World Class Leaders
World Class Leaders
World class leaders must have the capacity to achieve brilliant results even if the conditions are unfavorable. Such leaders have been the hallmark of success in some of the world’s most prestigious companies. In addition to technical skills, world class leaders must also have the ability to work with different types of people. This is because diversity is clearly evident in the modern day corporate establishments. Working with teams involves the provision of relevant direction as well as establishing an excellent rapport with followers. This paper seeks to examine various perspectives about the development and sustenance of world class leaders. Additionally, the paper also encompasses an evaluation of different perspectives about team performance and development.
Creating and Sustaining High Performance Teams
World Class Teams
Fundamentally, a world class team refers to a group of employees who have the capacity to deliver exemplary results within the prevailing time framework. In essence, world class teams should have the capacity to deliver even in the wake of technical and operational challenges. This is because a world class team is capable of developing a comprehensive framework for identifying potential challenges in advance (Prahalad, 2007). Among the most notable characteristics of world class teams pertains to communication.The team should have an efficient mechanism that facilitates for the flow of information across all team members.
The absence of such mechanisms can seriously hamper the team’s performance. It is also vital for the team to liaise regularly with the organizational leaders. In addition to communication, another essential attribute of world class teams pertains to alignment to organizational mission and vision. Consequently, the goals of a world class team should conform to organizational values (Hansen, 2007). This is an essential attribute for streamlining efficiency within an organization. World class teams must also have the ability to solve different conflicts. In any organization, it is inevitable that teams will face different challenges in the course of their operations. Consequently, a world class team should have the capacity to address such challenges.
Building Blocks of Team Effectiveness
For any team, there are various attributes that serve as building blocks for effectiveness. Firstly, it is essential that the team has a strong leader. The absence of such a leader is usually a signal of failure within a team. Team leaders should be proficient with the working modalities that suit the team. An appropriate mechanism for resource allocation is another building block for effectiveness in a team. Resource allocation is extremely crucial for teams as well as other levels of operations in the organization. This helps in averting unnecessary expenditures. Additionally, effective mechanisms for resource allocation are essential platforms for setting priorities for tasks. Unity is also another critical building block of team effectiveness (Yeh, 2006). Unity enables the team members to pursue similar objectives.
Stages of Team Development
Team development occurs in different stages. Each stage has unique attributes that distinguish it from other phases. Forming serves as the initial phase of team development. During this stage, all team members are relatively strange to each other. Consequently, this stage mainly focuses on introductory perspectives. Storming serves as the second phase of team development. In essence, there is a higher level of interactions between team members during this stage. Additionally, members begin to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of colleagues. This is an essential stage for building strong relationships among team members.Norming serves as the next phase of team development. At this stage, team members are quite familiar with each other (Hansen, 2007). Consequently, they understand what every member can bring to the team. The performing stage is the final phase of team development. In this stage, team members work strongly towards attaining the various objectives. The successful completion of each stage is pivotal towards streamlining the team’s efficiency.
Today’s Major Business Challenges
Today’s business establishments face numerous challenges. Competition is among the most notable challenges for business organizations. This mostly occurs in sectors that have many industry players. For instance, retail chain businesses face extensive competition in all parts of the world. This is because there are numerous investors in the retail chain sector. In order to deal with the challenge of competition, businesses invest heavily in advertising. A company like Coca-Cola spends millions on promotional campaigns every year (Prahalad, 2007).
Apart from competition, sustainable development is another outstanding challenge that faces businesses in the modern world. In essence, sustainable development encompasses the integration of clean development strategies in business organizations. For instance, corporate establishments must implement comprehensive plans for mitigating environmental pollution. Market uncertainty is another pertinent challenge facing businesses. This applies to all sectors such as banking, imports, automobiles and retail chains among others. Uncertainty refers to the unpredictability of market conditions. Aspects such as fluctuation of exchange rates and inflation are some of the attributes that characterize market uncertainty for business establishments. The 2008 global recession had extensive ramifications on the profitability of businesses in most sectors. Addressing these uncertainties is a phenomenal challenge for any business establishment (Yeh, 2006).
World Class Leader: Tom Tuohy
Tom Tuohy is an outstanding personality who fits the criterion for a world class leader. Despite his death in 2008, Tom’s legacy lives on because of the excellent way in which he saved the Windscale nuclear facility from an inferno. He is an alumnus of Reading University and was an expert in chemicals. It was in 1957 when Tom was the deputy CEO of the company. Although he was attending to his ailing family on that fateful day, he did not ignore a phone from his boss. Tom took it upon himself to establish a comprehensive framework for dealing with the inferno. Despite the obvious risks, Tom’s plan was extremely effective. There are various attributes that present Tom Tuohy as a world class leader (Prahalad, 2007).Firstly, his dedication to work at the nuclear facility is outstanding. This is because he did not ignore the call from his boss. Tom’s qualities as an exceptional leader are evident because of his fantastic coordination skills. This coordination was the basis of rescue efforts at the nuclear facility. Due to Tom’s excellent leadership skills, the nuclear facility is still operational. From another perspective, Tom’s leadership at the nuclear facility was instrumental in preventing a potential nuclear disaster for England.
Procter & Gamble
Procter & Gamble is among the most reputable organizations in the globe. It specializes in personal care products and has a global clientele base. The company has an excellent tradition of succession leadership. However, modern leadership strategies have been an integral component of the company’s dominance since the 20th Century. In order to enhance its management framework, the company has an excellent system of training leaders (Hansen, 2007).
The internal training programs ensure that top executives are conversant with the firm’s operational framework. These training programs are also useful in helping the company’s leaders to develop adequate strategies for dealing with the different organizational challenges in the business world. As a global brand, innovativeness is among the most critical pillars of P & G. The absence of effective leadership would hamper the company’s innovativeness. Through astute management, innovativeness is almost synonymous with the company’s product line. Additionally, the company also requires an excellent leadership framework in order to facilitate its ventures into international markets. This is not a problem for P & G because of the exemplary leadership strategies (Yeh, 2006).
Conclusion
The paper examines the various perspectives of world class leaders and team effectiveness. In essence, world class teams should have the capacity to deliver even in the wake of technical and operational challenges. This is because a world class team is capable of developing a comprehensive framework for identifying potential challenges in advance. Among the most notable characteristics of world class teams pertains to communication.World class teams must also have the ability to solve different conflicts. In any organization, it is inevitable that teams will face different challenges in the course of their operations. It is essential for a team to have a strong leader. The absence of such a leader is usually a signal of failure within a team. Competition is among the most notable challenges for business organizations. This mostly occurs in sectors that have many industry players. For instance, retail chain businesses face extensive competition in all parts of the world. This is because there are numerous investors in the retail chain sector.
References
Hansen, M. & Birkinshaw, J. (2007). The innovation value chain. Harvard Business Review, June 2007
Prahalad, C. (2007). Globalization: The intellectual and managerial challenges. Human Resource Management, 29(1)
Yeh, E. & Castro, N. (2006). Team building: A 3 dimensional teamwork model. Emerald, 12
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