose and team leaders. For easy management, a team must have a team-leader. A team leader (captain of a sport team or manager of a business team) plans, organises, directs, coordinates, controls and supervises a team. A team leader must make sure that his team is cohesive during operation. This can be done through effective team-building (training, rehearsal, retreat etc).
Team building is developing the cohesion of a team by fostering trust, communication and cooperation among members to make it more efficient and improve its peformance. Team buiding is also the system of developing or promoting the dynamics of a team. Without dynamism in a team, a team cannot succeed. Dynamism is the cohesiveness in a team that determines how easy a team goes along.
It refers to the selection, development, and collective motivation of result-oriented teams in other for them to make impressive results. Team-building is based on the fact that good relationship among individuals can be learnt, fostered and developed. The result of effective team building is "team dynamism". Teamwork exists as a result of cohesiveness in a team. Teamwork can be described as the ability to work together towards a common vision.
It is the ability to direct individual accomplishment toward organisational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to achieve uncommon results. A team leader must appreciate the indvidual team member's skill which will be different from others and exploit this to achieve results. The most important thing in team members are their team spirit.
Before team-building, effective team leaders must realise that no member of the team is 'useless'. He or she must be able to identify the stages of team formation so as to be able to cope with the challenges of each stage. (Tukman, 1965) identified these stages to include 'forming', 'norming', 'storming', 'performing', and 'adjourning'. All teams naturally pass through these five stages and there are characters and performance expectations for each stage.
Team members are expected to be 'sizing-up' (studying) each other at the 'forming' stage when they are first constituted and the team is not expected to do much at this stage. It is mostly at the performing stage that teams perform task at their full capacity before they 'adjourn' after 'task-completion' or due to 'inefficiency of team'.
Team leaders must also realise that there are different types of human traits that can be exhibited among team members. These traits rarely have advantage over others as they are complementary. It is the duty of an effective team leader to identify the trait in individual members of his or her team and know how to use the qualities to advantage. Some members of the team will be 'natural co-ordinators', 'resource investigators', 'team workers', 'shapers', 'company workers/implementers', 'completers finisher', 'planters', 'monitors/evaluators', and 'specialists'. (Belbin, 2004).
All these traits have the qualities which effective team leaders can exploit and none is better than the other. There is also Myer-Briggs model (1956) which effective team leaders have to contend with. This model is about personality types. Myer-Briggs identified four ways people differ from each other. These are: the way they think; the way they view; the way they feel/perceive and the way they see things.
Bolton and Bolton (1996) said tha: "Most people don't get stuck in professional ruts or backwaters because of incompetence, but because they can't get along with others.This book shows that you fit into one of four groups -- analyticals, drivers, expressives, and amiables". It is the duty of an effective team manager to help different team members gel an get alond with each other. If members are able to work successfully without rift and rancour, there won't be need for team manager.
Team diversity which include language difference, cultural difference, background difference, qualification difference, class, age, sex and experience also have effects in a team which the leader must manage.
In order to build an effective team: The team leader must:
(1) ensure participation of all team members in formulation of strategic plan, ploy, action and style for the team. Strategic plan is what will act as guide for the operation of the team. It can be referred to if a team is not directing its efforts to the established objectives/goals.
(2) ensure effective communication to be utilised in his or her team to ensure that there is healthy team dynamics within and without the team. Research has identified ten categories of communication channels that can be used on projects. These are: meetings; trainings/development; official records/gazettes; graphics and electronic bulletin boards; personnel magazines (newsletters); newspapers and magazines outside the organisation; radio and television; e-mails; sms; signs; other oral channels, for example, phone; and other written channels, for example, memos and letters .
Oikkonen et al (2001) said that interaction approach in communication will ensure there is effective teamwork in that through long term interaction, peers actions will be determinable. Effective communication in a team centres on well-defined objectives that support the organisation's goals and mission. Calculator and Jorgensen (1991) observed that "the ability to communicate is an essential part of life".
