This week’s recommended reading is on Leadership theory, leadership application, and skill development as a leader. In this week, I learned the concept of teamwork, the advantages of working in a team, the difference between a group and an organization, limitations of working in a team, characteristics of a capable team, attributes of an effective team, how to be an effective leader for a team. During this week, I learned about the various types of teams like functional teams, cross-functional teams, virtual teams, a self-managed team. The decisions taken in the teams can be team-centered. I learned how to plan meetings and conduct meetings. I learned the difference between the traditional teams and self-managed teams. Self-managed teams have more benefits than conventional teams. The leadership role change in the self-managed teams are studied and also the various challenges in implementing the self-managed teams are studied in this week. The entire week’s learning was on leadership theory and leadership skills on various types of teams (Yasir, Imran, Irshad, Mohamad, and Khan, 2016).
In this week’s learning, I understood the significance of teams in an organization. A team helps to execute the organizational objectives. Therefore, it is important to have able leadership in managing the teams effectively. The leadership theories help to understand the various leadership and which leadership style applies to what type of teams. Effective team management is critical for any leader. The concepts of leadership, teams, and team management is helpful for me in the future as a project manager.
The advantage of learning this week’s lessons is that I learned the concepts of teams, the different types of teams, and how to manage those teams. Previously, I was aware of technical teams and functional teams only. I realized the importance of self-managed teams, virtual teams, and cross-functional teams. The team management skill for each of these teams is different.
I found the concepts of teams exciting. I plan to explore more on the concepts of virtual teams and cross-functional teams by reading more articles and books to gain in-depth knowledge. Many technological advances are happening in virtual teams and virtual team management. Globalization occurs with the help of virtual teams (Zigurs, 2003). My friends working in different nations informed me that they are in work from home mode. I am curious to explore more about how they are operating, and team management is executed. I plan to have a discussion with them regarding virtual team management. This week’s learning is enriching and broadened my thinking horizons. A study conducted by Kayworth, and Leidner (2002), provides useful insights to the managers to manage virtual global teams. I plan to read more books and journals to enhance my knowledge of leadership and team management.