Leadership to Leading Teams in Health and Social Care

Leadership to Leading Teams in Health and Social Care

Leadership happens to be an essential aspect to any given organization whereby it can be described in theory and policy as a practice that tends to be central to all levels of the workforce as well as increasingly integrated to the revolution and modernization of health and social care. Within various parts of the world the currently leading team in health and social care is confronted by changing consumer needs and demands, labor challenges, increase in demand for care access as well as other issues associated with the levels of welfare and quality of health and social care. Effective leadership is essential to efforts to optimize the effective management of safe and quality care within health and social care. Effective leadership to the leading team in health and social care can be connected to a variety of functions such as system performance, accomplishments of health reform goals, timely delivery of care, and also happens to be a crucial element of the health care system. For very many years, the development of leadership has been a fundamental aspect of the health care system, but less attention tends to be given to leadership effectiveness and its outcomes of teams. Henceforth the given paper seeks to evaluate the importance and effectiveness of leadership to the leading team in health and social care.

Theoretical Models of Leadership

Leadership literature and research indicate that the existing theories happened to have been modified and refined with time, but none of the theories is considered to be completely irrelevant. Culture, situations, working surrounding, contexts, data overload, new policies, and regulations, as well as psycho-socio developments, significantly affects the concept of leadership thus making it comparable to the changing institutional dynamics.

Great- Man Theory

The struggle toward explorations for similar characteristics of leadership is stretched out over centuries, whereby most cultures and traditions required heroes to describe their understanding of success as well as to justify their existing failures. In 1847, a Scottish historian, philosopher, and writer Thomas Carlyle proposed the great man theory whereby he suggests that leaders tend to be born and only those given men who happen to be provided with heroic potentials could ever achieve in becoming leaders. Thomas Carlyle substantially stressed the point that great men happen to be born, and they are not made whereby he assumes the leadership capacity as being inherent. Theories such as the great man theory often display great leaders as legends, mythic, or even heroic and happen to be destined to take up the role and responsibility of leadership when called upon. The phrase the great man was utilized since at that given time, leadership was perceived as necessarily as a male-oriented quality, particularly concerning leadership within the military. Theories such as the great man propose that individuals cannot teach themselves to become leaders since it is something that one has or not. Even today, individuals usually refer to prominent leaders as conveying the personality and quality for the given position, thus suggesting that inherent traits are what make the selected individuals be effective leaders.

Transactional Theory

Leadership theories within the late 1970s and the early 1980s significantly emerged to diverge from the general view of a leader, the context of leadership and followers as well as activities that focus further on interactions between followers and leaders. The transactional model of leadership was defined as that in which the interactions of leaders and followers were based upon a succession of consensus between the leaders and the followers. The transactional model of leadership was substantially dependent on reciprocity, whereby the existing leaders influence and empower followers, and the leader is also under the influence of the followers. Various studies have suggested that transactional leadership tends to indicate a discrepancy concerning the levels of leaders’ practices and the nature of interaction with the followers. Transactional leadership can be observed as a form of contingent-reward leadership that happens to convey positive and productive associations between the leaders and followers only in this case followers and recognized and rewarded for completing the agreed-upon goals. For exceptional performance, positive assistance could be exchanged, maximized performance, merit pay for promotions as well as collegiality cooperation.

Transformational Theory

The transformational theory was proposed by a political sociologist referred to as James Macgregor in the 1970s. The transformational theory of leadership differentiates itself from the rest of early and modern theories within the basis of its arrangement to a greater good as it necessitates engagement of the followers in practices or processes associated with individual factors towards the institution and a path that will yield specific preferred social dividend. Leaders within the transformational era raised their awareness and motivations as well as the morality of both the leader and the follower. Various researches have concluded that transformational leaders take part in interactions with followers depending on shared beliefs, values, and goals, thus significantly influencing the performance resulting in accomplishments of goals. Also, a transformational leader tries to convince followers to recorder their needs by surpassing individual-interests as well as the struggle for needs within the higher-order. According to transformational theory, leaders and followers set aside their interests for the better good of the group. Within Macgregor’s argument, the leader is required to focus on the needs and inputs of the followers so as to transform them into leaders by encouraging and motivating them. The transformational leaders are described by their ability to recognize the need for change, gathering the acceptance and commitment of others, generates a vision that leads to change, and fixing the change.

