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Lead your team to their objectives effectively.
© iStockphoto/ssstep
Imagine that your boss has just assigned a major project to your new team. There are some very talented people within the team, but you've worked with them in the past, and it wasn't a pleasant experience...
You've always felt that the best way to manage a fast-paced, expert team is to set objectives, and then let team members work out how they'll deliver for themselves. You don't want to interfere with what they're doing, so you rarely have meetings with individuals or with the group.
The problem is that the team hasn't responded well to this approach. So what else should you do? Would daily meetings waste your people's time? And would they be annoyed if you involved yourself more in decision-making, or gave them more guidance on the project?
When thinking about the best way to lead a team, we have to consider several different factors, and it's easy choose the wrong approach. When this happens, morale, effectiveness, and productivity can suffer.
Path-Goal Theory helps you identify an effective approach to leadership, based on what your people want and your current situation. In this article, we'll look at Path-Goal Theory, and we'll explore how you can apply it to your own situation.
Psychologist, Robert House, developed Path-Goal Theory in 1971, and then redefined and updated it in a 1996 article in The Leadership Quarterly. Let's look at some of the elements of the theory.
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House, R.J. (1996) 'Path Goal Theory of Leadership: Lessons, Legacy, and a Reformulated Theory, Leadership Quarterly, Vol 7, No 3.
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