(3) ensure there is 'team charter' in which the team goals and objectives will be documented. Each team member must have identified roles to play. There should be performance measurement yardsticks to appraise team members at the end of every performamce period.
(4) ensure there is regular meetings of team members to brain-storm on common issues. This can be in form of retreats outside the city environment and in a secluded holiday resorts to ensure focus of all team members.
(5) organise training or 'simulation exercises' among team members divided into sub-groups to stimulate healthy rilvary and for the purpose of team-building. Use team building techniques like "tug-of-war", "ice-breaking", broom breaking", "load carriage" etc.
(6) delegate tasks to breed trust among team members by elaborating the project objectives so that each team member will be aware of what to do to achieve team goals with little or no interference.
(7) ensure team assumes collective responsibilities for mistakes of other team members and not to apportion blames on individuals for team inefficiency or failure.
(8) establish conflict resolution means in his or her team. 'Loosing team members fight with each other while wining team members fight with competitors'.
(9) carry out appraisal and review of individual team members to know if it is necessary to change tactics where there is team inefficiency.
(10) introduce awards for excellent work and review of bad performances.
(11) ensure team has focus. Focus is the element that ensures that a team does not see obstacles on its way to success. This does not mean that there is no obstacle, but with full focus on the target, a team will not recognise obstacles.
(12) recognise performing stage: A team leader must know the performing stage of his team when the team will be performing at its peak. After this period, the team may lose focus and that is where the team leader must work hard on the psyche of the team members to bring out a sustained performance in them.
Several writers have shown that an effective team is artifically built and not naturally born. It has also been proved that individual qualities of team members do not naturally add up to the quality of a team except the qualities are managed to advantage. For example, in the 2006 world cup in Japan and South Korea, the team with the best team members' individual quality was Brazil and they do not win the cup. In 2004, Greece, despite being an underdog, won the Europe Cup because of higher team spirit than any other team. Spain team in the 2008 Europe cup was focus from the begining to the end and won the cup. With rigorous training and development, a cohesive team can be built by an effective team leader.
Examples of leaders are spiritual (for example, church or mosque head), traditional (for example, monarch or chief), political (for example, governor or local government chairmen), team (for example, manager or director at work or school teacher) etc.
Leadership Styles:
Autocratic Leadership Style
This is the type of leadership exhibits by dictators. A leader exerts high levels of power over his or her followers. An autocratic leader gives his or her idea which the team must follow. He or she has no time for deliberations on others ideas before chosing one. In autocracy, time wasting in long deliberations is reduced but most followers will not like being treated as bench warmers without having anything to contribute. For leading unskilled workers who do not have any skill about a job, this leadership style is appropriate.
Charismatic Leadership Style
This is the type of leadership in which the leader lead through encouragement and enthusiasm. A charismatic leader builds power around himself or herself which draws followers around him or her. Charismatic leaders wield so much power about their team that team success always depends on them. They control too much influence on their team.
Bureaucratic Leadership Style
Bureaucratic leaders are principled and lead by instructions. They write instructions and expect workers and followers to follow these. It is good for works requiring rules like using machineries but not good for management and skilled staff because it delimits their initiatives.
Influential Leadership Style
An influential leader delibrates with his team members and followers and use thir contributions to make decisions. Where he or she has a clear road map on the way he or she wants to go, an influential leader will still brain-storm with his or her team member and help the team to come out with his or her idea as collective team decision. He or she is a good moderator and effective talker. He or she communicates with the team and highlights what needs to be done. He or she rely on his or her team support for performance of the task. He or she develops the team members by delegating tasks and allowing members to air their opinions. This type of leadership is appropriate for managing people with skill and education but not people who do not have ideas about the tasks.
Laissez-Faire Leadership Style
This is free style leadership style in which the leader gives adequate authority to the team members to decide on their own.Laissez-Faire is a French word meaning individualistic. A Laissez-Faire leader does not encourage team work, but allows the team members to work individually. It is good to manage skilled workers and where everybody knows his or her role, for example, a University Departmental staff, but it may put a leader out of control if care is not taken.
