The Concepts of a Typical Teamwork in Athletic Team - Assignment Example

Assignment/Journal Affliations Supervisors Introduction In any organization or setting, the concept of making a strong formidable team is very key to achieve any success for a given organization. Teamwork appear in almost all offices everywhere. There are myriad of benefits of having a teamwork in any organization. One of the advantages is motivation and support where the weaknesses of some and the strengths of others are mixed together for moral and motivation support. For example if one person does so well in one area while another is great at another thing then each can support each other with the talent that would be lacking if each was forced to work alone. The motivation team members can give each other creates greater synergy, leading to greater fulfillment within relationships at work. Temwork also helps in accountability of each other. It creates an environment in which members are accountable for what they produce. When all team members participate, it lends them a sense of pride and belonging, as well as status among the team. There are creative solutions from teamwork since two minds are better than one. Solutions to problems and fresh ideas are generated through brainstorming. Teamwork also allows skills, knowledge, opinions and experiences to be pooled together for the benefit of the team. This leads to better productivity for every member of the team, and every task completed by each worker leads to one noticeable outcome that the whole team and company can take proud in. Lastly teamwork encourages competition and growth amongst the members. Opportunities to learn from each others strengths can also lead to a healthy sense of competition that motivates the team to produce greater quality products. There are various concepts or elements that are key to any team or group which should be represented in a group or a team by the members. These concepts includes; Participation,Critical Thinking and Decision Making, Power, Conflict and Conflict Management, Commitment, Communication, Group Systems, Group Development ,Competition and Leadership. This study picked “Athletic Team” for case study in a high school where it happenens that I am also a member of the team. The team consists of 11 Athletes plus the coach. Our goal is to do our school proud in every event by always being number 1. As a team, we encounter different situations which present us with new challenesges. Each team member has unique demonstratable characteristic and talent critical for the club. These concepts of a typical teamwork are discussed below by way of illustration through the members. Communication Communicatuion is a process by which information is clearly and accurately exchanged between the team members. The exchange of information between a sender and a receiver, irrespective of the medium is what constitutes to a communication. For a team to work effectively it is essential team members acquire communication skills and use effective communication channels between one another. This will enable members of the group to work together and achieve the teams purpose and goals. Communication is the powerful tool in possession of knowledgeable individual that can be used to prosper any team. There are instance where communication breaks down,or don’t work for the team. Effective communication helps to build the skill of an individual by use of common sense. For a successfull teamwork building, members need to be able to communicate clearly on intellectual and emotional levels. Effective communicators should explain their own ideas, express their feelings in an open but non-threatening way, listen carefully to others, ask questions to clarify others’ ideas and emotions, sense how others feel based on their non-verbal communication, initiate conversations about group environment or process if they sense tensions brewing and lastly reflect on the activities and interactions of their group. Regular open communication, in which group members share their thoughts, ideas, and feelings, is a must for successful group work. My name is Aziz Shah and very passionate about the athletics and club in general. I have watched the Olympics games since my childhood and always wanted to join the team. As an active member of the team, I have the strength to communicate with the other members and share my ideas and strategies with other members.Communication has helped hold the team together even there is disgreemnet between the members. This has increased the team members to understand each individual’s point of view. It is what I ensuer each team member practices to ensure the team is working effectively and efficiently. Every member in the team I ensure take the initiative to communicate with each other in a manner that is understood. The first thing that I instill in the members when communication is confidence. Team members need to know and feel that they are adding value and contributing as an asset to the team itself. Participation Participation or Cooperation encompasses a helpful nature and willingness to participate actively within the team. Work team members succeed only when all members are fully engaged in sharing ideas and performing tasks. These cooperative attributes make a member much more valuable to his team. Active participation and cooperation also earns the respect of other team members, making them more willing to hear your ideas. Lukas is one of the best members of our team. He has an advantage of his height and runs very fast especially the long distance races. As a team member, he is very cooperative attentive in learning every skill that our coach tells us. He joined the team recently, but has took a strong position in the team. He has participated in 3 athletic events and has perfomed tremendously well due to his cooperation with the coach and participation in the activities of the team. He has the potential to participate at World international Athletics. Our coach hopes that Lukas will be able to reach that level with a little more effort. I have never seen him down and lazy. He is