BSBWOR502 Lead and Manage Team Effectiveness Sample Assignment

BSBWOR502 Lead and Manage team effectiveness

Assessment Task 2- Project

Project A

You received an email from Nancy Tooket, managing director of retail operations.

Subject: improving team effectiveness

Hello,

As we move into the new financial year, we have many challenges to address in order to meet our business plan goals. One strategy I would like to implement is to improve team effectiveness at the retail outlet level.

Our current approach is to leave the management of teams in the retail outlets to the outlet managers. This will still be the case, but I would like all outlet managers to go through a process of documenting the approaches, methods, strategies and plans that they will use in leading and managing the teams at the retail outlets.

This process of documentation will allow retail outlet managers to formalize their approach to team leadership and use this documentation as a framework to evaluate their team leadership performance. It will also allow the organization, as a whole, to learn what is working and to improve our leadership skills.

Please refer to the instructions to the candidate section that follows for an outline of the tasks you are required to do. These tasks relate to how you, as the retail outlet manager, will lead and manage the effectiveness of your teams through the implementation of our current operational plan.

Regards,

Nancy Tooket

Managing director: Retail operations

Instructions to the candidate

You will need to access and read the following Bizops policies and templates:

Organization operational plan
Performance and development plan template

See the resources required section for how to access these.

Complete each of the following tasks in the context of your role as a retail outlet manager at Bizops and collate all of your responses into a single document.

1. Prepare a briefing document that outlines your understanding of the team purpose, role, responsibilities and accountabilities in accordance with organizational goals, plans and objectives. This document should be appropriate to distribute to team members as a consultation process to establish a common understanding.

Plan to achieve team outcomes manual

Purpose

To achieve organization goal and work together effectively.

Diversity

As our store is full of people from different background , learn to live to work with respect is a must.

Networking

To be influential inside or outside store we need to be connected to other people and have access to information. Networking means using connections or contacts to stay informed about what is happening inside or outside our store, and to convey information passed on to others.

Empathy

Demonstrating understanding by seeing a situation from another’s point of view. Our store will take this issue seriously as the key point is togetherness.

Consultation

Store supervisor and manager will be all time consultant to all team members as some issues need immediate action.

Accountabilities

All staff members accept full responsibility for their actions.

2. Prepare a performance plan to establish the expected outcomes, outputs, key performance indicators (KPIs) and goals for the work team.

The most effective way is to have a combination of structured face to face discussions with diary notes quarterly then half yearly reviews with a full review at the end of the year. Also, remove the prospect of a discussion about pay. Retain this for another time as an employee should be able to leave their review thinking about performance.

In conducting a performance review it should:

ask the employee to rate themselves
provide a written performance review to the employee
make sure that you can back up any positives and negatives with specific examples
conduct a review meeting within 48 hours of the written performance review
note and file any employee comments and then ensure that the final version goes on file.

regularly reconsider performance indicators alongside the ongoing development of a business plan, you'll find your KPIs are more likely to stay aligned with changing business requirement.

3. Outline what strategies you will use to support team members in meeting expected performance outcomes. These strategies should address any formal and informal learning requirements.

Agree on Goals and Targets

Team members should all be working towards the same goals and targets. If they do not have a shared vision, conflict and competition are likely to develop. Ideally, team members should be involved in the process of formulating the team's goals and targets. This will help to secure their buy-in and that they fully understand the team's purpose.

Value Everyone's Contribution

Teams are successful when they draw from the expertise of every team member, with each person contributing different skills and experience. While some team members may be technical experts, others may have vital organizational, administrative or financial skills. For a team to reach its full potential, every team member should play an active role. To assure this, each team member must feel that his contribution is valued.

Develop Trust

Trust is a key element of team cohesion. Without trust, it will be difficult for open and honest communication to take place within the team. Team members may be reluctant to share ideas and opinions for fear of ridicule or rejection. While trust can build up over time as people work together and get to know one another, it is possible to speed the process along using training exercises that inspire trust. A common example is to ask individuals to fall backwards and be caught by other team members.

4. Outline the strategies you will use to ensure team members have an input into the planning, decision-making and operational aspects of their work.