Situational Theories

The theory of contingency or situational theory suggests that no given leadership style is accurate as a stand-alone within various situations that require practical leadership skills. According to situational theory, there happens not to be a single precise way to lead since the existing internal and external dimensions within the surrounding requires the given leader to adapt to that specific situation. Predominantly, leaders to not only transform the dynamics and the environment within the organization but also changes employees. Within a common sense, contingency theories happen to be a group of behavioral theory that substantially challenges there is no existence of a most exceptional approach of leadership, organizing, and managing since a given leadership style that is operative in a given situation might not be practical to others. Situational theorists stressed the primary focus of the leader-follower association happens to be the leader whereby the followers played a core role in defining the relationship. Although contingency leadership remains to emphasize predominantly upon leaders, it generates the importance of the focus on team dynamics. Situational leadership theory suggests that the leadership style should be integrated with the maturity of the followers.

Styles of Leadership

Leadership can be described as the ability of an individual to directly or indirectly influence others and also transforming their conduct to achieve a common goal. An effective leader is considered to influence their followers within the desired approach to achieve the desired objectives. Different styles of leadership may significantly influence the effectiveness or performance of the given organization. There are numerous existing leadership styles that are employed by leaders within any given professional association, depending upon the situation or circumstances surrounding the environment. An effective leader will use a combination of styles of leadership based on the situation, but awful leaders happen to rely on one leadership style within all their situations. Selecting the appropriate leadership style, at the right time within the required situation happens to be a principal component of effective leadership. The given section critically analyses the various and commonly recognized leadership styles.

Democratic Leadership

Democratic leadership can also be described as participative leadership, and it is considered as a form of leadership style whereby members of a given group get hold of a more participative responsibility within the process of decision-making. Various researches have suggested that democratic leadership style happens to be one of the most effective as well as leads to increased productivity since members within the group actively participate in making decisions that affect the organization hence having improved group morale.

Advantages of Democratic Leadership Style

Democratic Leadership style leads to exceptional ideas as well as more critically and creatively thought solutions to a given problem that affects the organization since the members of the group comfortably share their thoughts and views. Democratic leadership provides the institution with increased productivity since the members of the group are more engaged and committed to the given tasks. Various researches have indicated that democratic leadership being the most effective mode of leadership since employees tend to be more concerned with the results hence enhanced communication and productivity.

Disadvantages of Democratic Leadership Style

Even though the democratic leadership style has been defined as being the most effective mode of leadership, it tends to convey some setbacks. For instance, in circumstances whereby duties and roles are unclear or time happens to be of importance, democratic leadership can result in failures in communication as well as unfinished projects. In other cases, the group members might not convey the necessary expertise or knowledge to give a quality contribution to the process of decision making.

Autocratic Leadership Style

Autocratic leadership, also described as authoritarian leadership, can be described as a mode of leadership characterized by personal control over all suggested decisions whereby little to no input is required from the group members. Leaders who apply autocratic leadership typically make decisions depending on the perspective and judgment and also rarely agree to any advice given by their followers. The autocratic leadership style comprises of absolute power and authority of a selected group of individuals.

Advantages of Autocratic Leadership Style

Autocratic leadership style tends to be effective when decisions that are made happens to be quickly and requires no consultation with a significant group of individuals. In specifically stressful circumstances, for instance, during military conflicts, followers or group members may substantially request for autocratic leadership style.

Disadvantages of Autocratic Leadership Style

Individuals who abuse authoritarian leadership is usually perceived to be bossy, dictatorial as well as controlling, which can result in resentment among members of the group. Also, since authoritarian leaders make decisions without consulting group members, some crucial decisions that might affect the organization might be poorly made depending on the emotions and judgment of the given leader.

Stages of Team Development

Many care providers who happen to become team leaders are often not provided leadership development whereby they are left to jumble along without even being guided on the appropriate evidence available concerning capable team leadership skills. The given section discusses the various stages of team development within the health and social care and how a leader can build a productive and healthy team that highlights various accomplishments within their given projects.

Tuckman’s Stages of Team Development

Within the health and social care, formal professional communication tends to be essential since it occurs every day whereby one encounters different types of individuals. The other fundamental context within communication lies within team communication, whereby a leader has to convey practical communication skills to be able to motivate the team to achieve the desired objectives. Bruce Tuckman proposed the theory of the team development process in the year 1965. Tuckman’s theory primarily focuses on the approach in which a given group handles a challenge whereby it is particularly essential towards team-building projects and can apply to any given team. Tuckman prominently defined team development in four stages, which included forming, storming, norming, and performing.

