The Secret of Successful Team - Essay Example

?As the literature indicates, successful team is difficult to find as it is a mixture of many elements that are combined together to enhance the effectiveness of the team (Belbin, 2012). Out of such elements, reflexivity and commitment towards the team are the elements that not only help the team to work together but also support every step the team takes (Gordon, 2002). In practice, I observed that my team was more successful than others in many areas. For instance, my team relied heavily on open communication as it helped the members of my team to resolve any conflict or issue they had regarding the work. Despite of such conflicts my team members focused on the completion of the task. From the very beginning open communication was encouraged and it led the team to work in excellent working environment. Due to such working environment and open communication, the members of my team started trusting each other and addressed each other by their first name. This let us establish and work on common goals and we put aside the personal goals when working in team. Each member of my team was highly involved and participated in the completion of work. They were motivated and did almost every task before they were asked to perform. This high commitment towards the team and work made the completion of task much easier than expected (Edmondson, 2003). Formation of a team is one of the most essential process to gather the most intellectual and talented members. As the academic theories anticipates that for a successful team formation it is essential to go through specially designed programs that last 12-24 months (Eppler & Sukowski, 2000). Availability of time was the major constraint to form a perfect team but still I was able to form a team that was ready to work together towards the achievement of desired goals and objectives. As indicated by Lennox (2001) that an effective team could significantly change the direction of the organisation and to make this happen my team members trusted each other and motivated one another to keep moving forward till the completion of tasks. The second important process for effective team is its development (San Martin-Rodriguez, Beaulieu, D'Amour, & Ferrada-Videla, 2005). For the development of an effective team we adopted and followed Tuckman’s theory of team development (Mullins, 2008. My team experienced all five stages of team development i.e. forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning (Reilly & Jones, 2008). At the forming stage, team members introduced themselves to one another which led to the evaluation of common interest. This introduction also helped the members of the team to establish their preferences and dislikes towards others in the team. Since, each member of the team had unique skills and talents they distributed their roles according to the resources that each members had access to rather than by votes or any other formal process. Shortly after the determination of roles and responsibilities my team established common practices of behavior. This establishment of common practices helped the team to work together and helped the team members to eliminate all the discriminating factors that could affect the performance of my team. In order to communicate with one another, my team members selected English as the primary language as all the members of my team was aware of this language. The storming phase was the most difficult phase for my team as each member was trying to force their ideas and opinions. In order to resolve such intense discussion, I offered my team with a solution i.e. to hear what was being proposed by each team member and vote would decide regarding the selection of idea. As a result of such decision, my team was able to work effectively but the disadvantage with such decision was that it took quite some time but in the end, the team was once again on the same platform. My team members appreciated each idea even though they had totally opposite ones but this allowed the members of my team to be motivated. This challenging phase of team development came to an end when each member of the team tried to put their personal ideas aside and heard what other had to say. Their loyalty towards the team and its members was simply outstanding. This eventually allowed the team to regain its balance which once I thought was impossible. New norms and standards were developed in my team after such cooperation among the team members. Each team member now understands the importance of listening to what others have to say. Due to such promising efforts of my team, the team and its members were once again on the right path to success. New goals and objectives were set after its clarification. The successful completion of norming phase, my team entered the fourth phase of team development i.e. performing phase. When my team reached this stage they all were asking the same question “How can we do our best?” and were enthusiastic to see their dedication towards their work finally ready to bloom. At this stage, my team members were totally unified and had fully developed their potential. In order to reach the fourth phase of team development, each individual in my team sacrificed a lot. They worked day and night for the completion of appointed task and responsibility with single aim i.e. to fulfil their duties to get the job done. The special thing that I noticed regarding my team was their overall goal. Their overall goal was productivity through problem solving and hard work. As indicated by Mullins (2008), adjourning is the final stage in team development process. The initial stages of group development were regarding the completion of tasks and duties, whereas this stage of development process is the end of the group. Since the task that was allotted to the group was completed, the group dissolved in a positive way because each of the group members was connected to others in the group and had established personal relationship with each other. During the adjourning of the group, the group members were highly motivated and tied up all the loose ends of the projects. In addition, each member of my group monitored and evaluated the project and made sure that everything was accurate. Before