Creating a Plan for Positive Influence
In whatever project that is under implementation, effective planning increases the chances of successful completion. This holds true for both school and professional environments. Therefore, it is a major factor in independent as well as team projects. Traditionally, group projects left the bulkiness of planning to the group leader and his/her guidance (Mintzberg, Lampel, Quinn & Ghoshal, 2003). Consequently, it is important to focus on team leader’s organization, perspective and effectiveness. This is because the team leader will be expected to control and monitor the group progress. At the same time, the leader will be entrusted to offer guidance and direction to the team. The essence of a group/team is to combine efforts, attitude, motivation and teamwork spirit towards a common goal.
Goals and Objectives Formulation
A team project with a time span of one year calls for effective planning and positive team spirit. A successful plan should start with the formulation of team’s objectives and goals. Each team member would be required to familiarize him/herself with the goals of the group. This will enable each member to be informed about the team’s direction and purpose of existence. Objectives acts as guidelines since every activity undertaken by the group will be in line with them (Mintzberg, Lampel, Quinn & Ghoshal, 2003). Members will be able to motivate themselves since they would have an understanding of the project aims. In addition, the objectives act as milestones thereby facilitating monitoring as well as evaluation. The team leader is guided by the objectives during the project’s monitoring and evaluation process.
Member’s Empowerment
Once the objective and goals are put into place, the team members are empowered to perform various tasks. The team leader should be able to assess and identify each member’s style of doing things. This will help identify each member’s strengths and weaknesses. When team members are assigned specific task with regard to their strengths, they feel valued and their motivation is triggered. They dedicate their emotions towards the tasks with a lot of satisfaction (Robbins & Judge, 2011). Eventually, this leads to team’s success and satisfaction. Team leader will be required to identify each member’s personality type. This will help in consolidating the group together and handling various issues concerning them effectively.
Delegation of Responsibilities
After delegation of responsibilities to individual members, the team leader will be required to manage time appropriately. This would be done through creation of a timeline in line with goals and objectives. Each team member would be provided with a copy of all deadlines and expectations of the project. This will include target dates that will enhance team’s understanding and expectations of each other. The schedule will be formulated in such a way that it allow for unforeseen obstacles as well as compilation. There will be a little extra time created in the schedule to allow for the reduction of stress level of members. The extra time will also allow for flexibility in case the unknown happens. Time management skills will be exercised during team meetings. The team will stay on track due to advance planning of the agendas. Meetings will be managed in such a way that there would be no unnecessary ones. Instead, other means of communication will be adopted.
The team leader will be required to create and enhance equity among members. This will be done by encouraging the members to participate and contribute equally. The leader will foster initiative in all the team members. Equity in participation, contribution and initiatives are vital ingredients to any successful team project (Robbins & Judge, 2011). When team members get a feeling that not all of them are pulling their weight, their emotions rise creating grumbling ensues and conflicts within the team. Team members will be required to be willing to be creative and ready to take risks. Risk taking plays a major role in creative processes. Each member should have a chance to input their ideas. The team leader will be expected to share his/her power. Likewise, team members will be expected to share responsibilities. This is the only way that trust will be established.
Monitoring and Evaluation
Monitoring and evaluation will be done as the project implementation progresses. The team leader will be required to monitor the project in accordance to the set objectives (Yukl, 2010). The goals of the team will form the milestones through which the project will be easily monitored. Members will be encouraged to continue in the same spirit in case the progress is in line with the team’s expectation. However, corrective measures will be taken in the event that the project does not coincide with the team’s expectations. The leader will be required to apply his/her communication skills during monitoring so as to prevent chances of discouraging some members. Moreover, the leader will be expected to appreciate the members for their work. This will ignite self-confidence and willingness to the members.
Performance is the main target for the team. The results obtained at each stage of the project will represent the overall performance. The trend of the performance will communicate to the team leader on the project’s achievement. The contribution obtained at each member’s section of the project will be part of the overall performance. The ability of the project to meet its milestones within the specified schedule shows its achievement of positive results (Yukl, 2010). Members will be expected to support each other throughout the project process in an attempt to obtain positive results. By the end of the first six months, the projects performance should be positive and promising for great results. If considerable milestones will not be achieved at this time, then the project will be going in the wrong direction. This will also be a chance to help the members who seem to be troubled by the tasks assigned to them. With such, the team will be able to move at the same pace while facing the right direction.
Conclusion
It is important to understand each member of the team. This will help the team leader to indentify the strengths and weaknesses of each member. Delegation of authority will be done according to their strengths so as to respect their capabilities. Goals and objectives should be formulated before commencing on the project. The leader of the team would be required to encourage equity by all means (Yukl, 2010). Monitoring and evaluation should be done to assess the team’s progress. Eventually, positive influence will be obtained in the team. At the end of one year, the project will be complete without any erasures.
References
Mintzberg, H., Lampel, J., Quinn, J. B., & Ghoshal, S. (2003). The strategy process: Concepts, contexts, cases (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Robbins, S. P., & Judge, T. A. (2011). Organizational behavior (14th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.
Yukl, G. (2010). Leadership in organizations (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.
