Power of Team Leadership: Achieving

Power of Team Leadership: Achieving Success Through Shared Responsibility by George Barna

The Father of Scientific Management, Frederick Taylor, did many wonderful things and made a great deal of helpful suggestions for those that worked in the business world. However, he failed to notice the importance of efficient and effective listening, and this is one area in which his work was very weak. He urged that workers should listen to their advisors, but he did not place any amount of emphasis on employers and other 'higher-ups' listening to their employees for any reason. It would appear that Taylor did not see the significance of what employees actually have to say and how allowing them a voice may actually have a strong effect on how the company works in the future, as those employees that feel they are listened to in their jobs are often much happier than those that feel that no one is concerned about their needs and wants.

The reason that this is pointed out is that many leaders today do not understand what is really important, and those that do understand what matters often find that they still struggle because there are so many different demands placed on them that they are not 'allowed' to do what they feel they need to do to help their employees grow and succeed. Team leadership is one of the ways that some of this can be changed.

In "The Power of Team Leadership: Achieving Success through Shared Responsibility," George Barna discusses how teams can make leadership much more rewarding and how these same teams can help leaders achieve their goals as well, because the leaders do not have so many demands impressed upon them by others that feel they should think/act/look/feel a certain way. The main thesis of Barna's argument is that leaders that work in teams accomplish much more both for themselves and for the company while still providing just as much if not more to the employees of that company, and Barna should know this as he has been a leader in both sacred and secular jobs for many years now and is dedicated to what he does.

Summary

The book is a discussion of leadership that starts off with what kind of things are being asked (or demanded) of leaders and works its way through much of what can be done about this and how these problems can be corrected. Without doing that, there would not be any realistic way of determining what was 'good' for leaders and what was not in regard to teamwork or any other issue. The book does a good job of summarizing, however, in that it discusses all of the issues thoroughly and shows why the author feels that they are important but does not continue to readdress the issue once it has been thoroughly covered.

The book, however, focuses mostly on churches and not 'traditional' businesses and is careful enough to also cover the problems that could be seen from team leadership. As with any changes that are made to the leadership structure, there could potentially be problems, and it is best to avoid these if possible. One of the best ways to avoid these types of problems is to be aware of them, what they are, and how they can occur so that avoidance of them can hopefully be made possible. This is part of what the book works to address, especially in the last chapter that Barna writes.

Analysis of the Text

An analysis of this text shows that Barna has done his research into churches and other businesses. Since he is so very interested in the church issue and team leadership that is the one that he basically chooses to address in this book, but the understanding that he knows a lot about businesses in general comes through in his writing very clearly. By having so much knowledge of business, Barna is able to use that regarding church leadership as well. Sometimes, individuals feel as though churches are completely different than 'real' businesses, but this is not the case. Churches do a lot of good work, but behind the scenes they are ultimately businesses and they have to have good leadership.

What Barna is trying to point out is that, for most churches, team leadership would be the best choice because it helps to give individuals more of a chance to discuss issues with one another instead of simply making a decision. Decisions that are made through teamwork are often better decisions because they are better informed and the members of the team are more likely to have made sure that all of the issues surrounding a particular decision were addressed quite thoroughly. Doing this, Barna believes, will ensure that individuals that work in teams have less stress, less blame, and fewer problems than those that do not use teamwork for their churches.

Response to the Text

Supervisors that create and participate in teams often find that employees will talk things over with their teammates, and because they are all in the same basic situation at work, they will speak freely, truly listen, and offer information and advice that might be helpful. By the time that the supervisor asks for their input, they have usually reached an agreement on most things that they wish to discuss, and the supervisor that really listens to this information will learn a great deal about the employees needs and concerns in a short period of time. It only stands to reason that leaders working in teams will also fair well in getting things done and in being able to accomplish much.

A good team leader and supervisor will pay attention to what he or she has heard from the employees in the team, and then this information will be used to make better decisions about many aspects of company policy. Employees who are consulted in this way often give thoughtful input that has been discussed with others, instead of simply complaining about something specific, which is detrimental to the listening and decision-making process.

Argument can also be very effective. This does not mean that fighting should be encouraged, but arguing and fighting are actually very different from one another. Arguing involves disagreeing on some specific aspect of something, or on a specific point-of-view. Arguments are often well thought-out, and they are not designed to attack the other person, but to simply point out the issues and problems that one sees in the other person's perception or view point. Because of this, proper arguing requires good listening. There are many valid points that are often made during this type of exchange, and sometimes one of the people can be swayed by the persuasive argument of the other person. This can only be done if both individuals are truly open to listening to what the other individual has to say.

Conclusion

The point of the above information is to indicate that there are many different aspects to leadership, and there are many different ways to approach it from a decision-making perspective, but it is best done with teamwork. Because of this, it is vital that it be studied more thoroughly and issues that relate to it brought to light in order to help those that must deal with these issues do so effectively. There are many reasons to study team leadership in the decision-making process, and this idea plays such a vital role and is such a major component in this process that to not study it would be to do a great disservice to businesses and employees everywhere, including those that work in churches.