Answer

Creating and Leading Effective Teams

 Teams are comprised of unique and diverse individuals who work together towards achieving a common goal. As such, to remain creative and competitive in the external environment, contemporary organizations must be team-oriented. Northouse (2016) posited that teams enable enterprises to compete team-based organizations have a flatter organizational structure that depends on teams, as well as, new technology to ease communication across space and time. As such, an organization must understand how to design effective teams in their environment to remain relevant.

Characteristics and Structure of Effective Teams

             The culture of an organization has a major impact on controlling the performance of such an organization due to the dire need for collaboration between various teams in the organization. Principally, changing the overall structure of teams influence the organization’s values and collaboration among teams. Essentially, increasing the collaboration and trust among the workers is one of the guiding princes in creating successful teams. Establishing the right structure entails looking for teams that can work collaboratively. Clutterbuck, Gannon, Hayes, Iordanou, Lowe, and MacKie (2019) contended that the future is founded on communication culture ethics and a purpose-based team by improving better collaboration and communication among the teams. Initially, Blake-Sports Apparel was run with a high level of flexibility. Improving the reporting system of an organization is a major characteristic of an effective company’s structure.

            Independent teams build the lifeblood of any company. These teams help reduce business risks and bring on board many changes in the organization. Moreover, giving small team independence equips them with the knowledge of understanding the fact that they are charged with running a given segment of the organization. Blake- Sports Apparel designs independent teams in the future that helps customers and addresses issues in the organization. Precisely, the departments in this organization established their reporting system. Moreover, the independent team enacted policies within their department to ensure their success with reduced supervision by the management.

Critical Factors When Leading at the Executive Level

             Organizational leadership is a challenging task that requires a competent leader who can lead workers across various levels. Some of the factors to consider when leading organizational teams in various levels include trust and communication among the organizational teams. Collaboration among teams is critical in attaining the goals of the organization. In fact, poor communication between teams hinders productivity.

            Communication is the key leadership factor when dealing with teams at the executive level. Essentially, improper communication among members of the executive team threatens the success of an organization. Moreover, communication barriers also hinder the performance of the organization. As such, the executive team is supposed to submit complaints or reports concerned with the departments without hiding any information. Moreover, there should be a proper process of sharing information to improve the transmission of information among departments and ensuring quick responses. Barker reacted to communication criticism with Blake Sports Apparel by asserting that it would be appropriate for people to promptly respond to their colleagues’ emails.  Intuitively, leveraging proper communication between teams brings about efficiency in enacting new rules and regulations while concealing important information by executive can have detrimental impacts on the organization (Franz, 2012).

Essential Aspects in Identifying Appropriate Team Members

             Teamwork is considered more important in realizing organizational goals. Essentially, it is prudent to select team member who is devoted to attaining the organizational goals and have the necessary required skills. All the members of the selected team should be responsible for achieving the goals of the organization. Implementing an approach to the individual performance assessment allows the selected members of the team to take up the team performance. Moreover, considering the skills and social diversity within teams foster the growth of knowledgeable and skilled teams to enhance the overall performance. Moreover, in knowledgeable and diverse teams, all members of the team should understand their roles that play a critical role in attaining the general objectives of the team. To achieve the general goal, the identified team member should be responsible. Moreover, creating an appropriate combination of individuals is critical to successful teams. Another critical factor to consider to ensure that team is launched successfully entails establishing the appropriate number of team members. Other factors include deciding on the required number of team members.

Important Factors for Ongoing Team Dynamics

            The most appropriate way to establish whether teams are operating successfully is by evaluating communication between the members of the team. Some of the key ongoing team dynamics ensure that every member understands the goal and purpose of their team. Some of the important factors for ongoing team dynamics encompass diversity, team productivity, communication, and team’s behavioral characteristics. If members cannot work as a unit, the productivity of the team is likely to be hindered. Therefore, proper and effective interaction between the team members should be key (Kwiatkowski, 2019). The presence of a favorable working environment among all team members positively influences the ongoing team dynamics. As such, the working environment should be established to pay attention to productivity and positive team dynamics. Guidelines to evaluate the functionality and productivity of the team will ensure that teams perform exemplary and can achieve the organizational goals. Regular reviews on group competencies should be carried out by focusing on knowledgeable and skilled workers. Leadership competency should be created through reviewing the teams.

Empowering Teams through Compassion to Support Equality and Honor Diversity

            To lead with compassion to support equality and honor diversity, leaders must appreciate religious, cultural, and other differences that exist among the members. This implies that each member should be involved in certain procedures and processes that take place in the group. Therefore, leadership should foster participation from every member by gathering their views and opinions and acting on them accordingly. Moreover, to encourage equality and diversity for every member, the leader should gather feedback from every member regarding certain procedures.

Strategies for Creating Collaboration and Leadership Initiatives

             Collaboration is the force that drive people towards success since it makes the team members to achieve organizational goals. The most important component of collaboration encompasses coordinating activities in the organization. Thus, establishing a proper communication network is critical in attaining collaboration among the members of the team. From the case scenario, Barker states that the executive team can perform exemplary. As such, establishing a strong united team, as well as, better communication systems will be essential in addressing collaboration challenges that Barker faces.

Empowering the Team from Christian Worldview Perspective

             Compassion creates positive rapport in the organization to foster trust among workers. Key values incorporated through compassion include trust, honesty, and integrity. From a Christian perspective, enacting policies that support diversity, Christian values and equality is important for an organization. Teaching workers about the importance of diversity establishes new perspectives. Therefore, everyone should be treated with the respect he or she deserves.