My Key Learning - Assignment Example

My key learning It is apparent that in order for any team to be successful, there must be some crucial components which need to be present. Every team should have a clear purpose of unity and this purpose mast be well understood by all the team members. The team must have a vision and the agreed upon procedures and rules which will be used in achieving these objectives. Every team must benefit from a culture of innovation and creativity in order to be successful. The members within the team must continually come up with brilliant ideas and creative ways in which to solve the various problems they may be having. Every member in the team must have a sense of excellence and seek to go beyond the extra mile to excel. In fact, the goal of having a team is to come up with combined efforts that can lead to realization of a well defined common goal. In this regard, the first and most crucial component involves having a leadership that can effectively guide the team in producing top results. In many situations, there tends to be some conflicts within a team and it is in such situations when the leadership in the team becomes necessary in order to help solve conflicts. Whenever such a thing happens, the leaders of the team should be in a position to come up with measures that will put the team members together and resolve the issue amicably. On the same note, team members should strive to support each other. With that concept in mind, they should, therefore, put the interest of the team first before they think of themselves. In addition, a team must have clear goals of what they want to achieve. This ensures that the team does not work blindly. They are able to lay down strategies on how to achieve the stipulated goals. This is what leads to the next component; to be in a position to have a plan on how to accomplish the goals. This can only be achieved if and only if the team members accept diversity within the team. Team members must be open minded enough to accept the fact that everybody is different in their own ways and that these differences can be used for the benefit of the team. For a team to be successful therefore, it is necessary for the differences to be integrated into the team in order to help the team to get all the good traits from each individual. Teams which fail to accept the diversity will fail drastically. A team where each individual fails to accept the others is not a team but rather just a group of people. People can be selfish and it is therefore very likely that unless there is a deliberate action to set aside selfish desires and replace them with the interests of the team, the team won’t function properly. A team which offers personal growth for each and every individual also helps in making the team to be successful. Teams where there is no honest, integrity and trust among the team players will fail. As a result, team members must be able to relate with each other in a healthy way. Team members must be able to create an atmosphere of trust and closeness so that the team members can share their issues and support each other. Honesty and integrity is therefore not a choice if a team is to be successful. 2. As a team player, I have always demonstrated reliability in everything I do. I channel my efforts towards working hard in order to meet commitments. I diligently execute my mandates in order to produce top results. In addition, I ensure that consistency is part of my ingredients to quality work. This allows me to ensure that no omissions are recorded on my side. a. In any team, communication is very vital if the team has to be successful. In this regard, I ensure that my communication is constructive. Expression of thoughts and ideas is part of the requirements of an effective communication. This involves putting across ideas clearly, directly, and with honesty. On the same note, respect for others is equally important especially when expressing oneself. Conversely, I make sure that listening actively becomes part of my communication strategies. In order to have an effective team, listening should be given the same weight as expression. However, listening needs to be accompanied by understanding and diligently consider the views of others. This calls for employing tactics that help in avoiding arguments and uncalled debates. It is also important to become an active participant. This means that one becomes active in everything ranging from coming prepared to meetings, actively participating in the discussion to doing everything possible to avoid passiveness. In fact, I have always volunteered for many assignments some of which even appear to be risky. I have psychologically activated a “can do” spirit whenever a task is before me. I have also been involved in helping my colleagues with various tasks. It is also necessary to demonstrate problem solving techniques especially when dealing with colleagues. I have always been a problem solver as I try to avoid dwelling on problems, blaming others or even avoiding problems. b. Every person has his/her weaknesses. No one is perfect. In my case, I have a weakness of not being able to immediately forgive people who wrong me. Although I forgive after some deliberations, it is difficult to first come to terms with colleagues that offend me. In a way, I find this as a dangerous trait that I need to work on and improve as quickly as possible. There is a need for change because some situations are worsened by my anger, and by the time I come down, some things get messed up. I remember a certain time