Outline the Role of a Team Leader

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An effective team leader will be able to bring together a group of people enabling creativity and improved performance while allowing the team members the freedom to do their jobs. The team leader will engage and motivate the team by being prepared to get involved to get the job done and will lead by example. Scouller (2011) stated that the purpose of a leader was to ensure that the four dimensions of leadership were being addressed. These were a shared, motivating purpose; action, progress and results; team spirit (a collective unity) and individual selection and motivation. He proposed that there were three levels of leadership:-1) Public – actions or behaviours taken by leaders to influence two or more people simultaneously that were directed towards setting and agreeing a purpose for the group, creating an environment conducive to high performance and driving successful team results. 2) Private – one to one handling of individuals. 3) Personal – technical skills and knowledge, attitude towards others and self-awareness. John Adair proposed the action centred leadership model – a set of behaviours that help the group to perform their task. These are modelled on the needs of each of the following: Team, Task and Individual. To achieve the task, effective teams have clear goals shared by all members. The team of people performing the task must all work together and each member of the team should retain their individual identity. The leader has to balance the needs of each element and keep all three in balance if they are to be effective in their role. A team leader is not a manager, will generally have a small number of people to influence and will be engaged in the same, or a similar, role as the other members and will retain responsibility for their own tasks in addition to their leadership tasks of focusing on the day-to-day performance of the team,
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