Teams are part of the modern organizational culture. Whether you are a team leader or a team member, having a better understanding of how teams work, and being able to identify where the team is in the process, is a critical part of ensuring the team is ultimately successful. Start with the basics and understand what a team is and what role they play in an organization.
If you visit an organization, you will find that most of the activities of the organization are performed by a group of persons. Most of the work in organizations is done in teams. In an organization, activities are arranged in such a way that requires collective contribution. In fact, new organizations can be described as composed of teams.
In modern organizations, individuals are required to work in different types of teams. Even though individuals are important, their effectiveness depends, to a large extent, on the teams of which they are members. Every individual contributes to the achievement of a common goal. The individuals interact, collaborate, coordinate, and influence among the members. Thus, most of the time individuals work in a team.
A team consists of individuals. However, the collection of individuals in a place may be only a crowd. When individuals come together for certain tasks, then we have the formation of a group. A group is not necessarily a team. A group can have individuals with varied interests, attitude as well as thought processes. It is not necessary that the group members would have a common objective or a common goal to achieve. Let’s define these terms.
The main function of a group is to exchange task-related information and discuss task-related issues. The accountability in the group Building Roles and Teams remains of the individual. Each individual brings his/her competencies as well as the relevant information related to the task. Thus the group can be defined as a collection of individuals working in face-to-face relationships to share information and resources for a task to be achieved.
The team is qualitatively different from the group in several ways. The team functions almost like an individual. In other words, the team is accountable for results; collective responsibility is taken. There is mutuality and complementarity of the members of the team. The most important characteristics of a team are that it creates synergy, i.e., the performance of the team is more than the collective performance of the individual members. Hence, A team can be defined as a group of individuals working in a face-to-face relationship for a common goal, having collective accountability for the outcome of its effort.
Attribute |
Group / Work-Group |
Team |
Purpose |
Same as that of Organization |
Teams could be created for a specific purpose, distinct from that of the organization |
Work Products |
Individual |
Collective |
Process |
Discuss, decide, delegate |
Discuss, decide, do |
Leadership |
A single leader |
Shared Leadership |
Meeting |
Efficient |
Open, Problem Solving |
Accountability |
Individual |
Individual and Mutual |
Performance |
Performance typically depends on the work of individual members. |
Performance depends on both individual contributions and collective work products- the joint outcome of team members working together |
Responsibility |
Members of groups do not take responsibility for any results other than their own, although they do pool their resources to attain a goal |
Each team member shares responsibility for the team outcome. |
Goal |
Groups share a common interest goal |
Teams share a common interest goal plus a common commitment to purpose which supplies a source of meaning and emotional energy to the activities performed. |
Evaluation |
Indirect (Eg. Financial) |
Direct (Collective Work Product) |
A team may be defined as a group of two or more people who interact and influence the members for the achievement of a common goal. A team is a group of individuals, all working together for a common purpose. The individuals comprising a team ideally should have common goals; common objectives and they should be compatible with each other.
"A team is a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach for which they are mutually accountable." - Katzenbach and Smith, 1993
“A team is groups of two or more people who interact and influence each other, are mutually accountable for achieving common objectives, and perceive themselves as a social entity within an organization.” - Steven and Mary Ann Von
A team is defined as a reasonably small group of people, who:
Based on this definition given above, the characteristics of the teams may be elaborated as under:
The frequency of interactions, influence, and the nature of tasks may determine the formation of a group, i.e., long-term, short-term, formal, informal, etc. Many new managers and supervisors reading this article will be taking over the management of an existing team rather than bringing together a new one. However, understanding these basics will help you put together your ideal team if you had the opportunity. This will help you fully understand the issues you may face.
Each individual is a contributor and brings a set of skills and knowledge to the organization. When we bring those individuals together, there is a wider range of skills and experience, and as a leader, you are able to come up with even better solutions.
Charisma is a certain quality of an individual personality, by virtue of which he is set apart from ordinary men. Charismatic Leader gathers followers, through dint of personality and charm. Understand the meaning and concept of Charismatic Leadership and the qualities of a charismatic leader. Gain an understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of using charismatic leadership. Finally, explore the difference between charismatic and transformational leadership.
Generating Ideas using Brainstorming
The brainstorming technique was developed by Alex F. Osborn in 1957 and brainstorming means where a team of members generates a large amount of alternative fruitful ideas on a specific problem without any criticism and then evaluates each idea in terms of their pros and cons. Brainstorming techniques fall into four broad categories: visioning, exploring, modifying, and experimenting.
How often do you have a plan for how you are going to spend your day but you aren't able to complete the tasks on your plan because of unimportant tasks, interruptions, or your own procrastination? Wouldn't it be great to be able to manage your schedule and your time while avoiding, or at least controlling, these time stealers? Learn the strategies to manage your schedule while still handling interruptions and demands on your time.
Team Foundation in Forming Stage
This is the first stage of team development. This is the stage when the foundation of the team is laid. During the Forming stage, team members have a high dependence on their leader for guidance. Learn the practical strategies you can use during this stage to help your team develop into a highly effective performing team.
Team leadership theory is a recent leadership theory that does not discriminate between the leader and the other team members. The approach considers contributions from each team member to be critical for organizational success. This approach focused on the overall team effectiveness and team problems are diagnosed and action is taken to remediate weakness. This approach provides for taking corrective action when the leader deems necessary.
Generating Ideas using SCAMPER
SCAMPER is an activity-based thinking process that can be performed by Cooperative learning. SCAMPER is an acronym that provides a structured way of assisting students to think out of the box and enhance their knowledge. This can be used in the organizational context as a technique for creative problem solving and as a toolkit to generate fresh ideas.
Effective Business Communication
Communication is all about getting the message across correctly. To make this happen, you need to have good speaking skills and good writing skills. If you have these skills coupled with good listening skills and interest in reading, you have all the potential to be a good communicator. What things should the leader take into consideration to be more effective with interpersonal communication?
Tips for Effective Time Management
After studying and analyzing how time is spent, why time is wasted, and where time is wasted you need to decide about the changes required for effective utilization of time. For this purpose, a large number of remedial measures can be taken by you. The first and foremost determinant of a planned and purposeful utilization of time is to develop consciousness of the value of time at all levels of the organization. Planning, goal setting, and defining priorities are concerns to addressed immediately.
A manager or an employee in an organization who is experiencing a high level of stress may develop high blood pressure, ulcers, irritability, difficulty in making routine decisions, loss of appetite, accident proneness, and the like. These can be subsumed under three general categories, physiological, psychological, and behavioral symptoms. Stress can give rise to a number of changes.
Evidence of the medically damaging symptoms of work stress necessitates applying the treatment of stress management. Stress management is increasingly drawing the attention to the management experts not only as a remedial measure but also as a way to resource management. If the workplace can be made a little more lovable the increase in the achievement of the organization may be much time more. If group stress can be removed by introducing group discussions and recreational facilities a long-lasting team spirit may get developed.
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