Participatory Leadership Style
This is a type of leadership in which the leader shows examples by participating with his or her team members and showing them what to do so that they can carry out the task on their own in future. It asumes that all team members except the leader do not know the task. It encourages teamwork and ensures that all team members are aware of the task ahead. It is a good way of fostering collaboration. Most skilled workers will not fancy participatory leader because he or she shows thinks that he or she knows all.
Service-Oriented Leadership Style
It is a type of leadership style in which the leader moderates all team members to reach decision. He is at the back watching proceedings and only comes out with what the team has ageed. It is a form of democracy except that the leader does not influence decision making. The leader only supply the team members with enough information and background for them to deliberate. It is a good way of leadership where the leader does not have knowledge about the technicalities of what is being decided. For example as a chairman of a committee in which he or she does not have knowledge of how things work. It may expose a leader as a novice if he or she does not manage the situation well.
Managerial Leadership Style
A managerial leader is only interested in making sure that the job is done. He or she is only concern about the welfare of his or her team in as much as they can do the job. His or her team is measured by its performance. A managerial leader sees all his or her team members as tools for job performance and dispensable. He may be influential or autocratic depending on situation. He is a result-oriented leader. He puts the structure in place for team members to work and satisfy their requirements as far as they are getting results. He does not want to understand why there may be failure and does not give room for second trial.
Transactional Leadership Style
This is the type of leadership in which rewards are measured by performance. This leadership style believes fingers are not equal and deals with individuals team members according to their performance. Good performances are rewarded while poor performances are punished. Transactional leadership does not consider his or her surbodinates as members of his or her team but as workers who must be managed to get works done. His or her tool is "carrot and cane". If works is going on fine, he or she can use award to motivate good work or fines to punish bad work.
Transformational Leadership Style
A transformational leader is a delegator of tasks and inspires his or her team to share in his or her vision and the objectives. This is a true leader who motivates and care for his or her team. He or she wants to achieve results through his or her team and take time to understand the conditions of all the team members. He or she is visible by the team members and show more interest in the team than in the task ahead. He or she is a good communicator and naturally influence the team.
The team members work not only to get paid but for the transformational leader to succeed. The transformational leader sees all his or her team members as potentials and lead by examples. He or she supervises the ideas of his or her team members. This style is good for managing big organisations and large groups like a state. The team members know what the transformational leader requires from them and are ready to work without him.
There is no leadership style that canbot be used to manage people in order to meet goals. After finding his or her leadership style, a leader should realise that human beings are different from each other in the way they think, see. feel and reason. Leaders should therefore, understand that everybody will require different kind of leadership style to be managed for results. While some people will require transformational leadership style, others will require influential or managerial leadership styles.
Leadership Styles of Selected Successful Team Managers
Sir Alex Ferguson is the most successful manager in British football history - winning more than 30 trophies during his time in charge of the Reds. Yet despite more than two decades at the Manchester United's helm, he remains focused on increasing that tally, bringing yet more silverware to Old Trafford.
The Reds boss enjoyed a playing career north of the England border that saw him take in spells with Queens Park, St. Johnstone, Dunfermline, Glasgow Rangers Falkirk and Ayrshire United. But it is not for his playing of the game that Sir Alex was to become a success. Following a spell out of the game he moved into coaching, taking up the role of manager of East Stirlingshire, St Mirren then Aberdeen. It was his time at Pittodrie where he earned his reputation as a top coach. He broke the Glasgow dominance of Scottish football to lead Aberdeen to three Scottish titles, four Scottish cups, one League Cup and one Europeans Cup Winners' Cup.
Following the sacking of Ron Atkinsons as manager of Manchester United, the Old Trafford hierachy moed quickly for his services. They got their man on 6 November 1986. Ferguson inherited a dispirited team of underachievers who had consitently, to their supporters failed to break Liverpool dominance to their supporters discontent.
