Assignment Ac 1 Understanding Leadership Styles
ILM level 3
Colin Rodgers
ASSIGNMENT; AC 1 UNDERSTANDING LEADERSHIP STYLES
Introduction
I have worked for Blackpool Council for 25 years, 13 year in learning disabilities and 12 years in mental health. I was made redundant in 2014 due to budget cuts but was redeployed in April 2014 which I took as an opportunity to develop my career in becoming a Duty Manager (DM) at the Phoenix Service.
The Phoenix Service is a unique service that consists of a 6 beds which are utilised by a referral process that offer up to 72hrs crisis prevention for individuals with a mental health diagnosis and where a hospital admission may be counterproductive.
The team consists of 1 Registered Manager, 4 Duty Managers, 4 Day STR workers and 3 Night STR workers.
Understanding Leadership Styles
1.1 Describe the factors that will influence the choice of …show more content…
leadership styles or behaviours in workplace situations.
In reference to the John Adair model as seen below
John Adair states that the three parts to successful Leadership & Management are
• TASKS
• TEAM/TEAM WORK & TEAM SPIRIT
• INDIVIDUAL
Using John Adair’s model for team leadership and management, there are three main types of leadership style; achieving the task, building the team and developing the individual, an effective leader will find a balance between all three developing the skill and ability to switch focus when it is required
The factors that will effect where we currently sit within John Adair’s model may include.
Resources – Are there enough resources to complete the task, in a manufacturing situation this could be raw materials/ingredients. Without the resources the end product cannot be produced which could ultimately lead to the organisation failing.
In my own work setting the resources we use not for manufacturing but instead to enable us to deliver our service effectively to the client base that uses our service. Our main resource being the skill set of the staff team that directly support our client base: therefore it is important that our staff team have appropriate training in all aspects of their own role; other resources include a comprehensive array of paperwork for recording events that happen during the day so that there is an audit trail. With resources being finite in the care industry it is important that money is only being spent appropriately therefore influencing my management style in a more task focused way.
Time – Time in manufacturing plays a very important role as you have to constantly working to deadlines and not meeting those deadlines can have serious consequences on the organisation continuing to operate.
Within my own job role time becomes a factor due to the team being small, there is a balancing act between putting enough time to one side so that I can perform my own duties as a manager and also supporting the rest of the staff team when their workload becomes too much due to the unit running at full capacity influencing my leadership style to be more team focused, on the flipside there are times when the unit is very quiet and in these instances my leadership style tends to be more individual focused.
Money – Finances are a very important factor in influencing leadership style. In a manufacturing situation if there is no cash flow then there is no way to continue to meet the demand for the products.
In my current role, finance plays an important role as all referrals into our service need to be commissioned, as does all training that we provide to our staff team.
The purpose of the organisation - Many organisations will have an end product that they produce and then sell using the profit gained to then produce more products, whereas other organisations including the one that I work for provide a service to the general public or individuals with a specific need, this leads to a more individual/team type of leadership style.
Decision making – Kurt Lewin recognised that one of the factors that determines a leader's choice of leadership style is the need to make decisions. Every leader needs to make decisions on a day to day basis. In my role as a Duty Manager I too have to make decisions especially during the referral process when screening whether and individual meets the criteria and is suitable for an admission to our service.
In 1939 Kurt Lewin and his colleagues identified three styles of leadership decision making, the autocratic, the democratic and the laissez-faire.
1.2 Explain why these leadership styles or behaviours are likely to have a positive or negative effect on individual and group behaviour.
Task focused leadership style.
The positive aspect of this approach is that the task is always going to be completed on time and to a high standard, but the team may not feel that enough time is spent on developing their skill set and stronger members of the team may feel that they are carrying weaker members of the team creating disharmony within the team as a whole. This will probably go un-noticed if the task is the main focus and the first indicator may be a high turnover of staff and a reduction in overall performance.
Team focused leadership style.
A team focused approach will build a strong team that will work together to complete the task but if the task is ignored then deadlines may not be met, also individuals may not achieve their full potential leading them to become despondent which may affect their own and the team’s performance as a
whole.
Individual focused leadership style.
Focusing on the individual will ensure that they do meet their full potential which will be of benefit to the team and to the organisation, but if too much time is focused on the individual then the rest of the team may feel that their value and worth do not matter as much. This can lead to disharmony in the team; it is also very likely that the task will not be completed on time or to a high standard.
John Adair’s ‘Model for Team Leadership and Management’ explains comprehensively the responsibilities of a manager for achieving the task, the responsibilities of a manager for the team and the responsibilities of a manager for each individual.
