The Importance of Teamwork and Each Team Member’s Role

When I applied for my first internship, I was lucky enough to be accepted by one of the prominent organizations in the country. In the organization, I got an opportunity to work alongside many talented and skilled employees. It came to a point where the organization needed some of its employees to research on the market of a different geographical area which was not far from the organization (Burke & Barron 2014, p. 54). Due to my commitment and determination to the organization, I was selected as one of the team members of the project team. In the project, every person played a significant role and therefore if any person failed to play his or her role, the team would not have achieved its goals.

The team consisted of fifteen members. Among the fifteen members, there were small groups that were given different tasks. Among the tasks were questioning the residents, researching on the availability of similar businesses in the region, researching on the social class of the residents, and researching the tastes and preferences of the residents. The team was selected by the manager and to make sure that everything was in order, the organization’s project manager was given the responsibility of making sure that each and every employee knew his or her tasks. However, the manager was not so strict on the members. At the same time, he was open to ideas that would be brought forward by the employees. The reason for doing so was to give the team members a clear space for them to independently perform their tasks and give their best (Cardinal 2015, p. 1).

Despite the manager not being strict, there were targets, and they all had to be met in different stages. It was the obligation of each and every team player to make sure that the duty that he or she was assigned to was completed before the deadline. The project manager was monitoring the whole project alone since we were only fifteen members. There were different tasks assigned to each person (Goleman 2013, p. 25). For example, on a specific day, a person had to correct data in a specific residence or town. Such was the criteria used to monitor if a team member had performed to the expectations of the organization. Some of the benefits of a team in a group that I realized after engaging in the teamwork are that people get to tackle a big workload in a shorter period, at the same time; people get to exchange ideas, support each other and boost each other’s morale.

Stages of Building and Developing Effective Teams

Important stages of building and developing a team

The following are stages of building an effective team

1. Recruitment

For a team to be effective, it must have people who are willing to work hard towards making the goals of the team a reality. The recruitment process is the first, and it is aimed at making sure that only the best candidates are enrolled to the team (Economy 2017, p. 1).

1. Induction

Induction is the process of acknowledging the candidates who have successfully passed the recruitment stage with the activities of the team.

1. Training

Training is important because it makes sure that the team members are furnished with the information and skills necessary to perform different tasks. The stage is crucial because skipping it would be denying the team members the knowledge that is so important to them.

1. Mentoring

The final stage makes sure that the team members are guided towards making sure that what they were trained gets to be of importance to them. The stage helps in perfecting the team members and coaching them so that they can make the right decisions (Economy 2017, p. 1).

1. Forming

Forming is the first stage. In this stage, the team members meet for the first time and introduce themselves to each other. The stage helps in bonding the team members and giving them a rough idea of who their team partners will be.

1. Storming

When a team starts working together, they move to the storming stage. In this stage, different team members give their ideas, and they compete so as to be acknowledged and recognized. The stage is one of the hardest especially if the team is working together for the first time. This is because they all have different opinions and ideas.

1. Norming

At this stages, working together starts being a habit. This is because the team members have started knowing and understanding each other in a better way.

1. Performing

When people work together for some time, they start producing results that are of help to the organization. This is because they have identified platforms of effectively working together.

1. Adjourning

Adjourning is the last stage. At this stage, the team has already concluded its task and all left is for the team to adjourn and if it was a project, the team breaks.

The Tuckman model is not so different from the stages mentioned above. However, the Tuckman model does not include adjourning. Instead, the stages are forming, storming, norming and performing.

Belbin Team Role Model

The Belbin team role model is designed for the purpose of using personalities and talents of the team members with the aim of attaining the greater goal (Samen 2017, p. 1). There are nine team roles under Belbin team role model namely implementer, resources investigator, plant, monitor, shaper, coordinator, completer, team worker, and specialist.

Roles of different members of a team

Member 1: Implementer

The first member was an implementer, and this was seen by the way he provided leadership and was ready to usher the team members to a new plan or idea. The first member was almost the same as the third team member because they believed in new ideas. However, he was different from the fifth member because he hesitated from involving in activities that he had not initiated.

Member 2: resource investigator

The member demonstrated her ability to reach out to people outside the group and find out more about what the team needed. She was almost the same as the fifth member because she could get emotional and lose focus. However, she was different from the first member because the first member is very careful before engaging.