Give team members opportunities to give input into planning, decision making and operational aspects of the team.
Encourage and support team members to take responsibility for their own work and to help each other in doing their work and meeting their and responsibilities

5. Outline the strategies you will use to encourage team members to participate in and to take responsibility for team activities, including communication processes.

Give Everyone a Chance to Speak

Some team members are naturally assertive and self-confident, while others are naturally shy and quiet. An assertive and self-confident person does not necessarily have better ideas than a shy and quiet person, but assertive people are a lot more likely to be heard and to have their ideas acted upon. To get the best out of your quieter team members, structure your meetings so that everyone has an equal opportunity to speak. Give people time to fully articulate their ideas. Try to assess each suggestion as objectively as possible based on the idea itself and not the personality of the team member proposing it. If you don't like a suggestion or choose not to make use of it, don't criticize it too severely.

Make Everyone a Leader

Create a team full of leaders by using a collaborative rather than a strictly hierarchical model. The leader in any context is the responsible person, so leaders are highly motivated for the group to succeed. In a hierarchical structure, only one person leads at each level of the organization

6. Bizops currently has no policies or procedures that outline how the organization supports or implements processes to develop and facilitate team cohesion, or to allow team members to take responsibility for their own work or assist others to perform required roles and responsibilities.

Prepare a draft policy and set of procedures that would achieve this. It may be relevant to utilise information that has already been documented in completing tasks 1-5 above.

Draft policy

One definition of cohesion is “a group property with individual manifestations of feelings of belongingness or attraction to the group”. It is generally accepted that group cohesion and performance are associated. “

Goals

Organizing regular meetings with the head quarter
Guaranteeing the respect of the partnership principle and the implication of towns and regions in all the steps of the policy-making cycle;
Ensuring the combined use of several funds to set up integrated territorial strategies: regional, social, rural, and cohesion strategies;
Discussing cohesion policy simplification measures, in terms of structure, control, audit and state aid
Preparing the future of the cohesion policy, after 2020.

7. Bizops currently has formal feedback process that is documented in the performance improvement and development plan template. Senior managers feel this form is not appropriate as a mechanism to provide feedback to team members that encourages, values and rewards individual and team efforts and contributions.

Outline what leadership techniques and strategies you would use to provide feedback and encourages, values and reward members of your team.

Deliver your feedback to the person concerned

While it may be very tempting to share feedback with everyone other than the person concerned, don’t do that. Give your feedback directly to the person concerned; it maintains trust and nips negativity in the bud.

Concern timing

In many cases, feedback especially positive, is reserved till a performance review. It’s like giving someone a birthday present six months later. Feedback is more effective when given right after an action or behavior happens.

Keep the emotions out

Refrain from giving feedback when emotions are running high and you’re really tempted to ‘lash out.’ As frustrated as you might be because things didn’t go according to plan, hold off the meeting until you are calm and in control of how you feel.

8. Outline the process that you would use to ensure that issues, concerns and problems identified by team members are recognized and addressed.

Make it black and white with both signature
Update process status
Give certain timeline to the issue.

9. Bizops expects its retail outlet managers to lead by example. Outline how you will ensure you own contribution to the work team serves as a role model for others and enhances the organisation’s image for all stakeholders.

Be the example to staff : All leaders and managers, but especially senior ones should be role models. Set them an example to follow! It can be a simple cascade process. “Do unto others as you would have done to you”

10. Outline how you will facilitate communication processes with each of the stakeholder groups outlined in the current Bizops operational plan.

Designing a Realistic Agenda

Designing the agenda goes hand in hand with designing the group process. As you iterate between designing the process and designing the agenda, the event starts to take shape. Among the factors to consider when planning the agenda are:

In what order should the topics be presented?
How will participants get to know each other?
How will they gain a common understanding of the objectives?
If an event is to be broken into separate sessions, how much time should be allocated to each item?
Will all participants be involved each session?
Or will some be in smaller, break-out groups?
How and when will break-out groups' feed back to the wider group?
When will you recap and summarize?
How will the outcomes of one session flow into the next?

