” Being part of a team is more important than leading it. ” It is too difficult these days during the complexity of business and corporate pressure to build out teams, in order to resolve business challenges situations like service, product renovation, turnaround recovery plans, launch new products, meet the market changes and challenges it’s important to pay attention to building a team.
Team, by concept, is a group of members whom could be selected or nominated usually by management; the role is to execute a certain business “ mission” within the organization under a very cleargoalsand objectives with a defined timeline as well as deliverables. Now a day’s both economy and the business growing very fast and the challenges is continuously increasing.
New concepts came up, newtechnologyand new strategies invented , the world moving very fast , everything now in a mass, production in a mass , corporate in a mass , so all the people they don’t have time to work individually to achieve the mission assigned to them , so now the techniques to work in a group came up with all the challenges we have it, one person can’t solve the problem right from the first time and with required time.
Single person doesn’t have the time, the required skills and /or the expertise to accomplish various tasks, task that must be carried out successfully in order to successfully tackle the problem of interest. By wording we are calling it a team not a group, hence there is a big difference between the both, we can’t call the football or basketball team a football group, group not like the team, team usually have one goal, one mission, one task and one problem to solve, but the group is a group of people from different place and different objective but they met together, Like a random sample taken. There is no I in team but there is in win” , team must have a harmony between each other’s and with the team leader they must have the same spirit and the same challenges with different skills /experiences to complete each other’s and reach to the ideal team, “ I am a member of a team, and I rely on the team, I defer to it and sacrifice for it, because the team not the individual is the ultimate champion”, It is not only the matter to form a team and nominate a team leader to let the team working under his/her coaching, but all the team member including the team leader must be an effective member, and to be an effective team member it is must have good people skills andcommunicationskills in addition to a high strong technical skill set, the guidelines for being an effective team member include: Responsible
A team member must be a proactive , if they came to know there is a task needs to be solve or done, the team member have the skills to do it , a team member has to take the initiative to do it and to be dependable to do fair share of the work and strive to accomplish any tasks in a timely manner, doing so will allow the team to meet the dead line, and to be accountable if the team member agreed to take on a specific task. It is also important to deliver his promises and if he faces difficulties in solving the problem he has to communicate to the team at the right time so they can come up with alternatives to solve a problem and meet the dead lines as well as obligations, as a result the team can meet the goal desired. Effectively communication
Good communication skills s important for an effective team member, that’s mean all the team members must be open to each other, talk to each other, listen good and show therespectto the new ideas and take the intuitive to share to add value to the ideas generated by any team member, this is important to reach to the a good guidelines to achieve the team mission at the end, a good communication style involves honesty, friendliness, thoroughness, and high quality in achieving the goals. Respect As a team member, one has to respect other members and understand each member is an expertise in his field and has the enough knowledge to meet the task required from him, the respect attitude has to be shown between all the members and therefore there is no one better than the other, all are equal and complete each other’s. Contribution
All the team members must contribute with each other each member must do the his/her full efforts and contribution to meet the team objectives and goals, this one of the important role for an effective team leader to get all the member share equally the contribution and spread the spirit of working in an effective teal to let the team succeed. Team could suffer heavily from a team member who is not cooperating, or blending, or benefiting the team with his expertise and input. A survey conducted by The American Institutes for Research, showed that one-third of 1, 000-plus respondent organizations reported that strong internal resistance and/or sabotage is a significant barrier to be overcome on the road to successful team implementations. Conflict of interest
Conflict is unavoidable whenever we work in a team, each member has a different views/opinions and sometime stuck on it, as an effective team member one must work on it and show the other member respecting of his/her views and try work with and adapted it slowly to show the positive if we do some alteration or changes for the member views and this one of the most common difficulties meet an effective t eam. Appreciations Not all of the team members do the same efforts, it different from one member to the other, and here the role of the team leader appear to give the credit to the member who do the best efforts and encourage other members to do the same and get the credit and keep up the work, but this tactics must be done by the right way to avoid any bad feelings against the other member. All the above mentioned points rose to reach for an effective team member to achieve the team mission, and goals. The way a team plays as a whole determines its success, you may have the greatest bunch ofcindividual stars in the world, but if they don’t play together, the club won’t be worth a dime” , as we covered the guide lines to have an effective team member, now it comes the role of the team leader, the objectives, the goals and theleadershipstyle. The leadership style is simply the patterns of behavior a leader adopts to plan motivate and control, it is the extent to listens, set the goals and standards, develop action plan (long/short term), guide others, gives his/her feedback and reward and punish. Although the leaders face an unlimited range of situations, research has shown that there are six styles or behavior patterns that they apply to the situations they encounter: 1-The coercive style
