👉 Assignment Type: Continuous Assessment – QQI Level 6 (6N1948).
Team leadership in Ireland has always carried a certain quiet weight. It’s not just about managing people or ticking boxes but about shaping the tone of a place – the rhythm of communication, the balance between fairness and results. Across small Irish enterprises, community projects, and public-sector offices, leadership shows itself in the ordinary moments: a supervisor who steadies a team after a missed deadline, or a coordinator who notices when someone’s running thin. The 6N1948 Team Leadership module explores that mix of structure and humanity, where theory meets the daily noise of real work.
Modern Irish workplaces – from Cork distribution hubs to HSE clinics – rely on teamwork that’s steady but flexible. Leaders now face hybrid schedules, mixed skill sets, and constant digital chatter. In practice, the role calls for empathy as much as control, with the Equality Acts, GDPR, and the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act shaping every decision. All the same, leadership here remains a living craft rather than a fixed rulebook. It depends on awareness, patience, and the courage to guide people through shifting demands.
The 6N1948 Team Leadership module builds the habits that turn a group into something more than the sum of its parts. Learners explore how planning, motivation, and reflection shape successful teams across Ireland’s varied sectors – retail, education, voluntary work, and the public service. In practice, strong leadership makes the difference between a day that drifts and a team that delivers.
In this section, we will provide some assignment briefs. These are:
Research the elements and stages of team development, including different kinds of teams, a multi-team environment, the characteristics of an effective team, and the need for different roles for individuals.
Team development doesn’t unfold neatly. It shifts through stages that Bruce Tuckman described decades ago – forming, storming, norming, performing – yet every Irish team finds its own rhythm within that pattern. In a Galway community enterprise, for example, the forming stage might be a quick coffee after a grant meeting, while storming could surface quietly during budget planning. To be fair, that tension often helps. It clears space for honesty if managed well.
Belbin’s team-role theory adds another layer, showing how balance comes when individuals bring distinct strengths – a coordinator steadying the process, a plant sparking new ideas, a completer-finisher minding the details. In hybrid offices or cross-county projects, those roles blur. People cover gaps, share drives, and depend on brief messages more than face-to-face cues. Communication becomes the glue. Without it, trust leaks away.
Effective teams in Ireland share traits that go beyond charts: openness, mutual respect, and a sense of fairness that mirrors wider Irish work culture. They blend laughter with deadlines, debate with care. In multi-team environments – such as an HSE service linking nurses, admin staff, and contractors – clarity matters most. A short Friday check-in or a shared task list can stop small misunderstandings from turning into real divides. Over time, when trust and communication keep flowing, the group shifts quietly from coordination to cooperation, and then to genuine teamwork.
Evaluate the concepts of leadership and management, different leadership and management styles, and the principal theories that underpin these, to include leadership in different contexts and environments such as mentoring, coaching, project management, the learning organization, and the debate over leadership versus management.
Leadership and management walk side by side, but not always in step. Management shapes order – rotas, budgets, compliance – while leadership gives direction and meaning. Irish workplaces often blend both, especially in small teams where one person ends up wearing every hat. The debate over which matters more rarely helps; what counts is how they support each other on the ground.
Theories offer signposts. Kurt Lewin’s democratic, autocratic, and laissez-faire styles still echo in day-to-day choices – whether a Cork retail manager consults staff before changing shifts or simply posts the new schedule. The Hersey-Blanchard situational model reminds leaders that one style rarely fits all. New team members might need close guidance; experienced ones often prefer space to decide. To be fair, getting that balance right takes time.
Daniel Goleman’s emotional-intelligence theory has become increasingly relevant in Irish contexts. A team leader in a voluntary youth project might lean on empathy and social awareness to calm tensions, while a project manager in a Dublin start-up draws on self-regulation during tight funding rounds. Mintzberg’s view of managers as decision-makers and negotiators fits the same pattern – structure meeting people.
In practice, leadership shows in mentoring chats, coaching sessions, and those quiet corridor talks where someone feels heard. Irish learning organisations, especially within education and healthcare, thrive when leadership becomes a shared habit rather than a top-down act. The most effective leaders switch tones as needed – guiding one day, listening the next – turning theory into everyday sense.
Participate in organizational planning and in teamwork planning, including setting specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) objectives, ongoing monitoring of progress, and evaluation.
Planning can look tidy on paper, but in an Irish workplace it often unfolds in small steps – half-filled spreadsheets, short team calls, quick updates before lunch. The SMART framework helps give that shape: goals that are clear enough to measure yet flexible enough to adapt. In a Limerick social enterprise, for instance, a project plan might set an objective of increasing volunteer retention by 15 percent within six months. It’s measurable but leaves room for reflection.
Monitoring progress works best when it’s part of normal routines. Short reviews, traffic-light systems, or a simple Gantt chart can track deadlines without adding more admin. In practice, people respond better to honest feedback than to formal reports. A short chat near the canteen can achieve more than an email chain; all the same, it helps when those informal talks are followed up with brief notes so that accountability remains visible.
Evaluation closes the loop. Post-project reflections, often done during Friday meetings or monthly staff briefings, give teams space to recognise what worked and what dragged. In a lot of Irish workplaces, evaluations are slowly finding their place beside training rather than after it. The idea is simple enough — when something goes wrong, the talk turns to what can be learned, not who’s at fault. To be fair, it takes time to build that habit. Still, when planning follows the SMART approach, big hopes stop feeling vague. They break down into smaller pieces that can actually be done, day by day. Over time, that kind of steady rhythm changes the mood in a team. People stop reacting to problems and start reviewing them instead — a quieter, steadier way of growing.
