Leadership Style: Identify the Culture and Values of a Team

Leading a Team
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Introduction
A good leader will ensure that his or her team can work together. A great leader has a vision and will describe it to the team in simple language. The leader will take time to ensure that the team subscribes to the vision as well. The leader will assess the situation at hand and work through the courses of action that will yield results of the vision (Morgeson 2010, p. 5).
The process will only work if the leader has a clear picture of what the end result should look like. In order to understand the process of team leadership one has to understand how a team functions. This will help bring out the role of a leader in fostering an effective team. A leader is a person who is appropriate and has the knowledge or experience to guide a group of people to realize their goal while maintaining the unity of the team (Morgeson 2010, p. 5).
To understand the team leadership process one need to know how a team works. This way one can understand how a leader can effectively foster team effectiveness. Team leadership is focused towards the satisfaction of the team needs with the aim of team effectiveness. A leader therefore is the person who assumes the responsibility of satisfying those needs. This is consistent with the theory of functional leadership. This theory suggests that a leader should do whatever is adequate to satisfy the group needs. The leader will look at what is not being done by a section of its team and enable them to do it (Morgeson 2010, p. 5).
Leadership styles
When developing leadership skills one has to decide which style of leadership will work best for the organization. There are many styles to choose from and the key element of an effective leadership is to ensure that they appropriate style is adopted (Johnson, 2016). There are many leadership styles namely; Autocratic, Bureaucratic, Laissez-faire, Democratic, situational, strategic and facilitative. This paper will focus on the first four styles of leadership.
In the Autocratic style, the leader will retain as much power in terms of decision making and authority as possible. S/he will not consult his staff and does not allow them to make or give any input. S/he will expect them to follow orders and will not listen to any explanations and lastly in this style of leadership the staff will either be punished or rewarded for their work (Johnson, 2016). This style can be used where firstly, the members of staff are newly trained and are not familiar with the tasks they are required to perform. Secondly, where effective supervision is required third, where the staff does not respond to any other style of leadership. Fourth, where there is limited time to arrive at a decision and lastly where work needs to be coordinated with another department or organization (Johnson, 2016).
The second style is the bureaucratic style. Here the leader will do everything by the book. If the book does not cover it then he or she will refer to their superior. This style is effective where; firstly the tasks being performed are routine; secondly, where certain procedure and standards need to be internalized; and thirdly, where training o...