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An introduction to effective leadership of teams
Abstract
Within a healthcare setting, effective team work is achieved when team members understand, believe in and work towards the shared purpose of caring and working for improving outcomes for patients. This sense of common purpose should however never be assumed. Team leaders should talk about it at every opportunity and ensure all team members are striving towards it within their daily work. Team leaders should develop a ‘teaming strategy’ to plan how their staff will act and work together. Anecdotal evidence would suggest that many veterinary nurses become head nurse or team leader with no leadership development training being offered; as the purpose of a team can seem so self-evident, it is often overlooked or wrongly assumed to be in existence by those new to a leadership role. This article will serve as an introduction to team development and leadership for those aspiring or new to the role.
It must be understood that not all people who work together are a team. Adair (2009) defined a team as a group of people bound together by a common purpose who perform interdependent tasks, essentially meaning that team members rely on each other to carry out and complete their work, with different tasks allocated to different members (Ruby and DeBowes, 2007; Craig and McKeown, 2015). While veterinary nurses may work within different disciplines, for example as surgical nurses, emergency and critical care nurses and so on, for all veterinary nurses the most likely common goals in practice are the health and welfare of the patients entrusted to their care, and the quality of service they provide to their clients (Dale et al, 2013).
Tuckman (1965) proposed a model of team development that is still considered influential today. He suggested that teams move through four stages, namely: forming, storming, norming and performing (Box 1). The model was originally interpreted as linear, however it is now recognised as more of a cyclical process as teams are constantly evolving (Craig and McKeown, 2015).
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