Ferguson motivates his team by listening to their needs and is ready to provide for them. He sees them as his sons and call everyone of his palyer "son". He sees them as the greatest asset of his team and is reay to solve their personal problems as a manager. Ferguson does not allow inter team rivalry and has a good system of conflict resolution. All his team members, sees him as a father and not only as a tea manager. Sir Alex Ferguson is an Influential leader, approachable and humorous.
In December 2009, he said the secret of his success is a scruffy old red Wakes wooly hat he nicked off Ryan Giggs (one of his team members) way back in Novemeber 1996 before playing against a team in Turkey. He creates atmosphere of friendliness in his camp and abhor segregation or the existence of unhealthy rivalry in his team.
Ferguson said; "The only time Ryan has ever let himself down is letting me steal his Welsh bunnet. He is never going to get it back, because it is lucky for me. I have always worn it. I pinched it off him when we were in Turkey before a game against Ferneberche. At the time, I just thought it would look better on me than him".
He does not do sentimentality when it comes to naming his team. He believes whoever plays for the team is the best choice at the particular time.
Arsene Wenger, born on 22 October 1949 in Strasbourg, France, is a French football manager who has managed English Premier League side Arsenal since 1996. He is the most successful manager in the history of Arsenal in terms of trophies and is also the club's longest-serving manager in terms of matches played (having passed the 700 mark in December 2008).
Wenger is the only non-British manager to win the Double in England, having done so in 1998 and 2002. In 2004, he became the only manager in FA Premiership League history to go through the entire season without defeat. Wenger is widely regarded as one of the world's best managers after the success he has enjoyed at AS Monaco and Arsenal. Wenger has a degree in Engineering and a Master's degree in Economics from Strasbourg University and is fluent in French, German and English; he also speaks Italian, Spanish and Japanese.
Wenger's management style is in analysis of situation and team-building. His ability to communicate in different international languages is an asset which he is exploiting to build rapport among himself and his team members. He is able to explain exactly what he requires from his team members without distortion. Wenger allows team members rivalry as far as it is "healthy and does not affect the team performance". He is very good in team selection and team-building. He is a Transformational leader who builds confidence in any individual member of his team.
Wenger is a transformational leader. He has transformed many unknown players into internatonal quality sportsmen. For example, George Upong Weah from Tonere kalala of Cameroun to Monaco, Victor Ikpeba from Belgium to Monaco, Emanuel Adebayor and Toure. He has usd his knowledge of engineering and economics to influence his club and have analytical mind second to none in the premier league. He made more money trading players than any other manager.
Donald John Trump was born on June 14, 1946. He is an American business magnate, socialite, television personality and author. He is the Chairman and CEO of the Trump Organisation, a US-based real estate developer. Trump is also the founder of Trump Entertainment Resorts, which operates numerous casinos and hotels across the world. Trump's extravagant lifestyle and outspoken manner have made him a celebrity for years, a status amplified by the success of his NBC reality show, The Apprentice (where he serves as host and executive producer).
Donald was the fourth of five children of Fred Trump, a wealthy real estate developer based in New York City. Donald was strongly influenced by his father in his eventual goals to make a career in real estate development, and upon his graduation from Wharton School at the niversity of Pennsylvania in 1968, Donald Trump joined his father's company, The Trump Organisation.
Starting with the renovation of the Commodore Hotel into the Grand Hyatt with the Pritzker family, he continued with Trump Tower in New York City and several other residential projects. Trump would later expand into the airline industry (buying the Eastern Shuttle routes), and Atlantic City casino business, including buying the Taj Mahal Casino from the Crosby family, then taking it into bankruptcy. This expansion, both personal and business, led to mounting debt. Much of the news about him in the early 1990s involved his much publicized financial problems, creditor-led bailout, extramarital affair with Marla Maples, and the resulting divorce from his first wife, Ivana Trump.
