Leadership and Team Skills Understand how to work within the organisational guidelines to achieve team goals

Identify an organisational policy that can have an effect on the planning and allocation of work

One notable organizational policy which has an inevitable impact upon team planning and work allocation is the use of virtual teams at the training center in Dubai where I work. On one hand, being able to connect with team members regardless of the member's location can be extremely valuable. This allows for the pooling of the resources and skills of a variety of organizational participants regardless of location. "As companies expand geographically and as telecommuting becomes more common, work groups often span far-flung offices, shared workspaces, private homes, and hotel rooms ... Armed with laptops, Wi-Fi, and mobile phones, most professionals can do their jobs from anywhere" (Ferrazzi 2004). A virtual team can link the resources of people of different specialties and functions. However, the problem with the use of virtual teams is that there is often a lack of reinforcement with interpersonal, informal motivators. It can be challenging to establish friendships and let down one's guard. Also, team members may be diverted by competing concerns in their offices, have different schedules and office cultures, and may have different attitudes towards deadlines.

As part of the work allocation process, teams should be formulated to be of reasonable size to facilitate communication and to encourage even teams that cannot meet face-to-face to get to know one another. "The late Harvard psychology professor Richard Hackman noted that it takes only 10 conversations for every person on a team of five to touch base with everyone else, but that number rises to 78 for a team of 13. Thus to optimize your group's performance, don't assemble too many players" (Ferrazzi 2004). Breaking teams down into smaller units to accomplish short-term objectives can have the same effect, provided the team understands how their specific work fits into the 'big picture' of the team effort.

Q2. Give an example of a target or objective that a team is working to achieve

"Objectives and goals helps a group focus as a united team with one shared objective, and can avoid the situation where you have a group of people that are not coherent and more a 'collection of individuals' rather than a team" (Koning 2012). Although virtual teams have ongoing goals and objectives unless they are specifically designed to satisfy the needs of a short-term project, it is important to have short-term benchmarks for them to reach; otherwise, they are apt to lose their focus. A good example of this is the current objective of the team, which is to improve the efficacy of training programs developed by the organization for new members.

Although this may sound like a very conservative and small-scale goal, it can require considerable team effort, spanning from everything from improving the computer system to reduce delays and miscommunications when designing a syllabus; improving employee training in areas such as intercultural communication; and finding ways to more effectively reach out to trainees to better understand their educational needs. Currently, the team is seeking to redesign the training program to make it more effective in equipping students for their eventual duties as managers.

Section 2: Understand how to plan and allocate work

Q3. List the key stages when planning and allocating work

"Sometimes it is not an easy task for a team manager to ensure that the work assigned to his team is properly and fairly portioned and allocated among the team members" ("How to allocate and control work in your team" 2015). Above all, competencies should dictate how work is allocated and leadership positions are assigned. But as well as technical competencies, personality must also be considered. Ideally, all team members will have "good communication skills, high emotional intelligence, an ability to work independently, and the resilience to recover from the snafus that inevitably arise" (Ferrazzi 2014). If this is not possible, then at minimum individuals with those qualities should be allocated to each subset of every team to better ensure that interpersonal conflicts can be used in a productive manner. Conflict is not inherently a bad thing for a team and can result in more fruitful ideas and approaches; however, conflict must be managed appropriately.

When designing a work plan, first the different steps of the project must be determined (for example, drawing up a new training manual, designing new training activities, and determining...

Different components of the project are then allocated. A timetable is also established and contingent activities are determined so each work team can better understand how their activities fit in with the general schedule and how their actions affect others. For team members not in the same offices, this is critical, given that the actions and output of one team often determine the ability of another to progress. Deadlines will be established for each phase of the project as well as 'check in' points in the form of meetings for the entire team. Finally, after the project's endpoint of a new training system is realized, there must be current monitoring of the program to ensure that the new method is effective and has appreciably better results from previous efforts. Monitoring employee satisfaction with the program as well as improvements in new trainees' performance versus past efforts is critical.
Q4. Describe how work is allocated to meet team objectives

Work should be allocated to honor the expertise of different team members and also to meet the various goals of the project. There should be clear leaders to ensure that there is no confusion about who is in charge and the ultimate authority on a project. There should also be every effort to minimize conflicts without other roles and responsibilities members may be filling for other aspects of the organization. For example, a "team member could be already loaded with some working tasks taking his work time and efforts. In order to get free for upcoming workloads he needs to sort out his current assignments with the manager" and determine a feasible schedule for himself before a conflict arises ("How to allocate and control work in your team" 2015).

Q5. Describe how to check that team members understand their allocated work

One of the greatest dangers on any team is miscommunication. "Teammates often find themselves saying, 'I thought it was obvious that ... ' or "I didn't think I needed to spell that out'" (Ferrazzi 2014). Leaders must set guidelines for self-expression, including that teammates must be specific when communicating. "Instead of saying 'Circle back to me,' state whether you want to give final input on a decision or simply be informed after the decision is made. If you have a conference call about project details, follow up with an e-mail to minimize misunderstandings" (Ferrazzi 2014). Team members should be asked to explain in their own words what is expected of them to their project leader and also to one another. Regular performance reviews should be scheduled on an individual basis so members can receive feedback and candidly discuss any issues which have arisen. The critical factor is to flag potential problems in their nascent stages, before they affect other aspects of the project, fester, and create delays and personal animosity. There should always be a leader to whom members can speak to without fear of retribution if they have any concerns.

Section 3: Understand how to monitor a team's performance against the plan

Q6. Outline a method to monitor the team's performance against the plan

One of the most effective ways for a manager to monitor team performance is simply to be present. In a non-virtual team setting, this can be fairly simple: a manager can simply arrange to be in attendance when different components of the team are working together. In a virtual setting, managers can still observe work by asking to be cc-ed on email correspondence or to be part of a team chat or Skype. However, observations can be very time-consuming and managers cannot always be monitoring every team meeting. Performance reviews are required. In addition to actually watching employees work, managers must talk to team members in private and ask: "What concrete actions did you take? Did you meet the clearly spelled-out expectations?" (Tulgan 2010). Asking for self-evaluation and evaluation of team members and overall team performance is critical, although any hearsay about other members must be carefully vetted before it is used in a punitive manner.

Q7. Describe an action the team leader could take to rectify underachievement against the plan.

One of the problems on all teams but on virtual teams in particular in the phenomenon of social loafing or letting more motivated members of the team do the work. To ensure that this does not happen on a team, it is very important for managers to talk to team members individually and to ensure that they are all making a contribution to team goals. Social loafing is otherwise difficult to identify, since more committed members of the team may be making sure the team…