Forming

The first stage proposed by Tuckman’s group development theory is the forming stage, whereby it takes place when members of the group first meet and introduces themselves. Within the first meeting, the primary objective is the introduction whereby the group members get to know each other better. In the forming stage, team members share information concerning their backgrounds, experience, as well as interests, and it is in this stage whereby individuals create first impressions of each other. The group members are also introduced to the tasks they will be performing, whereby they are allowed to discuss the goals of the given project and to begin thinking about the role that each individual would participate in to ensure the success of the project.

It should be noted that in the forming stage, individuals are not yet working on the given project; instead, they are effectively figuring their way around and how they would manage to work in unity. During the forming stage of team development, the leader of the team is required to be clear concerning the objectives and also to give guidelines concerning the project at hand. The team leader must make sure that all group members are engaged in defining their group roles and responsibilities whereby the team leader works with the group to assist them in establishing their bond. Within the forming stage, the team tends to be substantially dependent on the leader of the team for directions.

Storming

As the group starts working together, they are introduced to the second phase, which is the storming stage. The storming stage tends not to be avoided since every team, particularly a new group that has never worked together before, undergoes storming as a section of the team development. Within the Storming stage, members of the group actively compete for status as well as acceptance of their opinions since all the members have contrasting ideas concerning what should be done and how the given project should be done, which leads to conflicts within the group. As the members of the group surpass the storming stage with the help and direction of the leader, they know how to solve problems unanimously; they learn to function both individually and as a team as well as maintains into roles and responsibilities on the group. For group members who happen to dislike conflicts, the storming stage happens to be the most uncomfortable period for them within the stages of team development. The leader of the group requires to be skillful at facilitating the group through the storming stage by ensuring that group members learn to listen to their colleagues and also to respect their opinions and differences. The group leader should not permit anyone member of the group to control all discussions as well as to facilitate contributions from all group members. The leader of the team will be required to train some of the members to be more confident as well as other members on knowing how to be active listeners. The storming stage ends when the group learns to accept each other and to work in harmony for the good of the project. Effective communication tends to be essential within the given stage since the approach of communication applied in the stage determines the progress of the group. Within the storming stage, the team leader can assign some of the decision makings to the group to enable them to become independent, but the leader remains engaged to resolve any arising conflict quickly. Groups that convey professionally immature individuals will find a problematic moment getting past the storming stage since the whole project is spent low motivation and morale due to many conflicts.

Norming

When the team begins appreciating each one’s differences and is working effectively together, they progress to the norming stage. Within the norming stage, group members are no longer focused on personal objectives. However, instead they are focused on establishing processes and procedures of working together whereby they respect each person’s ideas and value their differences since they begin to recognize the essence of their differences within the team. Within the norming stage, working unanimously becomes more natural since group members have agreed on their roles and responsibilities, the methods of sharing information, and also effective procedures to solve conflicts within the team. Additionally, the team has acquired the appropriate instruments and procedures that they will utilize to get a given job done in due time. In the norming stage, instead of group members competing against each other, they begin assisting one another to work towards achieving a common goal. Also, in the given stage, significant progress is noted concerning the project at hand since the team begins to work together effectively. In the norming stage, the group leader tends not to be as engaged in the process of decision making and problem-solving because the members of the group are equipped to work together effectively and can also take on more roles within various areas of the project. The group now has improved self-direction and can resolve issues and conflicts as a team.

Performing

The last stage of Tuckman’s theory of team development is the performing stage, whereby individuals within the team are functioning at a very high skill level. The members of the group have learned each other and have established their trust whereby they can depend on each other, thus making the primary focus is to reach the given goal as a team. Not every group is able to reach the performing stage leading to many groups stopping at the norming stage. The highly performing group conduct their duties without being monitored since the member have already become interdependent, and the team is increasingly motivated to accomplish the task at hand. The highly performing group can make appropriate decisions and resolve issues and conflicts effectively and quickly. When the members of the group happen to disagree, they have an appropriate measure to work it out and come to an agreement without interrupting the progress of the project. If there happens to be a need for the team processes to be changed, the members of the group will come to a consensus on changing the methods on their own without consulting the team leader. Within the norming stage, the leader of the team is not engaged in the processes of problem-solving, decision making, or even such activities involving their daily work practices of the team. The leader of the group acts as oversight of the project to monitor its progress and also serves as a pathway when various decisions are required to reach a higher level of protocol within the institution.