Member 3: plant

He always wanted to have new surprising ideas. He was almost similar to the first member but very different from the second because he never gave up (Samen 2017, p. 1).

Member 4: monitor

The member always wanted to get to the bottom of everything. He made sure that he was right by paying close attention and researching. He was almost similar to the third member because they were all accurate on details but very different from the second member because the second member wore off some of the times.

Member 5: shaper

The member was always ready to perform. He was similar to the first member because the first member was a performer as well. However, he was different from the second member because he never gave up.

Member 6: coordinator

The member always wanted things to fall in place and assist in making sure that members work towards achieving their goals. He was similar to the first member. However, he was very different from the fifth member because he never left his emotions to come in between his judgment (Hoch & Kazlowski 2015, p. 54).

Member 7:  Completer

The member could always know what was about to go wrong. He and the first member had something in common and at the same time were so different from the sixth member because he never left much work for others.

Leadership Styles

Member 8: Team worker

The member always wanted to be helpful and did not hold back. He was almost similar to the second member because of their joyful nature but was very different from the third member who was of help to the group, but the world wants people to give him space at times (Samen 2017, p. 1).

Member 9: specialist

The member was always ready to provide help and support by advising the team members. He was similar from the first member because they both wanted to be of help to all team members. He was also accommodative to many team members.

A good leader is the one who has the interest of the members at heart. Such is demonstrated by the leader encouraging the members to work hard and at the same time acknowledging their contributions. A good leader makes sure that the ideas of the members are not ignored at any given time. A good leader is charismatic and does not instill fear in his or her members. The democratic style of leadership is the best in motivating a group towards being productive.

There are three different styles of leadership; autocratic, democratic, and laissez-faire.

1. Autocratic leadership

Autocratic leadership is a style where the leader does not give the members much power in contributing and making decisions. In this type of leadership, the leader likes to be the one making decisions and determining the opinions of members that should be accommodated in the final report. A good example is the type of leadership practiced in Russia.

1. Democratic leadership

Democratic leadership is a style that the leader is open to the ideas of the members and a consideration of the members’ views is given in the final decision. A good example is a leadership that is practiced by Apple Company.

1. Laissez-Faire Leadership

Laissez-Faire is a type of leadership that gives the members the authority to make decisions.

A team is a group of people who are brought together by a common interest. A task is an obligation entitled to either an individual or a team and individual needs are necessities that individual must have so as to be effective at a personal level (Nahavandi 2016, p. 42).

Among the fifteen team members, there were five teams that were formed and had the obligation of covering different locations of the city of interest. To make it easier and more understandable, I will use Team A and Team B. team A had the responsibility of conducting the research in the eastern part and Team B in the Southern part of the city. One of the things that stood out about the two teams is that their members were almost similar when it came to character and behaviors. The collaboration in team A was at its best, and that was the same case in team B. the members could inform each other before engaging in any activity, and a task that proved to be difficult was performed by all members (Levi 2015, p. 32).

Conclusion

In team A, resources were allocated effectively, and this is why they were able to perform different tasks efficiently. However, when it came to conflict resolutions, the teams were different. The leader of Team A took the initiative of resolving a conflict while in Team B, the members voted on what should be followed. Team A was always willing to resolve problems together, but Team B was more reluctant to doing so. Experts in both teams demonstrated their willingness to share their knowledge with others. Different skills and talents were recognized through the tasks given to different team members. The measurement of humor was done on how often the team members in each team laughed together and how they made other enjoy as well (Kaslow 2014, p. 12).

1. Factsheet

	1	2	3	4	5
Articulation of ideas					*
Self-presentation				*
Building morale/confidence					*
Questioning				*
Defusing and resolving conflict				*
Tact					*
Sincerity			*
Effective listening				*
Concern for team members				*

1. Strengths and weaknesses
2. Articulation of ideas

The team had people who were rich in ideas. However, at times it was difficult to implement them because some of the team members opposed them without reason enough.

1. Self-presentation

Every team member was bold enough to present him or herself, but there were some team members who were looking down on others.

1. Building morale/confidence

The manager helped in building morale, and some team members boosted the morale of their teammates, but some members affected the morale of other by looking down on them.

1. Questioning

The questioning process was informed, but the weakness is that some team members were not conversant with languages spoken by the residents.

1. Defusing and resolving conflict

The team was good in resolving conflicts, but some team member were difficult to deal with.

1. Tact

The team was tactful. However, some team members disregarded the contributions of others.