always active and ready to participate in the races. In our spare time, Lukas and I spend some time together to learn the skills and the secrete behind his success. His attitude towards his teammates is so friendly and caring. He loves to help others in learning what he already knows. During our training sessions for the final races, Lukas became very passionate and enthusiatic. His strength is that he believes in collective teamwork. According to him we should work collectively keeping aside our individual interests. He is optimistic and positive in life thus forming his passion for ever being available for the teams activity. Conflict and Conflict Mangement: Conflict management is key attribute in any teamwork. Teams are made up of individuals and as a results conflicts will ever occur in such group settings. Individual diversity and conflict management are things that relate to teamwork because they can be the success or failure of a team. Conflict management is necessary to teamwork and everyday life. It is important to understand that conflicts do not have to be avoided or blown out of proportion, and if conflicts can be managed they can actually provide all members of a conflict with a valuable learning situation. It is important for all people in the team to understand and practice in all areas of their life, and it is extremely important when working within a team. Individual diversity and conflict management are key factors to the success or failure of a team, and it is important to take both of these factors into consideration when working within a team. Conflict management can make or break a team. If conflicts are seen as a way of understanding and learning then much more can be accomplished, but if conflicts are avoided them they will remain and cause a stalemate in productivity. This idea is a key factor that will determine whether a team is successful or not. Members in any group need conflict resolution skills and managers or leaders need to know how to moderate conflicts in humane ways. Deepak Chopra is one of those confused members of our team who do not believe in their potential. Negative prediction of the future makes him a weaker member of our team. This is why he could never give a better performance. He likes to remain alone most of the time and ever in constant collision with every team member. He does not communicate with his fellow members and don’t even like to resolve issues politely. The coach has told him several times that he has the potential to bring out the best out of him, but his lack of confidence always makes him do things wrongly. His general health and fitness is a problem and the main obstacle for his successful performance. Oftenly he has been advised on how to improve but feels that he is undervalued and ever argues resulting into wars of words and physical abuse. The coach had to make radical measures by looking for a counselor for him. Since then he has improved seriously and knows how to resolve issues maturely and amicably. His relationship with the rest got renewed and infact he is incharged of cconflict and conflict resolution team. This was a lesson that surprised many how one can change from being violent to a counselor. As a result his drive for the athletic got renewed and recently participated in walking race where he registered a sterling performance. Group Development There are various, models of teamwork that have been developed which characterize team development as a progression through several phases. The importance of teamwork development model is to keep track and recognition of various characteristics of team functioning and helps in understanding what is happening in a team, why, and what to do next. The five stages of team development proposed are; “forming”, “storming,” “norming,” “performing,” and “reforming”. Team development is a continuously dynamic and recursive process. A team begins to function efficiently in stage four better but can only change if something happens requiring it to reform. Sometimes teams can pass through a stage unnoticed from one phase to another. Each stage of team development has its own characteristics with distinct forms of team leadership and team member behavior, emotional climate and rituals, and style. In the club of Athletes various people undergo various stages of induction before you can be accepted into the system. For instance first stage is called plug in phase where one gets to learn basically the principles, objectives, mandates of the Athletic Team, this runs for almost 30days. The next stage is called induction stage where you are put in class on training on the Athletic as a sport and you get to interact with the various coaches and leaders. From this stage you move to practical stage where you join the rest in doing the practical training every morning and evening until you get to finish 12 months of thorough training before you are issued with a certificate. After completing this stage you move to spectator stage where you are allowed to accompany other athletes when going for completion but you cannot participate in the races. You become a serious club members and an athlete after 3 years of training and rigorous exercises. All these stages you pass through in our club constitute what is called a group development. Shoaib bin Nasir, the Coach and Ali are some of the the oldest members of our team that are involed in the group development and training of new individuals. Commitment Team members must be committed to the team needs and its objective. Individuals must be committed to interpersonal relationships within the team. As individuals identify where they can add value, they must follow up and create that value. Interpersonal teamwork skills require the same effort as you would spend with an individual. Even though there are more people, all must contribute to receive value from the team. Commitment is one of the factors in any team to make successful undertakings; it is one of the assumed key components of success. Commitment involves commitment to each other and each others success. Teams that are comprised of individuals that