By examining the key responsibilities it is easy to see what needs to be done differently to achieve a balance. It is therefore important to find that balance between all three styles of leadership; a successful leader will know when to place more attention into each style without affecting the other two.
Kurt Lewin’s leadership styles.
About the Model In 1939, psychologist Kurt Lewin led a study that identified three core styles of leadership, and outlined the effect that each style had on team members. His research also showed that leaders get different results when they lead their teams in different ways. Although Lewin conducted this study many decades ago, his findings have influenced many of today's leadership theories and approaches.
The three core leadership styles he identified were: •Authoritarian (autocratic) leadership. •Participative (democratic) leadership. •Delegative (laissez-faire) leadership.
Autocratic leaders - make decisions themselves. They do not consult their followers, or involve them in the decision-making process. This can lead to a focused organisation if the followers have trust and faith in the decision making process of the leader but also can lead to a ‘them and us’ mentality which may affect the organisation in a negative way.
Democratic leaders - take an active role in the decision making process but they involve others too. This approach ensures that the team feels that they are contributing to the overall success of the organisation and works best in departmental organisations where the leader has responsibility for smaller teams.
Laissez-faire leaders - have very little involvement in decisions making themselves, pretty much leaving matters to their followers. This can be an extremely dangerous approach and can lead to a chaotic and non-consistent organisation. This approach will only work if the team are extremely competent at what they do.
Again it is important to find a balance between all three styles, focusing too much on one approach can leave the leader open to failing to meet the objectives of the organisation.
Understand leadership qualities and review own leadership qualities and potential.
2.1 Assess own leadership behaviours and potential in the context of a particular leadership model and own organisation’s working practices and culture, using feedback from others.
As part of this assignment I asked some of my staff team and management team to give me feedback on how they believe I managed, this resulted in the following feedback.
Positive aspects of my management styles are.
On the whole the team thought I was a calm and patient person, who is approachable, trustworthy, supportive, knowledgeable, leads by example, thinks outside the box, has a good sense of humour, sensitive to the teams needs as well as service user needs, efficient and work is always completed to a high standard.
Areas that are not so positive are.
Some of the not so positive reflections that the team made were that I sometimes not serious enough, that I need to be firmer at times and I could be more consistent and that at times I can appear forgetful.
Referencing back to the John Adair model and the exercise done in session 1 the Action centred leadership model questionnaire, the result of which was
A=Task= 35/80
B=Team=39/80
C=Individual=65/80
This indicates that I have a more individual centred approach combined with a recognition that those individuals need to get on well together, which was captured on the feedback that I received. I do however need to be aware that my lack of focus on the task could be overall hinder the development of my staff in important areas such as their need for a challenge and sense of achievement.
The feedback also highlights the results of another exercise that we did during one of my ILM session, this being ‘Belbins Team Types’
Belbin determined that each individual member of a larger team would have certain characteristics, resulting in how they would perform within the workplace. The exercise is designed to show how cohesive a team is and where individual members’ strengths lie. This would then also identify any gaps in characteristics when recruiting staff.
Using Belbins Team Types and the exercise we completed, the results determined that my strongest characteristic is Resource Investigator(RI), with Team Worker(TW) being my second highest score and with equal preference being given to Co-ordinator(CO), Plant(PL) and Shaper(SH)
Reflecting on the results from Adair and Belbin, along with the feedback from my team it is obvious to me that I am more an Individual and team based manager. This may be a result of me being relatively new in my management position combined with a lot of internal team issues when I joined.
I was instrumental in ironing out most of the issues and this is where my skills as a team worker and resource investigator played to my advantage, as it was exactly these skills that were needed at the time. However now that these issues have been addressed I am still focusing on individuals and the team over the task, which could be having a detrimental effect on the team as a whole. The reason for this could be because the team is so small and during the course of my shift I will predominantly work with one member of staff therefore giving me more scope to focus on that individual.
I do however need to be aware that by not being mindful of my approach I may easily lose focus on the tasks to be completed when they become the priority. I understand that I need to allow the team to take responsibility for their own roles, allowing them to grow. I also see hoe I need to at times be more serious when it is appropriate to be so, especially when dealing with issues arising inside the team and with the service users I work with. I cannot effectively keep being ‘one of the lads’ without it affecting the team and this is an area that I will definitely be challenging myself on.
I appreciate the skill and style I have around team and individual, and these are tools I will make sure I maintain, as I know that if there is a potential breakdown within the team then I have the qualities and ability to address this in a constructive and positive way.