This style primary objective is immediate compliance from employees but the downside of it is lack of flexibility, empowerment andresponsibility. This style can be used in straight forward tasks and in crisis situation (team needs clear directions and you have relevant information), but it is a least effective in a complex tasks and over the long term. 2-The authoritative style This style primary objective is providing long term direction and vision for the team, the downside is that it’s not good with expert groups, this is can be more effective when a new vision is needed and new team member needs guidance, this style should be avoided when employees are experienced and know as much if no more than the leader. 3- The affiliative style
This style has the primary objective of creating the harmony among employees and between the leader and the team, the downsides of this style is lack of constructive feedback and direction, this style to be used more effective in a straightforward task and with an adequate performance, this is style should be avoided when employees’ performance is inadequate and corrective performance feedback is required. 4-The democratic style This style has the primary objective of building commitment and consensus among employees, the downside of this style is the time consuming, leave team member confused, this style is more effective when the team member are competent and have a knowledge more than the team leader and least effective in crisis situation and there is no time for a meetings or discussions. 5-The pacesetting style
This style has the primary objective of accomplishing tasks to a high standard of excellence, the downside of this style can lower moral and lead to feelings of being overwhelmed and pressured, this style more effective when team members are also pacesetters and resource or time constraints necessitate the leader involvement. This style is least effective when direction of the team is unclear and team members are unconvinced 6-The coaching style This style has the primary objective of employees long term professional development, this is style is not effective when employee lacksmotivation, resistant to changing, or leader lacks expertise, this style most effective hen the team member have a clear sense of aspirations and are motivated, this style is least effective if the team members are new and have a lack of experience, it’s important to avoid this style during crisis situation. Before applying any style from the above mentioned leadership styles, the leader has to stimulate his/her thinking about which style to use, and how the style will affects others motivation, the effective manager has to diagnose the demand of the situation, the experience of the team, the strengths and weakness of the team member, another dimension to watch is the complexity of the task, time pressure, resources available, and keep an open mind and watch out for changes in the situation.
Leader should avoid using one style as a habit, the style should match the situation as one style does not apply for all , the team leader has to select a style that best fit the situation and even the leader can as the team member too to assist him/her to select the style matching with the situation and the team goals and objectives , the team leader must be flexible to switch from one style to another, even the leader can mix two or more styles to meet all required tasks and to assist for achieving the team goals, “ A working relationship that provides influence or support on a regular basis for the most important decisions a has to make” , Form my opinion I think the team must slow down first before speeding up to tasks, most of the teams like to jump right into the task, but relationship building, active development of norms, and goal setting is needed first. The team leader must be more strategic about the first team meeting, he/she must structure teamculturefirst and not to leave it to chance, building a relationship and trust first is a key to avoid long term problems like task conflict and discovering expertise. One of the most crucial components of success is to know how to work productively in a teamenvironment, working well with others and having strong interpersonal skills can take a person far in life, incareersettings and beyond.
It is a combinations between the team leader and the team member starting from constructed the team till set the team goals and objectives, all parties including team member and team leader have to work together effectively to put the style of work and agreed to spread a good spirit between all the members, the whole team has to work as one person everyone knows his/her responsibilities very well and ready to assist the other to achieve their goals, it’s not about raising the hands and step away from the other member hence the successful of the team depend on all parties not one party , It is the responsibility of the team leader to set everything before starting the task and the responsibilities of the others to believe they are like a stone corner for the team no way the team finish the task without the other ,,, Amgad Ali ——————————————– [ 1 ]. Michael Jordan. [ 2 ]. Mia Hamm. [ 3 ]. Case commentary by Ed Mussel white. Ditto. [ 4 ]. Babe Welch. [ 5 ]. Nigel Nicholson.