1. Sincerity

Some of the sub-teams were composed of sincere members, but some members held back information that would be of help to the team (O’Sullivan et al. 2015, p 32).

1. Effective listening

Most of the team members were keen to hear what the team leader was saying but did not put into actions what they heard.

1. Concern for team members

One of the strengths is that team members would come to the aid of others. However, it would be difficult to make all team members do so.

	1	2	3	4	5
Preparation			*
Identification of issues				*
Scheduling activities			*
Responsibility				*
Accountability					*
Responsiveness					*
Adaptability			*
Consideration of options			*
Openness to criticism				*
Maintaining focus					*

1. Strengths and weaknesses
2. Preparation

Individuals have always prepared for the tasks ahead, but it took them a long time to do so.

1. Identification of issues

The individuals were good in identifying issues, but sometimes it happened when the issues had already affected the team.

1. Scheduling activities

Individuals knew which activity to schedule and which not to. However, it took them long to do so (Unit 2014, p. 21).

1. Responsibility

Most of the individuals accepted their responsibilities, but some did not.

1. Accountability

The team advocated for accountability, but not all members were accountable.

1. Responsiveness

There are individuals who responded positively to issues whereas some reacted for not good reasons.

1. Adaptability

At last, individuals adapted to the new environment of working with each other, but that came after some time.

1. Consideration of options

Before a person would engine in any activity, he or she considered the available options. However, some individuals chose to do things their way.

1. Openness to criticism

Most of the team members were open, but some chose to criticize their fellow members in a negative way (Griffith & Danham 2014, p. 21).

1. Maintaining focus

Most members were more focused on their tasks, but some were carried away by the activities taking place in the surroundings.

1. Did conflicts arise? At times conflicts arose.

 How were these dealt with? There were rules that called for members to make peace if they needed to continue working as a team. Therefore, they had to forgive each other and continue with other tasks.

The main aim why the team was brought together was to research on the market of a specific geographical location. There was one big team that had fifteen members. However, the team had smaller groups of three people per group (John Keenan 2015, p.32). The role of the team was to interview the residents, do research on the availability of competitors in the regions, and also research on the social class of the residents in the region. The team was led by the project manager, and therefore I was only a team member. According to my manager, I performed well because I outshined some of the employees and I was only an intern. There were conflicts in the team, but there was always a way to deal with them. Democratic leadership dominated the team, and that is what made the team be able to work together (DuBrin 2015, p. 76).

References

Abudi, G, 2009, The Five Stages of Team Development – Every Team Goes Through Them. Retrieved from https://www.ginaabudi.com/the-five-stages-of-team-development-part-i/

Burke, R, and Barron, S 2014, Project management leadership: building creative teams. John Wiley & Sons.

Cardinal, R, 2015, 5 Steps to Building an Effective Team. Retrieved from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/rosalind-cardinal/5-steps-to-building-an-effective-team_b_7132406.html

DuBrin, A 2015, Leadership: Research findings, practice, and skills. Nelson Education

Economy, P, 2017, 5 Steps to Creating Really Effective Teams. Retrieved from https://www.inc.com/peter-economy/5-steps-to-really-effective-teams.html

Goleman, D, Boyatzis, R. and McKee, A 2013, Primal leadership: Unleashing the power of emotional intelligence. Harvard Business Press.

Griffith, B, and Dunham, E 2014, Working in Teams: Moving from High Potential to High Performance. SAGE Publications.

Hoch, J, and Kozlowski, S 2014, Leading virtual teams: Hierarchical leadership, structural supports, and shared team leadership. Journal of applied psychology, 99(3), p.390

John Keenan, J 2015, Working in teams. Studying for a Foundation Degree in Health.

Kaslow, F 2014, Supervision and training: Models, dilemmas, and challenges. Routledge.

Levi, D 2015, Group dynamics for teams. Sage Publications.

Nahavandi, A 2016, The Art and Science of Leadership -Global Edition. Pearson.

O’Sullivan, H, Moneypenny, M., and McKimm, J 2015, Leading and working in teams. British Journal of Hospital Medicine, 76(5), pp.264-269.

Samen, S, 2017, Belbin Team Role Model Management. Retrieved from https://www.werkenmetteamrollen.nl/Werken-met-Teamrollen/The-9-teamroles.asp#.WOTlymdRXcs

Unit, F 2014, Uniformed and Emergency Services Intermediate 1: working in teams.