(1)
I’ve been a part of many teams in my life, and I’ve had varying experiences with just about all of them. I’ve had teams where each was given his/her task to complete the whole, and it usually ended up with those who finished his/her work first had to help those who weren’t done with theirs. Some would assist graciously, and some would gripe about having to do other’s work. Nevertheless, everyone pulled together to get the job done.
I’ve worked on teams where the leader delegated the more labor-intensive parts of the project to others while taking the lighter load, and then, took credit for the finished project. I’ve also been on teams where the leader ended up doing the majority of the work because the team members were unreliable, so the leader took it upon herself to make sure that the task was completed by the deadline.
It has been my experience that when working in teams there are usually a few individuals that end up doing the majority of the work (or at least more work than others), but I guess that goes back to the old saying, “there’s no “I” in team.” Though the weight of the workload shifted to me from time to time, most of my experiences in teams were pleasant. Everyone got along with one another, for the most part, and our goals were always met. We kept the lines of communication open and did what was necessary to get the job done. We also learned each other’s strengths and weaknesses which came in handy for other upcoming assignments. Overall, we portrayed the three dimensions of a high-performing team: production output, member satisfaction, and capacity for continued cooperation (Baldwin et al., p. 346).
I’ve also been in teams that not only had an unequal workload amongst the members but also had too many members, which caused disarray. Having too many hands in the pot is a common challenge when working in teams and shows that some tasks are better left to fewer people. It was harder to keep up with who was doing what, and things began to fall through the cracks and some things got overwritten. It became an utter mess, and more time was spent analyzing and correcting things than completing them. To prevent this type of problem from happening again, meetings were held to discuss upcoming projects to determine if a team was necessary, and if so, to use the minimum number of team members needed (Baldwin et al., p. 344).
References
Baldwin, T. T., Bommer, W. H., & Rubin, R. S. (2013). Managing organizational behavior: What great managers know and do (2nd ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin
(2)
The greatest personal challenge about in teams comes in a number. Everyone may not liking working in teams. There may be lack of communication, lack of participation, and bad leadership and more. First when working with a team, the main purpose is to accomplish a task or goal together. In order to do that everyone needs to be on one accord. Teams must break into different sections and take on different tasks towards accomplishing the goal. The leader of the team must communicate well with the team. Leaders should not have ineffective communication with the team. If there are certain things that each person should be doing let them know. Work together as a team and not as individuals. Another challenge is EVERYONE must participate. For example it is eight people on a team. Six of those eight people are working hard to accomplish the goal and meet company deadline. It would not be fair to those six people if all eight got recognized as a group for their effort. Everyone must participate. Not being creative can be a challenge as well. Everyone may have a different idea or way to bring the company more clients. Also decision making is a big part of working in teams. Some may not like a certain theme or slogan or whatever it is that will stand out for the group. Steps that can be taken to ensure success is communicate effectively with one another, work together as a team and not again each other.
Reference
Lecture Powerpoint
Baldwin Text
(3)
As a coach, I have been part of many teams in the past – some successful, some less so. For the sake of this discussion, though, and being able to apply the texts well, I’ll use the current leadership team that I’m a part of as my example. I am one of four senior athletic administrators at my institution. The team is made up of our Director of Athletics, the Associate Director of Athletics (and women’s soccer coach), the other Assistant Director of Athletics (and tennis coach), and myself as the Assistant Director of Athletics and Senior Woman Administrator (and volleyball coach).
Baldwin, Bommer, and Rubin (2013) discuss the five disciplines of high-performing teams, and I can see those disciplines being true of the team I’m on. The first discipline is being small in size. We know that we have the right number of administrators given the size of our department. If we had any more, it would seem excessive and we wouldn’t be as productive. The second is that there are capable and complementary members. As you could see in the list, there’s a wide background as far as our coaching skills go. In terms of personality and work style, two of us are type-A, task-oriented, get-the-job-done type workers. The other two are far more relational and skilled at discipleship. Even the fact that I’m the only female on the team allows me to bring a different yet complementary view to the table when we are discussing issues. We’re all capable as we have all achieved high levels of success in our programs and the programs we oversee.
The third discipline is that we have a shared purpose and performance objectives. We’re all held accountable to the same mission and visions since we are at the same institution and working in the same department, with the same overall desires for what success should look like for us. The fourth is team development. We’re pretty well established in our roles at this point, but we’ve gone through all of the stages over time. The final one, mutual accountability, is one of our greatest strengths as we are in a position where we can speak truth to each other in biblical love to make sure that we’re all doing our part to steward the department well.
References
Baldwin, T., Rubin, R., & Bommer, B. (2013). Managing organizational behavior: What great managers know and do (2nd ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill-Irwin.
(4)
I witnessed a successful team when I worked for the Office of the Attorney General. There was a team of three Special Assistant Attorney Generals and two others that assisted with specialized areas. We were assigned to the Institutions for Higher Learning (IHL), and each month we would receive contracts that had to be approved by the Board of Trustees in addition to contracts and other items that didn’t require board approval. Once the agenda items (contracts) were received, they would be reviewed by the Division Director and equally distributed to the attorneys in our team. Each was responsible for reviewing and requesting changes to ensure the items complied with the law and the policy and procedures of IHL and the individual university.
Though each attorney had his/her own assignments, they were always available when one of them reached out to get a second opinion or when they needed to pick each other’s brain. Even when there was a difference of opinion, they were always cordial and open-minded. They also went out of their way to assist the universities and the vendors to get the revisions implemented prior to the deadline for submitting the completed contract packets to the Board. So, it wasn’t only our staff working together as a team, but also us working with the finance staff at IHL who made their own recommendations for the items, the legal team at the university, and the contract contact for the vendor. It consisted of many emails, telephone calls, and revisions, but everyone pulled together every month to get the items ready for approval by the Board.
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