actively support believe in and care about the success of each other will be more successful. Another aspect of commitment is commitment to their team and the teams success. Team pride and commitment is important for the overall success of the team. The commitment that arises from a team that understands their role and relializes to achieve to achieve its goal withstands for longer time.Teams with this type of commitment will overcome long odds due to their strength and unity and willingness to band together to get through a tough situation. The third aspect is commitment to the organization and organizational goals. When teams see their work as supporting valuable and important organizational pursuits, this type of commitment is strengthened. In summary, commitments include commitment to the organization, the team and each other. Ali is among the favorite team members that have the passion for the team to succeed in any event they participate in. Ali dedicates huge amount of time to build and maintain a winning team and he takes his time to coach and train other athletes even though he is not the couch. He is dedicated and committed to the practices always in time. He is not discouraged even when the team performs dismally. Ali ensures that he knows each of his athletes’ individual goals.This helps him to have a clear understanding of each of the athletes’ goals and ambitions. In an effort to figure out what motivates each of the athletes, Ali goes ahead and asks his colleagues to think ahead to the end of their career what could follow next. The coach of the team together with Ali makes sure that all the athletes are involved in the decision making process. According to Rothwell (2013), involvement is a pre-requisite for commitment. This means that you must involve your athletes in deciding the goals, rules and standards of the team. Ali helps his coach by soliciting and valuing their input of their fellows, this clearly has increased the commitment of one of the team members that said he had no time for athletics. The practices he offers them are challenging, funny and competitive whenever they train. Ali for sure is a role model of hard work and commitment to the team. His entrant into the team has catapulted the team’s performance at National Olympic Athletics in Durban, 2012. Leadership Leadership typically relates to the abilities of an individual to inspire, direct and set the example for others to follow. Successful clubs and teams rely on impacting leaders who formulate visions and then guide others in accomplishing tasks that contribute toward realization of that vision of a team. A primary function of leadership is motivation. This is partly what separates someone within a work group or team from others who display teamwork. Leaders have personal qualities, such as charisma, empathy and influence that get others to aspire to optimum levels of performance. Within a team, leadership is often required to create synergy, which is the intangible ability of a group to achieve more than the collection of individuals on their own. A team leader shows or ensures things are done by using all resources available to them. Planning involves setting goals for future performance. Leadership is exercised by making decision on the right technique to use; training and member’s involvement in an activity achieve a certain task. The organizational part involves assigning tasks to different departments or individuals to achieve the goal. The role of coo-coordinating involves bringing all departments together to achieve the goals. And lastly it involves doing a budget through the finance team. Brian Russel groomed into a powerful and brilliant athlete of our team. He is passionate and enthusiastic. I have seen him motivating other team members. If I want to convey a wonderful story of success, I would definitely tell the story of Brian. He has transformed into a real leader in the team, a man that would not sit and see things go wrong simply because the coach is not around. He led the team that went to train in the camp for two months and delegated the roles to everyone depending on their talent and skill. This was commendable and since then due to his leadership skill he has been promoted to be the head manager for the Athletic events at district level. A Group Sytem The major common challenge with many coaches and teams is how to get a group of athletes, often of varying fitness or skill levels, to perform as a team not as an individual. Having a great group of extremely talented athletes does not imply success to any team, but instead the success is more often the result of a group of athletes of lesser talent who chose to work together to achieve. Training together of a group of athletes and compete together under the direction of one coach, doesn’t directly define that collection of individuals as a team. A group of athletes becomes a team when they all possess a common identity, have shared goals and objectives, exhibit structured patterns of interaction and communication, and most importantly consider themselves to be a ‘team’ not an individual. A team of the 11 Athletes where I belong form the group systems. This is because of the synergy between the members themselves that make the team more strong and powerful. Some of the factors that have made the athletes to remain united and work as a team is the teams cohesion. This was achieved through the help of the coach when he was able to identify the contributing factors for the specific team members. Our coach ensures that factors that result in a team’s cohesion don’t change over time and if they change he must devise a way to counter it to forestall any fallout in the team. For example, our team has young members who value friendship and social interaction as important factors. Using this information the coach organizes several team dinners throughout the before the season commences. Another example that our coach uses to ensure our is a group system is in the leadership style of the coach. As a key priority, the coach has developed a mentoring system for younger athletes to work closely with