Running head: WEEK 5 LEADERSHIP AND INTER-TEAM RELATIONS 1

Leadership and Inter-Team Relations

Eva Runco

OGL 343: Social Processes in Orgs

Professor William Erwin

4/18/2023
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Prompt 1 The Leadership Paradox

This week’s module we reviewed leading a team, the differences between leading and

managing, while we also reviewed leadership styles including visionary, charismatic,

participatory, servant, contingent, transformational, and transactional. All leadership styles share

the same fact that teams need leaders, but having a leader can cause chaos to the team’s

autonomy; this is known as the leadership paradox (Thompson, 2018).

It's important for leaders to know and understand the difference between leadership and

management. Management is getting the tasks done, the in-betweens of the larger

accomplishments the team strives for, management ensures the team is on track. Whereas

leadership is the relationship between the members of the team, the relationship of the tasks and

the members. The leadership paradox describes the love and hate of the leader and the team, and

the internal struggle the leader, themselves, struggle with on how to lead themselves while

ensuring they are doing the best for the team at large. Leaders are necessary for the motivation

and guidance of the team, and with the right relationship and leadership style the team can far

exceed expectations. Skills that leaders need to keep readily available to help with leadership

paradox and transformation of the team’s options and priorities include visionary thinking, high

level of emotional intelligence, strong communication skills, adaptability to not only situations

but also personalities and preferences, and at times leaders within transformational points of

progress need to ensure they are open minded and allow creativity (Thompson, 2018).

Prompt 2 Participative Management

Participative management allows for decision making to not only fall onto the shoulders

of the leader but allow decisions to be made amongst the team members. With participative
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management it’s important that leaders take care to strategize appropriate methods to entice team

participation. Several that were reviewed include trust and respect, and clear communication.

Building the trust and respect within the group should be high on the list of the leaders priorities

when establishing the team, however, it does not come swiftly. It is important that the team feels

that the group is a safe place for their ideas to be voiced, that there will not be backlash with

suggesting new innovative ideas. Leaders can help build the team’s openness towards innovation

and creativity by setting an example, acknowledging team members when they bring ideas,

noting when there is criticism and appropriately navigating that negativity. Leaders can also

share their own ideas, even ones that they know are not the best, as a way to show the team that

even the leader is not correct all the time.

Clear communication from the leader is a repetitive skill that is noted within this week’s

module. For a leader to set an example and standard for communication it falls also within the

respect the team members need to have within the group. Having active listening skills, asking

appropriate questions, digging deeper into the discussion with leading questions is one way the

leader can help with communication and with building trust and respect within the team

(Thompson, 2018).
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References

Thompson, L. L. (2018). Making the Team: A Guide for Managers. New York, New York:

Pearson.