Open and Effective Communication

In the current system of health care, the processes of delivery comprise of several interfaces amongst various health care practitioners with different levels of education as well as career training. When the selected team members within the health and social care do not communicate effectively, various issues tend to result, and most importantly, the health of the patients tend to be at risk. The value of communication between team members in the health and social care cannot be overstated since open and effective communication builds trust amongst colleagues, upholds transparency within the working place, improves morale, allows better workforce management and also facilitates innovation. Lack of effective communication generates circumstances whereby medical errors can result due to a lack of effective communication amongst the team members in health and social care. Such errors that jeopardize the progress of the given project include lack of critical information, unclear orders, misinterpretation of information, and even also overseen transformations in status. Highly performing groups are characterized by open and effective communication, collaboration, respect, and trust. Effective communication works like grease oil that happens to keep the wheels of the institution running; henceforth, lack of effective communication between leaders and followers will almost grind the given organization to a halt.

Effective communication is essential towards an organization, whereby it is key to its productivity as well as the efficient running of the organization. One of the very first things that one should focus on enhancing communication is to specify which individual belongs to which group. Identifying team members might sound to be obvious, but various studies have suggested that most individuals cannot correctly identify all the individuals within their respective groups. Accordingly, the roles and responsibilities of each given member of the team should be clarified. Identifying members within one’s group and being certain of every member’s role and responsibility tends to be essential in ensuring that members of a given team know whom they are supposed to communicate to and for what purpose, thus substantially streamlining office communication. There are given instances whereby procedures and processes tend to be unwieldy than they are efficient, but that is not always the case when it comes to communication. Defining processes and procedures for shared communication requirements will eliminate existing confusion by giving the team members a clearly described plan of action. If one is not sure of the appropriate procedure of communication, to begin with, they can always focus on the frequently asked questions within the members of the team since they are the subjects that happen to be most warrant establishing a given procedure.

As part of creating effective communication procedures, it is essential to provide the team members with platforms whereby they can share developing updates of the project, questions concerning the project, new ideas, or even concerns. The communication platform will assist groups to remain in regular contact and also regulates the need for team members to depend on mail and formal meetings, which are not always appropriate communication instruments. Due to technological advancements, various digital platforms such as Asana and Slack, which are cloud-based applications that have been developed as an instant messaging platform. Some organizations also find delivering internal newsletters often to be an appropriate procedure that will assist the team members to be on the same page concerning the given project. Encouraging casual interactions is also an effective communication platform whereby leaders should not perceive that time spent chatting at the coffee machine as time-wasting; instead, it happens to be an investment towards constructing positive relationships among team members. Casual interactions are considered as an opportunity for team members to communicate their characters as well as build upon their rapport. When members of a given team understand and care about each other, they tend to be more likely to recognize their colleague’s style of communication, work closely, and also share honest commentaries. It is of great essence to understand that a given team happens to be more likely to be involved in perennial and constructive communication when the leader of the team endorses such behaviors. An effective leader should model the styles of communication that they want to see by consistently working in improving ones’ communication skills, treating team members with respect, offering team members with particular and practical requests, giving and asking honest feedbacks, and celebrating the work of the team.

The continuing abrasion of the leading team of professionals conflicts within intermediate care and especially services for the community has been driven in section by the ambition to generate integrated services that have allowed health and social workers to work in unity within discrete levels of patient pathways increasingly. The creation of interprofessional teams resulted in the issue of leadership being presented with the challenge of sometimes allowing large teams of various professionals with varied skills to integrate their efforts as well as working closely than it was the typical case. For interprofessional teams to conduct their duties effectively, each given member of the team should accept the role and responsibilities of a member-leader by being in and off the role of leadership when a specific knowledge of a patient or a given situation arises. The process of creating interprofessional teams needs a formal leader who happens to convey overall responsibilities within the performance of the entire team but consciously divides the functions of leadership, providing joint decision making as well as leadership roles of delegates. Hence, practical leadership skills are essential within the leadership to leading teams in Health and Social care to ensure that the team performs their duty adequately, and results are delivered on time to meet consumer expectations.