11. Outline how you will facilitate a two-way flow of information on team performance issues between your team and senior management.

Evaluate each member performance with checklist and report to management to finalise. Simplify management feedback to team member with suggestion.

Project B

Task overview and instructions to the candidate

Access and read your organisation’s policies, procedures, forms and templates relating to the operational plan. Complete these tasks in the context of your role as a workplace team manager and collate all of your responses into a single document.

Prepare a performance plan to establish the expected outcomes, outputs, key performance indicators (KPIs) and goals for the work team.

Performance goals

Customer service – Use feedback from performance review to develop a plan regarding improved customer service with at least two specific strategies. Share with supervisor by March 1 and then implement.

Communication – Enhance quality, readability and accuracy of online newsletter content. For March newsletter, prepare draft by February 15 and then ask John to review and provide feedback. Apply his suggestions to revisions and launch newsletter by March 1 (I have also set a professional development goal to help in this area). Identify person(s) who are willing to review monthly newsletters to assure improved content, format and accuracy is maintained.

2. Outline what strategies you will use to support team members in meeting expected performance outcomes. These strategies should address any formal and informal learning requirements.

Be an advisor to member
Allow member to express their thought and feelings
Listen to member
Take action
Set time frame

3. Outline the strategies you will use to ensure team members have an input into the planning, decision-making and operational aspects of their work.

Follow up their process
Regular meeting
Review their performance report

4. Outline the strategies you will use to encourage team members to participate in and to take responsibility for team activities, including communication processes.

Always listen to them
Explain more, complain less
Review policy and procedures

5. Bizops currently has no policies or procedures that outline how the organization supports or implements processes to develop and facilitate team cohesion, or to allow team members to take responsibility for their own work or assist others to perform required roles and responsibilities.

Prepare a draft policy and set of procedures that would achieve this. It may be relevant to utilise information that has already been documented in completing tasks 1-5 above.

Draft policy

Our goals:

To help developing and encourage staff to be able to work together and to raise awareness of how cohesion is important in organization.

Meeting will be held every fortnight to discuss with cohesion
Task sharing will be re arranged equally and supervisor will provide assistance
The ability to work with others

6. Outline what leadership techniques and strategies you would use to provide feedback and encourages, values and reward members of your team.

Maintain Open Communication

Remain accessible at all times so team members can ask questions, get your opinion on project steps and provide feedback on the project's current status. Your availability plays a large role in motivating team members because it shows your employees that you're taking an active role in project completion. Being unavailable to take team member questions can send a message that you don't consider the project important or don't value team member feedback. This can hurt productivity and diminish the quality of the finished product.

Praise and Correct Employees

A leader's ability to praise and provide guidance for employees has a significant influence over morale and motivation. Praising employees in full view of other workers encourages employees to perform up to similar levels of productivity to gain comparable accolades. Conversely, correcting employee behaviors in private preserves worker egos, reduces employee embarrassment and allows you, as a leader, to provide focused guidance without the distractions of other team members. Disciplined workers retain feelings of respect for you as a leader and work harder for you because you take the time to provide them with clear steps to improve performance.

7. Outline the process that you would use to ensure that issues, concerns and problems identified by team members are recognized and addressed.

Inform team member that their issue has been receive and give them certain timeframe with the process of solution. Could be auto reply email.

8. Bizops expects its retail outlet managers to lead by example. Outline how you will ensure you own contribution to the work team serves as a role model for others and enhances the organisation’s image for all stakeholders.

Share information readily
Pay attention to member even just a small mistake
Play a positive role in the meetings

9. Outline how you will facilitate communication processes with each of your team’s stakeholder groups.

Adjust communicate channel to each member
Ensure all decisions and actions are recorded. You may want to use a scribe to do this, so that you can stay focused on the group and the process.
Encourage member If in doubt, ask for clarification before the discussion moves on.

10. Outline how you will facilitate a two-way flow of information on team performance issues between your team and senior management.

I would be a middle man to pass massage from senior management to team member in brief but sharp with action plan. In the other hands, team could always discuss with me first as it might not need senior management decision but if it needs, I will summarise in short report for management.