8600-341 Leading and Motivating a Team Effectively

Unit Overview

8600-341 Leading and motivating a Team Effectively is a unit within the ILM Level 3 module that builds the builds the abilities and capacities of a leader to effectively influence the performance of their teams by ensuring that they are able to create positive motivation. Motivations are important within the organisation setting as it helps  reinforce desired behaviours, attitudes and performances within the organisation. As such, in fulfilling the leadership roles within the organisation, leaders must ensure that they are able to influence the behaviours and performances of the employees and team members to align them with the organisational goals and objectives and the expected standards of performance within the organisation.

The unit plays a critical role in building an understanding to leaders in low levels of management within the organisation to effectively put in place strategies. Motivation, in this case, facilitates the accomplishment of leadership duties by providing both an influence and control over the behaviours, attitudes and performances of the individuals within the team. The main purpose of this unit, therefore, is to build the understanding and knowledge in leading and motivating individuals within the team based on the modules and theories of motivation as required for practising or potential first-line managers, junior managers and supervisors within the organisation. The unit is taught in 7 hours of guided learning and contributes 2 credit values to the completion of the ILM Level 3 module.

Suitability of the Unit

All organisational leaders must be in a position to effectively lead the individuals within the teams to ensure they pursue common goals and objective that is aligned with organisational goals and objectives. This unit is therefore important to all organisational leaders in facilitating the ability to use motivation as a tool to focus on accomplishing tasks with an expected standard of performance. However, the main contents of the unit are designed to meet the learning needs of supervisors, junior managers and first-line managers within the organisation.

This is a group of people that are tasked with overseeing the activities of a project team and ensuring that it is able to successfully accomplish the assigned task. 8600-341 Leading and motivating a Team Effectively is a unit that provides these leaders with the information that is required in building an environment embracing approaches such as motivation that help to meet the needs of individuals within the team hence influence their performance in accomplishing the assigned tasks.

The unit is, however not limited to this level of leadership. Executive managers and middle managers need to understand the skills and concepts of effectively leading and motivating individuals within the workplace to ensure they are able to fulfil their roles and obligations within the workplace. Employees and team members can also use the information provided within this unit to improve their professional knowledge and build capabilities for accomplishing future leadership tasks.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of the unit, the learners should be able to:

• Explain the significance of having a common sense of purpose within the team that supports the overall vision and strategies of the organisation

• Understand the role of effective communication in developing the desired common sense of purpose to guide team activities

• Identify the effectiveness of individual communication skills based on the ability to create a common sense of purpose within the teams

• Understand motivational factors in an organisational context and apply these factors in different contexts, situations, teams and individual handling in the area of responsibility

• Understand the significance of a leader in motivating teams and individuals to gain their commitment to the objectives of the team

• Show understanding of the role that leaders play in supporting and developing the team members and indicate situations where this role is applicable in the area of responsibility

Key Areas of Focus

8600-341 Leading and motivating a Team Effectively is determined to impact the ability of the leader to influence performance within their teams by motivating individuals within the team and communicating team goals and tasks effectively. Some of the main areas of focus within this unit include:

Vision, Strategy and Objectives

Leaders within the organisation must ensure that the team activities are guided by strategies and vision that support the overall organisational goals and objectives. As such, this area of learning helps to build the understanding of the alignment of team strategies to the overall organisational goals and objectives and the contribution that these teams have in improving the performance of the organisation.

Learners are also taken through different approaches of communication that can be used within their areas of responsibility to support the ability to effectively influence the team members to develop a common sense of purpose that is aligned with the objectives and strategies. The area further introduced techniques for communicating the vision, goals and objectives, including the setting of the context for communication and effectively communicating with the team members to achieve the desired sense of purpose within the team.

Motivation Within Teams

This area of learning focuses on presenting the models of motivation and leading of the individual within a team. The focus of this area is first on the motivation theories that are established to guide the leaders in understanding the needs of the employees. This includes theories such as Maslow’s hierarchy, McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y, and McClelland’s 3-needs theory, among others.

The learners are guided to master this theory and their applications within the organisational context.t they are also taken through the motivational factors that are available to them as leaders within teams. This area provides support on different techniques to use in selecting the relevant motivational factors within the area of operation and the process of giving feedback on performance to the higher authorities within the organisation.

Evaluation

The learners are evaluated using both a written assessment and supervised practice. The combination of other two approaches helps to examine both the mastery of theoretical concepts learned within the unit and the practical application of the concept in an organisational setting.