1: Political power will give you an edge and can contribute your success. if you have a problem that needs to be solved you should follow your chain of command and mention it to your immediate supervisor but sometimes its even out of their hands. for me personally I have had recommendations and suggestions and if I voice these to my immediate supervisor and nothing comes of it, I always take advantage of our upper leadership meeting that are held once a year by the "big wigs" when they ask for questions or comments at the end of their presentations I use this time to voice my concerns and get my name and face out there. It makes me look like I care about my job (which I do) and that I am concerned with the betterment of our company.
2: The composition of the team is very important to the overall success of the team. When creating a team, it is important to get to know all of the members of the team and what their strengths and weaknesses are so you know what assignments to give each of the members.
If you are the leader of a team then your success depends on how successful your team is. If you are not able to manage the team effectively then it looks bad on you and people will not be confident in your ability to lead. If you are not an effective leader that will impact your future career moves.
3: I would have a one on one meeting with the loafer to see there was something going on that I could possibly help with or just to find out why they were not wanting to participate. After trying to understand what was going on with the loafer, I would then assign tasks to be completed depending on the situation. There are alot of different reasons that someone could be loafing.
I think giving them the opportunity to speak about it will give a great starting place on how to deal with it. I do agree that having a follow up meeting to asses things after tasks had been delegated is also a great idea.
4: I agree that finding a great team dynamic can prove to be challenging but looking at everyone strengths and making sure you build a team with a good diversity will build one of the best teams because you will have a variety of things that are brought to the table.
Some other basic attributes of a great team would be a total involvement of everyone on the team for making decisions, that when someone in the team is talking you make sure that the message is heard and understood and their point of view is valued and shared.
Another good attribute is taking in to care all of the suggestions made by the team to consider all ideas and suggestions made by others and not just seeing or doing things from one old standpoint.