Team Leadership: Northouse’s chapter on team leadership seems to me to be too abstract and academic. Northouse makes a point that "To be an effective leader, one needs to respond with the action that is required of the situation. Therefore, it is the job of the leader to analyze and mediate the situation to make the best decisions for the good of the team." This statement leads one to believe that the leader will make the best decisions for the good of the team. In my experience, team leadership is a very messy business. Sometimes team members don't get along, and interpersonal conflicts may not be solved simply by the leader deciding to "initiate conflict management." Part of team leadership is the art of "collaboration." Sometimes there's a conflict between "task" functions and "relationship" functions, and for the good of the organization the leader must retreat from or even seem to betray relationships that he or she has formed with team members. Sometimes teams are given impossible tasks by upper management or not given enough resources to accomplish them.

What experiences have you had working in teams? Did things go smoothly? If so, what made them go smoothly? If not, what made them messy? How might the ideas in Bennis' "Getting People on Your Side" help team leaders? Be specific and document your opinions.

If you would like you can also consider how Bean, in Ender's Shadow is given the task of picking the members of a team that Ender will lead. Why do you think "upper management" gives Bean this task? What criteria does Bean use to pick the members of the team? How does Ender develop his team? What are his goals, and what does he do to achieve them? How does Ender balance the demands of the task, relationship, and environmental functions of a team leader?

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I agree with you that Northouses chapter on team leadership is too abstract and academic It does not take into account the messy reality of team leade... View the full answer