The Importance Of Team Leadership

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“Leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people” Mahatma Gandhi Leadership today is interactive. Teams are core to organizational success and researchers have explored how team leaders and team leadership can help team in achieving this success. Though considerable attention is given to formal leaders, it is important to understand the functional view of team leadership. The sources of leadership can be conceptualized along the structural dimensions of locus of leadership and formality of leadership. (Morgeson et al. 2009) The locus of leadership dimension indicates whether the leader is a part of the team and thus engaged in part of the team’s task cycle (internal) or whether the leader is not a part of the team and thus outside the team’s day-to-day activities (external). The formality of leadership reflects whether the responsibility for team’s performance is formalized in the organisation (formal) or whether there is no direct relationship for a team’s leadership and performance (informal). Internal and formal leadership is the representative of the group of formally assigned team leaders or managers. External and formal leadership represents the group who do not take part in day to day activity of team such as team sponsor, coaches, and advisors. Internal and informal leadership happen when leadership responsibilities are distributed among members of the group or when some members emerge informally as a leader. Finally