2.2 Describe appropriate action to enhance own leadership behaviour in the context of the particular leadership model.
Using Adair’s Model
I will learn to be more flexible within Adair’s model and stop focusing primarily on the individual and instead make sure that I am able to shift my focus onto task, team and individual when it is needed without losing focus on the other two aspects – I have already begun to do this by setting a specific task to be completed during supervisions. One of the individuals I supervise expressed that they did not feel comfortable using a ResQ hook (used in cutting of ligature that a service user may have put around their neck) I set them the task of doing some research then to develop a safe systems of work around its use and also a risk assessment. We then reviewed the documents and I gave constructive feedback until the task was completed.
This is something I will continue to do and look at what tasks are required to be completed in the future and then give ownership to the staff team.
I will also periodically look at Adair’s model to assess where I sit at that given time and make adjustments accordingly. This will be an on-going system.
I will plan out my day at the start of the shift and record all tasks that are to be completed to ensure that they are all being completed, this will also give me a snapshot of what I have not been able to do that day. This will enable me to deliver an effective handover of the tasks I have not managed to do to the manager that comes on duty after me as well as having a reference point for my next shift for the tasks I did not need to handover. This will be an on-going system, which I will continually review.
Belbin’s Team Roles
Belbin demonstrated how effective teams consist of member who collectively show strength or potential across all roles, therefore as part of supervisions I will ask all staff to complete Belbin’s questionnaire to identify their strengths, I will then correlate this with the other managers and then present it at one of our team meetings and discuss in which areas we could improve and what areas we already do very well. The results will also be used to feedback any potential training needs. I will give myself a three-month timeframe to have this completed by.
I will regularly reflect back on Belbin and periodically re assess myself to see where I fit in and then make any possible adjustments to my working style including training and receiving feedback from the rest of the team. On going.
Additionally
I will ask for regular feedback from my line manager about my performance and also seek feedback from the staff team on how they perceive my ability to manage.
If I encounter situations where my knowledge is lacking then I will look at what training is available and also do some independent research, I will also share what I find with the rest of the management team to ensure we have consistency.
I will continue to reflect on my own working practice using what I have learnt but also take an active role in sourcing information on other management styles that may be more specific to my working environment.
Colin Rodgers
ASSIGNMENT; AC 1 UNDERSTANDING LEADERSHIP STYLES
Introduction
I have worked for Blackpool Council for 25 years, 13 year in learning disabilities and 12 years in mental health. I was made redundant in 2014 due to budget cuts but was redeployed in April 2014 which I took as an opportunity to develop my career in becoming a Duty Manager (DM) at the Phoenix Service.
The Phoenix Service is a unique service that consists of a 6 beds which are utilised by a referral process that offer up to 72hrs crisis prevention for individuals with a mental health diagnosis and where a hospital admission may be counterproductive.
The team consists of 1 Registered Manager, 4 Duty Managers, 4 Day STR workers and 3 Night STR workers.
Understanding Leadership Styles
1.1 Describe the factors that will influence the choice of …show more content…
leadership styles or behaviours in workplace situations.
In reference to the John Adair model as seen below
John Adair states that the three parts to successful Leadership & Management are
• TASKS
• TEAM/TEAM WORK & TEAM SPIRIT
• INDIVIDUAL
Using John Adair’s model for team leadership and management, there are three main types of leadership style; achieving the task, building the team and developing the individual, an effective leader will find a balance between all three developing the skill and ability to switch focus when it is required
The factors that will effect where we currently sit within John Adair’s model may include.
Resources – Are there enough resources to complete the task, in a manufacturing situation this could be raw materials/ingredients. Without the resources the end product cannot be produced which could ultimately lead to the organisation failing.
In my own work setting the resources we use not for manufacturing but instead to enable us to deliver our service effectively to the client base that uses our service. Our main resource being the skill set of the staff team that directly support our client base: therefore it is important that our staff team have appropriate training in all aspects of their own role; other resources include a comprehensive array of paperwork for recording events that happen during the day so that there is an audit trail. With resources being finite in the care industry it is important that money is only being spent appropriately therefore influencing my management style in a more task focused way.
Time – Time in manufacturing plays a very important role as you have to constantly working to deadlines and not meeting those deadlines can have serious consequences on the organisation continuing to operate.
