Writing Assignment
In this project, you will outline strategic elements critical in leading your team. In doing so, you will map a plan for diagnosing the team’s needs, building collaboration, generating conflict, managing virtual team space, and finally, shifting your own leadership role. This plan will enable you to thoughtfully provide your team with the leadership it needs to perform at its highest levels.
First, identify if the team is new or if you are new to the team. (Or alternatively, you and the team may have been working with one another for a while. If so, think of your team as new all over again and try to look at it with fresh eyes.) Next, complete the appropriate chart in order to identify areas of development or needs for your team.
If the team is new, engage (or reengage) your team in a discussion of its vision and mission. What is the desired future state and the overall purpose of your team? What does the organization need the team to accomplish? Identify members’ roles and responsibilities. Prepare between 3-5 long-term and short-term goals. Enter your results into Chart A.
If you are new to the team, collect data. Interview at least five team members. Observe the team working. What do you notice? What is the work pattern? Based on your analysis of your data, identify and discuss between 3-5 actions/behaviors that the team needs from you. Enter your results into Chart B.
| Chart A: Building Your Team
when the team is new |
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| Team Goals | With your team, identify what your organization needs your team to accomplish. Outline 3-5 of your short-term and long-term goals here.
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| Member Roles & Responsibilities | Identify key roles and responsibilities that will achieve and support your team in reaching your goals. List these roles and state who will be responsible for each.
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| If you have completed Chart A, you have completed part one of your course project. You do not need to complete Chart B. | |
| Chart B: Building Your Team
when you are new to your team |
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| Interview Findings | After interviewing five members of your team, summarize your findings based on each category below:
What actions or processes are working well?
What actions or processes can be improved?
Overall, how effective do they think your team is?
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| Observations of Team | After observing your team working, what do you notice? What work patterns can you identify?
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| Recommendations | Based on your findings, identify 3-5 recommendations you have for your team. Outline how you will or have communicated these recommendations.
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Part Two: Building Collaboration
In this module, we put the lens on you to consider both how your team members act and interact, as well as how you engage your team.
For part two of your project, map a plan for how you want to engage with your team, moving forward. Prepare a list of ideas that answers the following questions:
What is your goal as leader? Ideally, what type of team leader would you like/plan to be and why?
How do you plan to authentically connect with individual team members, including how often and in what setting?
How do you plan to increase collaboration and engagement within the team through how you model engaging behaviors and guide, both the entire team and individual members?
How do you plan to keep your boss apprised of team progress and represent your team to him or her?
| Present Your Idea List
Enter your ideas in the grid below. |
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| Idea 1 | What is your goal as leader? Ideally, what type of team leader would you like/plan to be and why?
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| Idea 2 | How do you plan to authentically connect with individual team members, including how often and in what setting?
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| Idea 3 | How do you plan to increase collaboration and engagement within the team through how you model engaging behaviors and guide, both the entire team and individual members?
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| Idea 4 | How do you plan to keep your boss apprised of team progress and represent your team to him or her?
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Part Three: Utilizing Conflict to Develop Your Team
Generating functional conflict can prevent your team from becoming stagnant and promote growth and innovation. It is essential to the vitality of your team. In this part of your project, you will outline a plan of action to develop your team using functional or healthy conflict. In doing so, you need to assess the dynamics of your team, establish ground rules, then guide how your team members interact with one another.
Identify a situation your team consistently handles the same way that may be too detailed, outdated, or in need of improvement.
Assess the power dynamics and trust level of your team.
Set ground rules to (re)balance the power dynamics and promote a trusting environment.
Define your goals and clearly communicate your expectations to your team.
Communicate as a group until you either reach consensus or an agreed-upon target.
| Functional Conflict Action Plan
Complete the grid below. |
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| Identify a Situation (a routine practice or process that you think could be improved or should be evaluated) | Do you have a process that has been in place for a long time? When questioned why things are done a certain way, do people respond by saying, “We’ve always done it this way”? Note the process here.
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| Assess Power and Trust (recognize the role these play and the current impact on your team) | Where does your opinion fall? Does it carry more weight than others? How about your team members?
How invested are some in the identified situation? Do some team members have more knowledge or experience with this?
How would you describe the trust level of your team? How do those with more power respond to questions or information they disagree with?
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| Set Ground Rules (establish guidelines for communication and timing with everyone) | How will the team discuss ideas (e.g., through brainstorming, round-table format, facilitated)? Can more than one approach be used? Who determines this?
How long will your discussion be? Will you allow breaks or time out when needed? Who is in charge of timing decisions? Can members come and go as needed?
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| Define Goals (be clear about the goal of the meeting and what outcomes you expect) | What do you need to accomplish in the meeting? Are you looking to make a specific change? Do you expect the team to challenge existing processes? Are you more focused on sparking greater collaboration on the team?
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| Communicate and Reach Consensus (conduct your meeting or session and continue to work together as a team until you reach consensus)
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What is the goal of the meeting? What steps will you take to reach consensus? Can you have multiple meetings? Who decides when you have reached consensus? Will you accept anything other than consensus or consider reassessing the goal if needed?
Regarding the situation identified, what purpose does it serve? Who benefits? How? Should it continue?
When does it occur? Should the purpose change? If so, how can the process or practice be changed to better support the end goal?
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Part Four: Managing Virtual Teams
As organizations evolve, the option or possibility of work in a virtual environment is ever increasing. So, it’s important to recognize the differences in how this work can be done. Even those of you who don’t currently oversee a team virtually may have to in the future.
When some or all of the members of your team work remotely, you must take steps to build a connection with them. You must do so in a way that recognizes and accommodates their virtual environment.
In this part of your project, imagine that you are hiring new team members that will work from their homes. To ensure these employees are productive and engaged with the rest of your team from the start, your boss has asked you to submit a memo to her. You are to:
Outline the steps you will take to promote interactions with and among your team.
Specify actions you will take to support virtual team meetings.
Create a list of 3-5 recommendations outlining how you and your team will communicate and interact with virtual team members.
| Memo to Your Boss
Recommendations to promote positive onboarding and team engagement |
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| Team Interactions | What steps will you take to promote interactions between these team members and your other staff? How will you build relationships?
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| Team Meetings | How will you include virtual members in team meetings? What resources will you use to support your efforts here?
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| Recommendations | State 3-5 recommendations you have for you team.
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Part Five: Shifting Leadership Roles
Moving from a tactical to a more strategic approach requires collaboration. You must give your team the opportunity to make decisions and share responsibility. In this part of your course project, you are to identify a problem that your team can address (with or without your involvement).
Identify an improvement in your processes that your team can address, ideally with members stepping up and sharing decision-making roles.
Describe between 2-4 of the strategies or approaches from this course that you will apply to develop your team and/or team members as you build their collaborative and conflict skills.
List the steps you will need to take to implement the strategies identified above.
Outline a timeline of events with specific target dates, including next month and quarter.
Describe how you will measure results or demonstrate the positive impact of the solution.
| Action Plan for Shifting Leadership Roles
Recommendations to promote positive onboarding and team engagement |
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| Key business problem | Identify a business problem or change within your organization that your team may be able to address. Briefly describe it here.
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| Strategies | What performance management strategies will you use to address this problem or manage this change?
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| Steps | What specific steps will you take to put those strategies into action? What will you do personally? What will others on your team need to do?
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| Timeline | What will you or your team do in the next month? What will you have completed over the next quarter? Outline a timeline with specific target dates.
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| Measurement/ Results | How will you measure your results or demonstrate that your solution has had a positive impact? |