the adjourning of my group, me and my group members spent time reflecting experience in the project. We discussed about our roles and provided members with feedback regarding their participation. Most of the feedback was regarding the areas where each member could have done better within the team. Each member was satisfied with their personal and individual achievement along with their achievement by being a part of my team. At the very early stage of the project, I was selected to lead the team by my colleagues due to my prior team experience and unique skills in problem solving. Even though, there were others that had prior experience in leading a project team but there was no rivalry when I was selected as the team leader. Under my leadership, the team members were able to resolve their conflicts regarding the project. Resolving conflicts was the most challenging part in leadership. In order to keep the team bonded together, I always acted as a third party and focused on resolving the conflict by analysing and evaluating the roots of the conflict. Exercising open communication with the team members reduced the conflicts among the team to great extent. Such exercise allowed the team members to understand the points that others were trying to make and this provided each member with an opportunity to identify their point of views. Even though, I was the team leader I let the members of my team to select tasks and responsibilities that they preferred. In order to get the work done on time, I monitored the progress of each individual and provided each of them with feedback to make the task more effective. The feedback was not just regarding effectiveness but it also involved the major aspect i.e. client’s satisfaction. For the team members to remain active, they were provided with certain additional tasks. Half of the members of the team were asked to undertake maintenance function while the rest of the team members kept their focus on the tasks. This allotment of additional tasks kept the members of the team moving forward. Among the team member, I selected a particular team worker whose attitude towards work was quite amazing and outstanding. Due to the worker’s calm and positive attitude conflicts were resolved before any discrepancies in the team. In addition, all the members took active part in the establishment of norms and standards that were to be followed by each member of my team. In order to eliminate low involvement in the team, each team member was asked to provide innovative ideas and to be highly involved and interested in decision making process. Due to such decisions the team worked harder and efficiently towards the accomplishment of goals and objectives (Barrick, Bradley, Kristof-Brown, & Colbert, 2007). In order to get the most out of this project, I created new challenges that were associated with the task. One thing I noticed about my team members was their cooperation. They followed every decision that I took and appreciated my work for their improvement. Despite their high involvement in the tasks, I had to continuously motivate them to get the task completed before the deadline. In addition, I also ensured that the results that were being provided to me were of high quality. To do so, the team members were asked to go through each of the steps thoroughly. Being a leader of my team, I was surrounded with several issues that could have reduced the performance and productivity of my team members. One of such issues was diversity in the team. Although this issue was of short term but the positive attitude of the team members reduced this issue to great extent. Due to such issue, my team’s performance was greatly influenced in first and second stage of development process. But as the time passed each member of the team accepted one another and all the differences were eliminated. High involvement of each team member was the major reason for the elimination of this issue. One another major issue was the rise of conflict as members were trying to force their ideas on others. By encouraging open communication in the team this issue was easily resolved but it took most of the project time (Barrick, Bradley, Kristof-Brown, & Colbert, 2007). To conclude, I would say that team processes are quite challenging but if the leader of the team possesses knowledge regarding change management and human resource it would become quite easy to manage a team (Barrick, Bradley, Kristof-Brown, & Colbert, 2007). Performance and effectiveness of the team relies heavily on the decisions that a team leader makes so in order to be successful in team development and completion of project, the leader should play active role in monitoring issues and should have the ability to come up with solutions at that very moment (Barrick, Bradley, Kristof-Brown, & Colbert, 2007). List of References Barrick, M. R., Bradley, B. H., Kristof-Brown, A. L., & Colbert, A. E. (2007). The moderating role of top management team interdependence: Implications for real teams and working groups. Academy of Management Journal, vol. 50, no. 3, pp. 544-557. Belbin, R. (2012). Management teams. Routledge. Edmondson, A. C. (2003). Speaking up in the operating room: How team leaders promote learning in interdisciplinary action teams. Journal of Management Studies, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 1419-1452. Eppler, M. J., & Sukowski, O. (2000). Managing team knowledge: core processes, tools and enabling factors. European Management Journal, vol. 18, no. 3, pp. 334-341. Gordon, J. (2002). A perspective on team building. Journal of American Academy of Business, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 185-8. Lennox, A. (2001). Team building for a better tomorrow. Journal of Property Management, vol. 66, no. 5, pp. 10-11. Mullins, J. (2008). Essentials of organizational behaviour. Essex, Harlow: Pearson Education Reilly, A. J., & Jones, J. E. (2008). Team building. The Pfeiffer Book of Successful Team-Building Tools: Best of the Annuals, 461. San Martin-Rodriguez, L., Beaulieu, M. D., D'Amour, D., & Ferrada-Videla, M. (2005). The determinants of successful collaboration: A review of theoretical and empirical studies. Journal of interprofessional care, vol. 19, no. S1, pp. 132-147. Read More