Within my own job role time becomes a factor due to the team being small, there is a balancing act between putting enough time to one side so that I can perform my own duties as a manager and also supporting the rest of the staff team when their workload becomes too much due to the unit running at full capacity influencing my leadership style to be more team focused, on the flipside there are times when the unit is very quiet and in these instances my leadership style tends to be more individual focused.
Money – Finances are a very important factor in influencing leadership style. In a manufacturing situation if there is no cash flow then there is no way to continue to meet the demand for the products.
In my current role, finance plays an important role as all referrals into our service need to be commissioned, as does all training that we provide to our staff team.
The purpose of the organisation - Many organisations will have an end product that they produce and then sell using the profit gained to then produce more products, whereas other organisations including the one that I work for provide a service to the general public or individuals with a specific need, this leads to a more individual/team type of leadership style.
Decision making – Kurt Lewin recognised that one of the factors that determines a leader's choice of leadership style is the need to make decisions. Every leader needs to make decisions on a day to day basis. In my role as a Duty Manager I too have to make decisions especially during the referral process when screening whether and individual meets the criteria and is suitable for an admission to our service.
In 1939 Kurt Lewin and his colleagues identified three styles of leadership decision making, the autocratic, the democratic and the laissez-faire.
1.2 Explain why these leadership styles or behaviours are likely to have a positive or negative effect on individual and group behaviour.
Task focused leadership style.
The positive aspect of this approach is that the task is always going to be completed on time and to a high standard, but the team may not feel that enough time is spent on developing their skill set and stronger members of the team may feel that they are carrying weaker members of the team creating disharmony within the team as a whole. This will probably go un-noticed if the task is the main focus and the first indicator may be a high turnover of staff and a reduction in overall performance.
Team focused leadership style.
A team focused approach will build a strong team that will work together to complete the task but if the task is ignored then deadlines may not be met, also individuals may not achieve their full potential leading them to become despondent which may affect their own and the team’s performance as a
whole.
Individual focused leadership style.
Focusing on the individual will ensure that they do meet their full potential which will be of benefit to the team and to the organisation, but if too much time is focused on the individual then the rest of the team may feel that their value and worth do not matter as much. This can lead to disharmony in the team; it is also very likely that the task will not be completed on time or to a high standard.
John Adair’s ‘Model for Team Leadership and Management’ explains comprehensively the responsibilities of a manager for achieving the task, the responsibilities of a manager for the team and the responsibilities of a manager for each individual.
By examining the key responsibilities it is easy to see what needs to be done differently to achieve a balance. It is therefore important to find that balance between all three styles of leadership; a successful leader will know when to place more attention into each style without affecting the other two.
Kurt Lewin’s leadership styles.
About the Model In 1939, psychologist Kurt Lewin led a study that identified three core styles of leadership, and outlined the effect that each style had on team members. His research also showed that leaders get different results when they lead their teams in different ways. Although Lewin conducted this study many decades ago, his findings have influenced many of today's leadership theories and approaches.
The three core leadership styles he identified were: •Authoritarian (autocratic) leadership. •Participative (democratic) leadership. •Delegative (laissez-faire) leadership.
Autocratic leaders - make decisions themselves. They do not consult their followers, or involve them in the decision-making process. This can lead to a focused organisation if the followers have trust and faith in the decision making process of the leader but also can lead to a ‘them and us’ mentality which may affect the organisation in a negative way.
Democratic leaders - take an active role in the decision making process but they involve others too. This approach ensures that the team feels that they are contributing to the overall success of the organisation and works best in departmental organisations where the leader has responsibility for smaller teams.
Laissez-faire leaders - have very little involvement in decisions making themselves, pretty much leaving matters to their followers. This can be an extremely dangerous approach and can lead to a chaotic and non-consistent organisation. This approach will only work if the team are extremely competent at what they do.
Again it is important to find a balance between all three styles, focusing too much on one approach can leave the leader open to failing to meet the objectives of the organisation.
Understand leadership qualities and review own leadership qualities and potential.
2.1 Assess own leadership behaviours and potential in the context of a particular leadership model and own organisation’s working practices and culture, using feedback from others.
As part of this assignment I asked some of my staff team and management team to give me feedback on how they believe I managed, this resulted in the following feedback.
Positive aspects of my management styles are.
On the whole the team thought I was a calm and patient person, who is approachable, trustworthy, supportive, knowledgeable, leads by example, thinks outside the box, has a good sense of humour, sensitive to the teams needs as well as service user needs, efficient and work is always completed to a high standard.
Areas that are not so positive are.
Some of the not so positive reflections that the team made were that I sometimes not serious enough, that I need to be firmer at times and I could be more consistent and that at times I can appear forgetful.
