Role of Leadership and Team Building in Employee Motivation

 

The motivators which fulfill the employees’ various competing needs, are the elements used to boost the performance (Paul & Vincent, 2018). In addition to that, the ultimate purpose of motivation is to achieve the organizational success through job satisfaction of the employees. Khan and Wajidi (2019) states that the motivation level of employees is considered as one of the most vital elements in attainment of the highest level of success and prosperity in business in such dynamic market competition. Hence, the competition level requires innovative techniques, theories and strategies to battle in order to gain competitive advantage through job satisfaction (Khan & Wajidi, 2019). It is a challenging task to maintain the level of satisfaction of the employees.

Team building acts as a motivational factor to encourage the job satisfaction because, effective teams tend to make things happen more than anything else in organizations (Fapohunda, 2013). According to Fajana (2002), the importance of team building is, current organizations are looking to team-based structures to encourage further enhancements to their productivity, profitability and service quality. Furthermore, team building focuses to specialize in bringing out the best in a team to ensure achieving benefits through intrinsic and extrinsic rewards such as self-development, positive communication, leadership skills and the ability to work closely together as a team to solve problems (Fapohunda, 2013). In order to achieve the employee’s satisfaction in teams, the leader have to understand and identify employee’s expectations, needs and requirements to create a healthy working environment by applying proper motivational strategies (Luomanpaa, 2012).

Vedio 1: How to Keep your Team Motivated      

                                        Source: Kellogg School of Management (2015)

In order to achieve the organizational goals, the leaders and the employees should work together in an organization. Hanifah et al. (2014) mention that leadership styles play a vital role in running the organizations effectively. It is a proved fact that, motivation is a special approach which leads an organization to perform at its best and keep the employees satisfied about their job (Wanjau & Kyongo, 2013). Therefore, Hanifah et al. (2014) mention that the leaders who directly contacts the subordinates daily should pay their attention to work motivations seriously. According to Wirawan et al. (2009) the leadership style and work motivation affect the organizational performance. Furthermore, Employee performance is highly integrated with the leader’s role while the employee requires motivation to work. 

Practical Application of Leadership and Team Building as a Motivation Factor in Organizational Context

Considering the current organizational context, among the trendy approaches the companies have taken to battle in pursuit of competitive advantages, Team Building has transformed to Virtual basis as a relatively recent phenomenon, which requires modern approaches than working in the traditional organizational environment (Prasad et al., 2002). Going forward with the global pandemic, most of the companies started to build virtual teams, because WFH concept made the employees feel like alienated or disconnected compared to onsite employees (Garro-Abarca et al., 2021). Teams building keep the co-workers connected by flushing away the loneliness, releasing the work stress and attaining a healthy work life balance with a very strong sense of belonging whereas motivate the employees to improve the performance with innovative ideas (Lajčin et al, 2021).

With the industrial experience in financial services sector, it can be proved that the team members achieve more efficiency in tasks assigned compared to individual works. Most of the tasks are linked to each other and different team members are specialized to do the particular task. Team leaders tend to achieve the assigned tasks by motivating the employees to perform through satisfying their unmet needs or reducing the dissatisfaction. 

As practical examples from where I have my working experience in banking industry, the managers apply practical implications such as building quality working relationships, flexible administration, work-life balancing, flexible working hours, satisfactory working conditions and quality supervision can be identified. Moreover it can be explained as the managers of the bank, keep the employees updated about business performances and management decisions, ask employees about their ideas before making decisions by holding weekly briefings to plan and discuss, Provide each person a good, comfortable organizational environment and the right training and equipment for the job. Furthermore, building up an atmosphere of trust and teamwork, not defensiveness and fear by avoiding blame, Encouraging people to ask for help when difficulties arise because the employees avoid decision making in case if they are wrong. Share any news and problems and give employees credit for their achievements and criticisms in weekly briefings or daily if it is an urgent matter. As well as especially for task failure or criticism, riding roughshod over employees leads to poor morale, low productivity and staff turnover.

Furthermore, the leadership of the bank has allowed employees progress from being beginners in a role to the point where they enjoy real competence and take full responsibility. Clear and confident instruction is given for newly recruited employees and when existing employees get a new task or an equipment. Teaching more advanced skills which improves loyalty and employee work engagement and continuous encouragement helps to build the confidence of even experienced employees.

As a conclusion, a leader should develop his abilities to coach and motivate people and the key to successful motivation is the attitude of the leader. Luomanpaa (2012) mentions that the effective leaders of the teams identify the actual needs of the team members and address the problems with strategic solutions to get the best outcome through the motivation. 

Reference

Lajčin, D. and Porubčanová, D., 2021. Teamwork during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Emerging Science Journal, 5, pp.1-10.

Fajana, S., 2002. Human resource management: An introduction. Lagos: Labofin and Company.

Fapohunda, T.M., 2013. Towards effective team building in the workplace. International journal of education and research, 1(4), pp.1-12.

Fapohunda, T.M., 2013. Towards effective team building in the workplace. International journal of education and research, 1(4), pp.1-12.

Garro-Abarca, V., Palos-Sanchez, P. and Aguayo-Camacho, M., 2021. Virtual Teams in Times of Pandemic: Factors That Influence Performance. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, p.232.

Hanifah, H., Susanthi, N.I. and Setiawan, A., 2014. The Effect of Leadership Style on Motivation to Improve the Employee Performance. Jurnal Manajemen Transportasi & Logistik, 1(3), pp.221-226.

Khan, M.R. and Wajidi, A., 2019. Role of leadership and team building in employee motivation at workplace. GMJACS, 9(1), pp.11-11.

Luomanpää, R., 2012. Employee motivation at Tommy Bartlett, Inc.

Paul, A.K. and Vincent, T.N., 2018. Employee motivation and retention: issues and challenges in startup companies. Int. J. Creat. Res. Thoughts, 6, pp.2050-2056.

Prasad, K. and Akhilesh, K.B., 2002. Global virtual teams: what impacts their design and performance?. Team Performance Management: An International Journal.

Wanjau, M.N. and Kyongo, J.K., 2013. Contribution of motivational management to employee performance.

Wirawan, H., Tamar, M. and Bellani, E., 2019. Principals’ leadership styles: the role of emotional intelligence and achievement motivation. International Journal of Educational Management.