Dynamics and Evolution of a Team and the Impact of Leadership

Leadership Skills
Author
Affiliation
Course
Instructor
Due Date
Dynamics of a Team
Each team is made up of individuals with varying strengths, weaknesses, and professional skills. Everyday interactions, common work, and team efforts all contribute to the group or team dynamics. Members of a team with positive dynamics will work better together, generate more innovative and creative ideas, and have a greater chance of succeeding in their objectives. Team dynamics is a method of investigating those involuntary elements and how they affect team performance and behavior. Interpersonal factors have an impact on a team's mindset and ability to function. (Markulis et al., 2006). Personal ability is integral, but establishing how a person interacts within a team is a crucial skill in leadership.
Evolution of a Team
According to Tuckman and Monetti (2011), there are five developmental stages that a team goes through before it becomes high-performing; forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning.
Forming stage
This is the initial stage of team evolution and starts with new members getting acquitted to each other. During this stage, there is a lot of uncertainty, and members of a team feel lost and need direction. A member who appears to be authoritative and knowledgeable may be looked up to take control. The team members at this stage try to establish their purpose in the team. They try to identify how they can fit in and what they stand to gain by being part of the team. A lack of direction and leadership may cause the implementation of a project not to kick off. Projects need planning and organization for them to be successful. As a result, forming is the crucial stage in bringing the team together. This stage may require charismatic leadership hence a person who can eloquently communicate would attract attention and provide directions to other members
Storming Stage
The storming stage is the most difficult but crucial stage in the development of a team. As new personalities emerge, it is a time of competition and conflict. During this stage, team effectiveness may suffer as energy is diverted to non-productive activities. Teammates may disagree about performance goals, and subsets and social circles may form around prominent individuals. Participants need to recognize individual differences and work on competing ideologies on team objectives and responsibilities in order to go beyond this stage. Failure to acknowledge disagreements may result in long-term issues that affect team cohesion, resulting...