Distinguish between organizational strategy, objectives, and goals.
Strategy, objectives, and goals are often spoken together, yet they play very different tunes. Strategy sketches the long-term vision – where an organisation wants to stand in five years. Objectives turn that vision into medium-term targets, while goals mark the specific steps that show progress. In practice, confusion between them can leave teams chasing numbers without meaning.
Take a Dublin hospitality firm rebuilding after economic shocks. Its strategy might focus on sustainable growth and community reputation. From that, objectives could include expanding local partnerships and improving staff retention. The goals then become concrete: introduce a flexible rota within three months, host two training sessions per quarter, raise guest feedback scores by 10 percent. Each layer supports the next.
Across Ireland, strategies often align with national values – fairness, inclusion, and safety. Public-service teams might link objectives to the Civil Service Renewal 2030 framework, while SMEs follow Enterprise Ireland’s sustainability guidelines. To be fair, strategy writing can feel abstract, but once linked to local routines – morning briefings, compliance checklists, staff development plans – it gains traction.
Effective leaders help their teams see how daily tasks feed into that bigger picture. A cleaner’s attention to detail, a receptionist’s warmth, a technician’s efficiency – all become evidence that goals and strategy are meeting in practice. Clarity around these distinctions keeps motivation honest and prevents drift, turning paperwork into progress.
Evaluate a range of current motivation theories and practical strategies to enhance motivation in teams.
Some days, keeping people motivated feels easy. Other days, no amount of tea or good humour can lift the mood. Still, it helps to know the thinking behind what makes teams tick. Maslow’s hierarchy puts the basics first — pay that covers the bills, safety in the job, and a sense that the place runs fair. Once those are steady, people start to look higher, wanting progress, respect, and meaning in what they do.
Herzberg spoke about things that keep people satisfied — recognition, trust, a small “well done” after a long shift. To be fair, that bit still matters most. McClelland’s ideas about people being driven by achievement, belonging, or influence fit well with Irish workplaces too. In a Cork office, one person might love the challenge of deadlines, while another sticks around for the chats and sense of belonging. Self-Determination Theory goes deeper again, saying motivation grows when people feel choice, skill, and connection.
In practice, it’s the human touches that count. Letting someone swap a shift to mind a child, listening when they’ve had a rough week, or giving them space to lead a small task — that’s what keeps teams steady. It’s not fancy psychology. It’s respect and noticing. And when that’s missing, the spark fades fast.
Demonstrate team leadership, including team building, supporting team members at different stages of team development, motivation strategies, interpersonal communications, time and meeting management, and use of inter- and intra-team reporting structures.
Leadership doesn’t start with titles. It begins with how people are treated when things go wrong. In Irish settings — from early-years rooms to charity offices — team building often happens by accident. Someone brings biscuits, someone else helps with forms, and slowly a kind of trust builds. That’s the real glue.
Different members move through their own stages. The Tuckman model talks about forming, storming, norming, and performing, though in truth those stages overlap. A good leader spots when someone’s stuck and offers a nudge. Maybe they need clearer steps or a bit of reassurance. Hybrid work makes it trickier — faces half on screen, half in person — but the heart of it stays the same: fairness and tone.
Meetings, if they drag, drain energy fast. The better ones are short and focused. A quick Monday catch-up, a short progress chat mid-week. Irish teams prefer plain talk. Reporting might be through a simple sheet or quick message; it doesn’t need layers of jargon. All the same, what matters most is honesty. When people trust their leader’s word, even tight weeks start to feel doable.
Negotiate a plan or project with team members, to include effective delegation of tasks and responsibilities.
Negotiating a plan takes a bit of nerve and a lot of listening. It’s rarely smooth. One person’s under pressure, another feels overlooked, and someone’s wondering who’ll take the late shift. A fair leader sits with it, listens, and adjusts. It’s not about winning; it’s about balance.
In practice, leaders match jobs to strengths. Belbin’s team roles help — giving the creative type a task that needs ideas, letting the detail-focused one handle the tidy-up work. In a Dublin marketing start-up, that might mean the “plant” thinking up campaign ideas while the “finisher” checks every line before launch. It sounds small, but it saves stress later.
Delegation works when trust is alive. People take ownership because they feel seen. To be fair, it’s easy to slip — a rushed email, unclear instructions, or a missed thank-you. Still, when leaders share control and admit mistakes, teams usually step up. A good plan breathes; it bends when life does.
Lead progress on a work plan, including taking corrective action to ensure successful completion of the plan, ongoing monitoring of progress, and evaluation.
Progress in real teams doesn’t glide forward. It bumps, stalls, and gets messy. One week everything runs grand, the next week someone’s off sick or a system crashes. A steady leader doesn’t panic. They pull the group back to what can still be done.
Corrective action might just mean tweaking tasks, borrowing staff, or adjusting a deadline before things slip too far. In a Limerick care home, for instance, a lead carer might reshuffle staff when a resident’s needs change suddenly. It’s not dramatic — just calm, practical sense.
Monitoring works best when it’s constant but light. A quick check-in, a shared sheet, or a five-minute chat does more than a long formal report. At the end, reflection matters. Irish teams often talk things through over tea, quietly reviewing what went well and what went sideways. Those talks stick. They help people grow without blame. All the same, that’s where real leadership shows — in how a group learns after the rush has passed.
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