when my colleague misplaced some documents that I was to present to the manager in 3 hours time. Instead of thinking on how I could have worked on replacing them, we had exchange of words for over two hours as I blamed him for causing the trouble. Unfortunately, the manager needed the documents earlier than I expected. Although I explained what happened to the manager, he blamed me for not thinking about working on other documents in order to meet the deadline. The organisation lost the contract since we were late in submitting the documents, something that would have been solved if I did not concentrate on arguing with my colleague. The other weakness is that of lack of patience and wanting my ideas implemented without exemption. Sometimes, although ones ideas may appear to be great, there is a need to incorporate other people’s views before implementing them. This is arguably true because there could be a possibility of perfecting the ideas by a way of amending them in order to suit the prevailing circumstances of the team and the organisation at large. Every decision has its own consequences and choice have consequences. In light of this, it is important to critically focus on evaluating both the advantages and disadvantages of decisions taken. This can only be effective if other members of the team are incorporated in the decision making process. 3. For any team to be successful, the team leader must be of the required personality and meets several qualifications. Although many people see the responsibility of a leader to just entail delegating assignments to his followers, there are other important responsibilities accorded to him that require additional qualities in order to lead the team effectively. For instance, a team leader is supposed to be a person of integrity. This means that the leader should be honest and somebody whom other members of the team find easy to gain trust in. It is also important for team leaders to be in a position to communicate clearly and effectively. This entails both quality verbal and written communication skills. This ensures that team members clearly understand what the leader is putting across. In addition, team leaders should possess exceptional organizational skills. This helps them to plan strategies that can allow team members to perform optimally. Team leaders should, therefore, be well organized and put mechanisms that maintains order and always guide team members in the right direction. They should lead by example and lead their followers towards attaining well spelled out objective. Confidence is vital to all leaders. They should portray confidence in their abilities. Team leaders with confidence traits have an added advantage in that they are secure in the decisions they make in relation to their effects on the team members. In fact, self confident team leaders are better placed in that; they have authority within the organization. In addition, team leaders should be respectful of their team members. This helps them to empower colleagues in contributing or participating in the decision making process. Team leadership entails a lot of giving the team players autonomy. People generally don’t like to be micromanaged and it necessary for the leaders to understand this. A good leader plays the role of support rather than being the person commandeering everyone else. Giving the team members autonomy to do whatever needs to be done in order to achieve the common goals is important in increasing motivation. A leader who gives the team players autonomy in their function inspires creativity and innovation in the team and these two components are absolutely necessary for the team to be successful. Micromanaging the team players on the other hand makes the team players despondent, unmotivated and without the drive to excel. A great team leaders should at the same time be able to inspire people to excel and to achieve. Great leaders like the late Steve Jobs must be able to look at the various ways in to motivate the team players to be innovative, creative and to have a passion for excellence. As a person, the area where I really need to develop and improve in order to become a good team leader is my ability to let other people act autonomously. As a person, I always feel the desire to micromanage and scrutinize everything just to make sure that everything is done well. In most cases, I may even feel the need to carry out the task myself. This is something I will require to drop and learn how to trust other people with things. It is crucial for team leaders to treat team members fairly. They should be consistent in rewards and recognition including disciplinary actions. Nevertheless, in order to have proficient team members, team leaders must be influential in that they must inspire the team members to work hard to meet organisation’s goals and objectives. In this regard, they should be good team players with good negotiation skills. They should utilise negotiation skills in resolving conflicts among team members. In order to become a good team leader, it is crucial to focus on what the team wants to achieve and concentrate on deliberating on how to achieve that. Nevertheless, it is critical to have an extensive research on qualities of a great team player. This would help to improve one’s skills and learn new techniques of cultivating leadership qualities. In addition, it would be necessary to assess and evaluate performances of other teams in order to draw conclusions on how the team leaders have been able to take the team to its current position. Read More