Leadership: Case Study Analysis and Solution

Introduction

The situation presented in case study 3.1 of the course book shows a bad example of team leadership. Dr. Adam Wood, a renowned specialist in health education programs, obtains a contract from the federal government to act as the chief examiner on a 3-year scheme intended to study the older adults. In his team are individuals with different academic university qualifications. There are PhD degree holders, masters, and undergraduates totalling 11 people. Though this team seems to be a competent one to handle the research, they experience some hurdles all stemming from their leader. They are under budgeted and this frustrates Dr. Adam who pours his anger on a team that was initially dedicated. In the end, he lowers his employees' morale and nothing worthwhile comes out of their research. Based on this case study, this paper will deliberate on instances of poor leadership and recommend how Dr. Adam could have acted like a good team leader.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Leaders are entitled to three crucial tasks, knowing the way, going the way and showing the way to his followers. Porter et al. (2010) define leadership is the regular activity of a mentor to the fellow staff in an organization to steer them through the set visions to achieve a common goal. The primary responsibility tasked to a leader is to harmonize the group, ensuring full cooperation for efficient production. As seen from case study 3.1, one of the problems that the team experienced is poor leadership. Rather than being directed towards a common course, Dr. Adam happened to create ridge between himself and the team. He seemed to be shifting a lot of blame to the team making the accusation that he is left with all of the workloads. He worsens thing even further by being offensive and commenting that he regrets taking up the task as the chief operator. This inevitably creates some hatred and a rift between himself and the team.

A skills inventory is a tool used to estimate the proficiency of a leader in technical skills, human skills and conceptual skills (Northouse, 2015). It assesses the leadership abilities through a questionnaire that gauges the credibility of any leader through the scores after answering every entry. The case study has not stated whether Dr. Adam worked with tools or machinery, therefore the elimination of technical skills questions on the inventory. Dr. Adam Wood displayed poor leadership skills in both conceptual and human skills. The leader's actions: the frustration of his colleagues, failure to provide a proper communication environment and failed to acknowledge the team member's constant work places him on a low range scale.

Dr. Adam discriminatory actions also demoralize his colleagues. It is human nature to feel contented and motivated when congratulated on a task achieved. Psychology points out that when a person gets a reward for an achievement, they can perform even better on similar tasks (Armstrong & Murlis, 2007). Dr. Wood did not recognize the efforts of his junior colleagues. They worked overtime to see the project through on a daily basis. Adam's team lost their morale to perform the research tasks, as their leader would discriminate them more often. He never recognized any function performed by the team members. This happens at a time when the team has worked to exhaustion and believes that they have delivered for the day. His inexplicable leadership makes the team consider Dr. Adam as unfit to lead them

Dr. Adam depicts a weakness in controlling his anger. At one point, he summons his team for a meeting, which is probably a good move. Rather than communicating with his team on how they can forge success out of a mission that is on the brink of failure, he goes and dumps his anger on them. He enters the conference room and throws his book on the table in anger. As a leader, this is not a good show. A leader should stay focused and not let their emotion take control. This sort of dictatorial leadership is an obstacle to success. It is very disrespectful and unprofessional to express anger toward individuals who are equally qualified. To add, the anger makes it difficult for communication between Dr. Adam as the team leader and his staff for fear they can be rebuked.

Since the project is falling behind schedule, Dr. Adam needs to correct his leadership flaws to beat the deadline. Most importantly, he needs to avoid imputing blames on his colleagues. In teamwork, social responsibility is necessary, and the group needs to take any irregularity as a whole (Salas, Cooke, & Rosen, 2008). Dr. Adam points a finger to his colleagues, terming them as lazy as he gives himself all the credit for the most work done. He should suggest a solution that would curb such a menace in future. He has to be visible to the group and support them as this helps to reduce the time wasted as the period for blame games can be used identify the loopholes and solve the problems.

Dr. Adam needs to control his anger as well. Displaying anger creates a fear between him and the team eventually making communications between the team impossible. If the interaction between the leader and his colleagues is feeble, a lot of confusion will occur within the project. Interpersonal communication strengthens trust between a leader and the team members; creating room for freedom of expression. Dr. Adam seems not to comprehend what pressure the team is experiencing, as they are not fond of sharing what difficulties they are undergoing. Freedom reinforces the unity in the group hence maximizing the production potential of the group. Communication also builds trust between the colleagues and their leader; therefore, problem solving becomes an expeditious task.

According to Xu et al. (2015), anger also interferes with the mood to work. Hurling angry words at your employees affect their emotions and make them moody. The leader sets the mood for the group. A disagreement with the other colleagues leads to the minimum rate of production; hence, the deadline becomes desperate to reach. This means that the time limit needs an extension; therefore, more resources need to settle the excess bills. The group needs to work in unison to reach the intended goal. The leader inflicts his colleagues with more worries and presumes that he does more work than the rest of the group. This exhausts them adding up to the overtime hours they work without any appreciation.

Dr. Adam should also consider recognizing whatever effort a team member is contributing towards the project. At times, a reward must not be in the form of monetary gain or promotion. Simple congratulations words matter and are equally enough to make a person feel appreciated. This motivates the members as it upholds their team spirit and strengthens the power of the task force.

A good leader focuses on the price and does not let glitches within a project affect his performance. No matter what ensues during a project, there is no need to get frustrated. As an alternative, the leader should figure out the main problems that might have an impact on the daily activity of the program. Dr. Adam team experienced a problem concerning funds. He should address the issue with the government to avoid the misunderstanding in the group. He should schedule a roster that gives every member an opportunity to have one relaxing day. This day is essential, as the staff would regain the weekly energy exhausted.

Conclusion

In summary, leadership is crucial towards achieving goals. As presented from the case study, poor leadership can crumble a project. Essential to a team leader is respect for his team. If a leader treats his team with respect, there will be a feeling of belonging, which makes them work hard. Dumping anger on the team demoralizes them and creates a rift between the leader and his subordinates. Ange makes the staff feel inferior as well and creates a dangerous working environment. Subsequent motivation should always follow with recognition of every commendable task a member of the team performs. Communication should be encouraged as well. Leaders should keep their ears open for any complains or recommendations. Most importantly, there is a need for leaders to avoid losing focus on their projects despite any glitches. In the end, right team leadership will translate to success in an organization.

References

Armstrong, M., & Murlis, H. (2007). Reward management: A handbook of remuneration strategy and practice. Kogan Page Publishers.

Northouse, P. (2015). Leadership Theory and Practice. Sage Publications.

Porter, M. E., Nohria, N., & Khurana, R. (2010). What Is Leadership? In Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice: An HBS Centennial Colloquium on Advancing Leadership, 433.

Salas, E., Cooke, N. J., & Rosen, M. A. (2008). On teams, teamwork, and team performance: Discoveries and development. Human factors, 50(3), 540-547.

Xu, A. J., Loi, R., & Lam, L. W. (2015). The bad boss takes it all: How abusive supervision and leader-member exchange interact to influence employee silence. The Leadership Quarterly, 26(5, 763-774.