more experienced players. Most coaches make the mistake of assuming that athletes share the same goals as themselves and that everyone knows what the team goals are. Our lovely coach works with the team to identify clear team outcome goals. Another point that has worked for him is sitting us down individually to establish individual goals. By doing this he bolsters our importance and contribution to the overall team success. The individual goal setting has also allowed the goals to be set according to the ability level of each individual. Whether the athlete’s role is as team captain, key defender or as a substitute player, all the athletes individual clearly understands their importance to the team’s overall performance. Power In any team there must be a leader who has authority over all. Such people are mandated to help young people realize their talents. Riyad bin Fahad in the athletic team is the coach of the team. He is no doubt a good player and has contributed in many match winning situations. He is the biggest fan of David Rudisha. He spends most of his time mastering the tricks of world champions marathonners like David Rudisha. He has a dream to be a star runner like Rudisha. He believes in getting education about this event wherever it could be found. He sits with his fellow members and communicate as well as share different new ideas that comes to his mind. He appreciates to work together, and strive together to achieve success for the team. The most effective strategy that he uses is power. He does his job as a coach honestly and stick to his ambition of achieving the best for his team. He is very kind and considerate when passing information to his juniors. He doesn’t abuse his power like some people do by demanding bribes amongst others. This makes him likeable by all the athletes in the team. His optimism and enthusiastic approach is currently proving to be fruitful for our school team. Competion To gain the success, a competitive environment is a key factor. Without competition there will be no passion, no interest in achieving the success for one’s team. Lack of competition in and outside the team creates a boring, monotonous atmosphere in which players do not feel passion and desire to win the game. Lazzaraus is an athlete who competes with other faster runners and learned every skill with aspiration and passion. He keeps himself in competition with every competitive player in the team, including Lukas and Brian and delivers the best performance. The Coach is pleased as healthy competition is the true essence of every game. He has great communication skills and sometimes have good and constructive chat with other teammates in spare time. The coach knows his potentials and in some situations he relies on him. As an effective member of the team he is among the most task oriented players in the team. Critical Thinking and Decision Making The critical thinking strategy involves a problem solving approach to new and unfamiliar situations. It is a highly dynamic and iterative strategy, consisting of a moderately sized set of methods to build, test and critique situation assessments. These methods are to some extent general but they can only be taught if grounded in a specific domain. Effective critical thinking training combines instruction with realistic practice. Practice in the form of scenario-based training is considered an appropriate approach to training competencies required in complex task environments. The design of exercise scenarios is very important since these have to provide opportunities to practice critical thinking strategies. In short it is the ability to make decisions, solve problems and take appropriate action. The critical thinking involes appreciating that your own opinions may be wrong, accept statements as true even when they conflict with your own views and temporarily adopt an initial position with which you disagree. Critical thinking serves as fundamental to freedom, Critical thinking is one of the foundations of democracy and is central to preserving our liberties, such as freedom of speech. To reach sound conclusions, group members must use critical thinking when making decisions. Critical thinking helps groups avoid making serious mistakes by encouraging group members to examine carefully all their options. Critical thinking as essential to professional decisions making. Members of any group to make competent decisions based on a thorough and careful examination of all available information. They need to ask relevant questions, listen actively, assess complex information, and engage with others in critical decision making. The success of an organization depends on the ability of members to ask relevant questions, evaluate complex information, make difficult decisions, and anticipate the outcomes of those decisions which forms critical thinking skills. Critical thinking also serves as essential to personal decision-making. Team members make decisions every day, from deciding what to have for breakfast to deciding where to go to college. We need to be critical thinkers in the everyday and more unique problems we face. We need to ask questions, find and evaluate relevant information, and use information to make reasonable decisions. Also, we get fulfillment from the discovery and creativity involved in critical thinking. To make critical decisions in any team one needs to ask relevant questions, find relevant information, Interpreting and evaluating information and draw and evaluating inferences. Ariz Alriyas, a team member is such a man that has the ability to critically think and make decisions which has helped the team in advancement in their Olympic games. The recent contribution Ariz had to the team was when he carefully refused the team not to visit Africa so as to preserve its image despite the rest of the team being in support of attending. His idea was supported by the coach team and the president of the Nation. References Rothwell, J.D . (2013). In Mixed Company, (8th ed.). Fort Worth, Available at:http://www.cengagebrain.com.au/content/9781133876137.pdf. [Acessed on 20 April,2014]. Read More