The late 1990s saw a resurgence in his financial situation and fame. In 2001, he completed Trump World Tower, a 72-storey residential tower across from the United Nations Headquarters. Also, he began construction on Trump Place, a multi-building development along the Hudson River. Trump owns commercial space in Trump International Hotel and Tower, a 44-storey mixed-use (hotel and condominium) tower on Columbus Circle. Trump currently owns several million square feet of prime Manhattan real estate, and remains a major figure in the field of real estate in the United States and a celebrity for his prominent media exposures. Trump leads by example and is a Charismatic leader who wants to be seen as part of every deal.
Trump is a business trainer. He motivates his staff by "meeting their needs" and giving them hope. According to Stephanie Schaeffer, winner, NBC's "The Apprentice" 2007, Trump is an inspiration to his workers and encourages you to be your best.
Sir Alan Michael Sugar (Serana) was born on March 24, 1947. He is English entrepreneur, businessman, and television personality. He is from East End of London, Sugar now has an estimated fortune of £830m (US$1.25billion) and was ranked 92nd in the Sunday Times Rich List 2008. Despite being best known as a technology businessman, most of Sugar's wealth now derives from his property portfolio, rather than business ventures. In 2007, he sold Amstrad, one of his large business ventures.
Sugar is also notable for his time as chairman of Tottenham Hotspur from 1991 to 2001, and for starring in the BBC TV series The Apprentice, which has run to five series, broadcast annually between 2005 and 2009 and based upon the popular American television show of the same name, featuring entrepreneur Donald Trump. Alan is analytical and painstakingly expresses his objectives to his team members. He does not tolerate failures in his team. Alan is a Transactional leader who base rewards on performance. He believes in selecting excellent team members for his team and paying competitive salaries to retain them. Conclusion
Success in team management depends more on strategies than on team managers styles. Great team managers know that there is no one best way of managing a team and that there are no two great team managers that are the same, though their leadership styles may be similar. Team performance is the combination of team members individual qualities, team manager's experience and the team's preparation (planning, supervision, development etc).
Great team managers know what they require in their team and are ready to communicate the objectives of the team to all team members in an unambiguous form. Great team managers are also efective motivators and know how to motivate their team to spurn the common team members to achieve uncommon results.
Great team members also have advantage in selection of good materials for their team. They are all visionary leaders that can identify resourceful materials from a group of raw materials, they know how to refine their team members in order to use them in suitable roles to achieve results.
Further reading • Byars, L. and Rue, L. W. (2004) Human Resources Management. USA: McGraw- Hill/Irwin.
• Belbin, M. (2004) Management Teams - Why They Succeed or Fail? 2nd Edition. Oxford: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann. ISBN 0 7506 910 6.
• Bolton, R. and Bolton, D. G. (1996) Peoples Styles at Work. USA: AMACOM Books.
• Calculator, S. and Jorgensen, C. (1991) Integrating AAC instruction into regular education settings: Expounding an best practices. Augmentative and Alternative Communication, Volume 7, pp. 204-214.
• Gilbert, G. N. (1996) Holism, Individualism and Emergent Properties in Modelling and Simulation in the Social Sciences from the Philosophy of Science Point of View, ed. by Hegselmann, R., Mueller, U. and Troitzsch, K. G. Germany: Springer.
• Katzenbach, J. R. and Smith, D. K. (1993) The Wisdom of Teams: Creating the High- performance Organisation. Boston: Harvard Business School.
• Lewis-McClear, Kyle and Taylor, M. S. (1998) "Psychological contract breach and the employment exchange: perceptions from employees and employers". Papers presented to the Academy of Management, San Diego, August 1998.
• Marx, K. and Engels, F. (1947) The German Ideology. New York: International Publishers.
• Oikkonen, R., Tikkanen, H. and Alajoutsijarvi, K. (2000) The Role of Communicationin Business Relationships and Networks. Management Decisions Journal, Volume 38, No. 6, pp. 403-409. MCB University Press. ISSN 0025-1747.
• Team Technology (1995-2006) "The Basics of Team Building" (Link »)
• Tuckman, B. (2007) The Teambuilding Company. (Link »)