Business Leadership Test #2

Formal Teams + Informal Teams

Formal - Structured, made with a specific purpose, contains a leader, roles for each member

Informal - Not structure, not set up by an organization, no rules/guidelines, working together for the achievement of a purpose

Committees

A cross-functional team with specialized skills that provides recommendations and supports planning for middle and upper management.

Project Teams/Task Force

A small, permanent team with specialized skills focused on completing a short-term task, typically lasting from a few months to a year.

Cross-Functional Teams

Cross-functional groups with diverse backgrounds that improve coordination and include front-line managers or operatives in decision-making.

Virtual Teams

A digitally connected team working remotely from different locations, becoming more prevalent since the COVID-19 pandemic.

4 Stages of Life Cycle in a Team

Forming: Team members are introduced, learning each other's strengths, weaknesses, and roles.

Storming: Tensions rise, leading to conflict and competition as members clash over different approaches.

Norming: Emotions settle, conflicts resolve, and trust and cohesion begin to develop.

Performing: The team reaches peak effectiveness, collaborating smoothly to achieve goals and tasks.

Groupthink

When as a collective, the group make a wrong decision, and nobody intercepts or stops it as they are afraid to challenge it.

Cohesiveness in a team

The degree of unity and camaraderie among group members

Characteristics of a successful team: Physical Attributes

Size: Larger teams create complexity and slow down communication, accountability, and decision-making; optimal size is 4-12 people.

Diversity: Diverse teams yield better outcomes, combining analytical and intuitive thinking, avoiding groupthink, and bringing varied working styles.

Characteristics of a successful team: Cultural Attributes

Adaptability: Companies must evolve like living organisms, with a culture that fosters self-forming teams to quickly address new challenges and opportunities.

Values: Teams thrive on enduring values like equality (no one is bigger than the team) and openness (trust and acceptance of new ideas in a diverse environment).

Group Norms

The shared expectations of standards of behaviour that are accepted in society

Ex of norms in a class. Arriving on time for class, raising hands, respecting other opinions, avoiding distractions

Advantages of Teamwork

Teamwork builds trust, encourages role flexibility, shares skills and resources, and provides mutual support, reducing isolation and fostering growth.

Michael Jordan: Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships

Explain

It means individual talent is important, but teamwork and collaboration drive long-term success. In the workplace, this fosters alignment, communication, and shared goals.

4 Different Roles of Managers:

Team Leader

Typical role of manager, overseeing the team and continuing to provide a clear direction as the head of the team.

4 Different Roles of Managers: Network Facilitator

The manager takes a collaborative leadership approach, offering direction and support as needed without constant supervision.

4 Different Roles of Managers:

Team Member

The manager acts as an active team member, contributing alongside peers rather than supervising.

4 Different Roles of Managers: External Coach

The manager takes a hands-off approach, being available for support but not actively involved in day-to-day team tasks.

Fiedler's Contingency Leadership Theory

Effective leadership depends on matching leadership style to situational demands.

LPC = Least Performing Coworker

Low LPC (Task-motivated) leaders excel in both high and low-control situations.

High LPC (Relationship-motivated) leaders thrive in situations with moderate control.

Leadership style is inherent and hard to change but must align with the situation.

Leader-member relations, task structure, and position power influence situational control.

Servant Leader

Servant leadership emphasizes serving others, prioritizing followers over the leader, and focusing on empowerment rather than power.

House's path-goal leadership theory

Leadership styles for path-goal relationships:

Directive: Communicate expectations, give directions, and maintain performance standards.

Supportive: Create a pleasant work environment, treat employees equally, and show concern for well-being.

Achievement-oriented: Set challenging goals, expect high performance, and emphasize continuous improvement.

Participative: Involve employees in decision-making and use their suggestions.

Hersey-Blanchard situational leadership model

The leader adapts their style based on followers' readiness (ability, willingness, and confidence).

Hersey-Blanchard Leadership Styles:

Delegating (Best Scenario): Low task (low guidance), low relationship (low support); best for high readiness.

Participating: Low task (low guidance), high relationship (needs support); best for low to moderate readiness.

Selling (Worst case scenario): High task (needs guidance), high relationship (needs support); best for moderate to high readiness.

Telling: High task (needs guidance), low relationship (low support); best for low readiness.

Different types of power

Power: The ability to influence others and make things happen.

Two types of managerial power:

Position power: Based on a manager's official role, including reward, coercive, and legitimate power.

Personal power: Based on personal qualities, including expert and referent power.

Attitude: 3 Components

Attitude: A predisposition to act in a certain way, consisting of cognition, affection, and behaviour:

Cognition: Reflects beliefs or opinions (e.g., finding your management course interesting).

Affection: Reflects emotional feelings (e.g., feeling good about being a management major).

Behavioural: Actions reflecting intent (e.g., deciding to work hard for an A in management courses).

12 Biases: Emotional Reasoning

The condition of being so strongly influenced by your emotions that you assume that they indicate objective truth

Ex. Attributing negative judgments to neutral events or objects

12 Biases: Overgeneralization

Where a person applies the negative outcome of an isolated event to all future events

Ex. After not getting a job, believing that you will never get a job again, feeling hopeless about your career

12 Biases: Cognitive dissonance

The mental discomfort or tension experienced when holding two conflicting beliefs, attitudes, or behaviours

Ex. A Person who values healthy eating feels discomfort after eating junk food

12 Biases: Groupthink

When a group reaches a consensus over critical thinking and evaluating alternatives, leading to ineffective decisions or unethical actions

Ex. A group leader decides, the rest of the group agrees on this decision even though they disagree for personal relationship reasons

12 Biases: Sunk-cost trap

Causes people to continue investing time, money, or effort into something even when it isn't beneficial

Ex. Continuing to eat a bad meal because you paid for it

12 Biases: Mental filter

Only looking at the negative parts of a situation, disregarding the positive parts

Ex. A Person can feel unloved or fall out of love from dwelling on the bad stuff their partner said about them in marriage

12 Biases: Implicit bias

The unconscious attitude that affects our decisions and actions

Ex. Assuming someone is less capable at a job because of their age or gender, not realizing you are stereotyping

12 Biases: Confirmation bias

Tendency to interpret new evidence as confirmation of one's existing beliefs or theories

Ex. People seek info that paints someone they like (like a celebrity) in a positive light, ignoring their flaws

12 Biases: Self-serving bias

How we explain our behaviour depends on whether the outcome of our behaviour is positive or negative

Ex. Athletes is more likely to attribute a good performance on their ability, and a poor one to the environment

12 Biases: All-or-nothing bias

Refers to thinking in extremes, you are either a success or a failure

Ex. If it rains, it is not safe to drive at all, kids grow up to either be good people or bad people

12 Biases: Jumping to conclusions

An individual's tendency to make hasty decisions based on insufficient information

Ex. When a person's friend walks past them ignoring them one day, then immediately believing that they aren't friends anymore

12 Biases: Overconfidence bias

Tendency to overestimate one's abilities, knowledge, or judgment compared to others

Ex. Student believes he will ace an exam without studying, ends up failing

Areas of business where unconscious bias can affect the workplace

Recruitment and hiring

Promotions and career advancements

Team dynamics

Decision making

Workplace culture

Customer interactions

Training and development

Compensation and benefits

Partner Selection