Referencing back to the John Adair model and the exercise done in session 1 the Action centred leadership model questionnaire, the result of which was
A=Task= 35/80
B=Team=39/80
C=Individual=65/80
This indicates that I have a more individual centred approach combined with a recognition that those individuals need to get on well together, which was captured on the feedback that I received. I do however need to be aware that my lack of focus on the task could be overall hinder the development of my staff in important areas such as their need for a challenge and sense of achievement.
The feedback also highlights the results of another exercise that we did during one of my ILM session, this being ‘Belbins Team Types’
Belbin determined that each individual member of a larger team would have certain characteristics, resulting in how they would perform within the workplace. The exercise is designed to show how cohesive a team is and where individual members’ strengths lie. This would then also identify any gaps in characteristics when recruiting staff.
Using Belbins Team Types and the exercise we completed, the results determined that my strongest characteristic is Resource Investigator(RI), with Team Worker(TW) being my second highest score and with equal preference being given to Co-ordinator(CO), Plant(PL) and Shaper(SH)
Reflecting on the results from Adair and Belbin, along with the feedback from my team it is obvious to me that I am more an Individual and team based manager. This may be a result of me being relatively new in my management position combined with a lot of internal team issues when I joined.
I was instrumental in ironing out most of the issues and this is where my skills as a team worker and resource investigator played to my advantage, as it was exactly these skills that were needed at the time. However now that these issues have been addressed I am still focusing on individuals and the team over the task, which could be having a detrimental effect on the team as a whole. The reason for this could be because the team is so small and during the course of my shift I will predominantly work with one member of staff therefore giving me more scope to focus on that individual.
I do however need to be aware that by not being mindful of my approach I may easily lose focus on the tasks to be completed when they become the priority. I understand that I need to allow the team to take responsibility for their own roles, allowing them to grow. I also see hoe I need to at times be more serious when it is appropriate to be so, especially when dealing with issues arising inside the team and with the service users I work with. I cannot effectively keep being ‘one of the lads’ without it affecting the team and this is an area that I will definitely be challenging myself on.
I appreciate the skill and style I have around team and individual, and these are tools I will make sure I maintain, as I know that if there is a potential breakdown within the team then I have the qualities and ability to address this in a constructive and positive way.
2.2 Describe appropriate action to enhance own leadership behaviour in the context of the particular leadership model.
Using Adair’s Model
I will learn to be more flexible within Adair’s model and stop focusing primarily on the individual and instead make sure that I am able to shift my focus onto task, team and individual when it is needed without losing focus on the other two aspects – I have already begun to do this by setting a specific task to be completed during supervisions. One of the individuals I supervise expressed that they did not feel comfortable using a ResQ hook (used in cutting of ligature that a service user may have put around their neck) I set them the task of doing some research then to develop a safe systems of work around its use and also a risk assessment. We then reviewed the documents and I gave constructive feedback until the task was completed.
This is something I will continue to do and look at what tasks are required to be completed in the future and then give ownership to the staff team.
I will also periodically look at Adair’s model to assess where I sit at that given time and make adjustments accordingly. This will be an on-going system.
I will plan out my day at the start of the shift and record all tasks that are to be completed to ensure that they are all being completed, this will also give me a snapshot of what I have not been able to do that day. This will enable me to deliver an effective handover of the tasks I have not managed to do to the manager that comes on duty after me as well as having a reference point for my next shift for the tasks I did not need to handover. This will be an on-going system, which I will continually review.
Belbin’s Team Roles
Belbin demonstrated how effective teams consist of member who collectively show strength or potential across all roles, therefore as part of supervisions I will ask all staff to complete Belbin’s questionnaire to identify their strengths, I will then correlate this with the other managers and then present it at one of our team meetings and discuss in which areas we could improve and what areas we already do very well. The results will also be used to feedback any potential training needs. I will give myself a three-month timeframe to have this completed by.
I will regularly reflect back on Belbin and periodically re assess myself to see where I fit in and then make any possible adjustments to my working style including training and receiving feedback from the rest of the team. On going.
Additionally
I will ask for regular feedback from my line manager about my performance and also seek feedback from the staff team on how they perceive my ability to manage.
If I encounter situations where my knowledge is lacking then I will look at what training is available and also do some independent research, I will also share what I find with the rest of the management team to ensure we have consistency.
I will continue to reflect on my own working practice using what I have learnt but also take an active role in sourcing information on other management styles that may be more specific to my working environment.