Advantages of Team Work and Its Strong Positive Relationship Between the Members: Education Institutions - Literature review Example

Introduction In order for any firm to be successful, it is paramount for the managers to emulate the culture of team work. One of the key advantages of team work is that it creates a strong positive relationship between the members thus making them to be more productive. In reference to education institutions, team work has been used by teachers to improve the level of participation a situation that lead to improved performance of the learners. Additionally, team work provides ample opportunity where students can identify their weaknesses and strengths thus making them to adopt new strategies on how to deal with them. Likewise, team work is vital ground through which students can practice leadership qualities that they will emulate in their future endeavors as political or company’s leaders. Despite the efforts made by instructors in the learning institutions to create strong team among the learners, some students are hesitant to participate in group work an aspect that jeopardizes their social life as well as their performance in their studiers. Reflection of ones experience is a vital in the sense that it provides one with an opportunity to have knowledge on how to deal with future challenges that are similar to the ones he or she experienced during the team work. Additionally, it is paramount for an individual to undertake an evaluation of the situations that arises during team work so as to determine their impact on the total results of the team. This paper seeks to reflect on the skills and lessons I learnt as a leader of my team. Reflection Description of the experience Being a leader of my team, I underwent a number of experiences that positively impacted on my leadership skills. As the organizer on my team, I took the position of being a leader rather than being a manager. My key roles included providing topics to the group members and dividing the tasks among the members so that each one of them had a responsibility. In this way, I was able to gain an experience of division of labor. It is worth to note that in the contemporary business arena, a good leader should have the ability to delegate duties. One of the major challenge that I faced as a leader was regular absenteeism of some team members an aspect that made me to delegate their roles to the members who were present. Another notable experience I gained was the formation of a team. During the team formation process, I had to undertake the SWOT analysis of each of my team members in order to come up with a group that offers benefits to all of us. This was based on the fact that team leaders, who are focused at attaining their goals, should be aware of the strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats of their team. Another experience that I gained related to time management. As leader, I was responsible for ensuring that members of my team adhered to the time table during the discussions. Essentially, I had to ensure that members were punctual and any case of lateness was dealt with my making the offender to explain before the start of the discussion. Additionally, each of the topics was given adequate time for the discussion to ensure that all the aspects of the topic were covered. After the discussion, each of the team members was given an opportunity to ask a question. The question time provided me with a skill of using feedback strategy in my leadership position. In the management of any organization, employees should be provided with opportunities to give their feedback of the policies that the managers adopt. Communication skills are another experience that I gained. As a leader, I regularly held meetings with my members. In this way, I was able to practice my communication skills an aspect that made me to acquire high level of confidence when communication to a small or large group of people. One of the factors that contributed to my experience was the need to be successful as well as create conducive atmosphere for the development of my team members. Similarly, based on the complexity of the discussion topics that we handled as a team it was necessary to divide the tasks so that each of the team members can significantly contribute to the topic. Evaluation Based on my emphasis on commitment, my team members were quite eager to participate in all the topics that were before us. By being committed, we were able to achieve our objectives within the time frame that was given by our instructors. Additionally, the communication skills of the team members were greatly improved. This was based on the ample opportunity that I provided to each member to make a point and demonstrate during our discussion. Majority of team members were keeping time an aspect that is vital for any team that aims at achieving its goals. As we talked more complex topics, the team members were given an opportunity to undertake on line research an aspect that improved their data collection and analysis skills. Another aspect that worked well was the ability of my team members to relate positively with each other. Most notably, there were no cases of conflict that would have delayed our discussion. Based on my improved communication skills, I was able to unite my members thus making them feel part and parcel of the team. Despite the unity that existed in the team, some members were not very committed and failed to come for crucial meetings. This was due to poor communication especially by the new members that I recruited in the team. Being the leader, I arranged for special meetings where I discussed personal matters with the new members who failed to come for the meetings. In this way, I learnt that family and other personal matters can be a hindrance that may affect the commitment of members. In my efforts to consolidate the members, I personally engaged in assisting the team members to deal with personal matters such as sickness that were causing the increased rate of absenteeism. I felt that by assisting my team members, I will significantly motivate them thus enhancing their productivity in the team as well as improving their social life. Research and Analysis The success of any team largely depends on how well their leaders apply the time management skills. Since each of the team members has a role to play, it is essential to ensure that there is no time wasted to allow for extensive coverage of the tasks at hand. In this way, the team will not only attain a competitive edge but also it will result to the development of the team members. According to Belbin (2010) of the key ways of managing time is by eliminating the unnecessary aspects. These include the things that prevent a team for attaining the preset goals. For example, if a team has a strict deadline, the team members should spend 2 hours per day making calls that are not related to their task. As a team leader, one should train his or her members on how to draw a distinct line between the unnecessary and necessary things during the discussion. Actually, one should be very strict in determining the necessaries to avoid wasting timer on the things that are of no value when undertaking a particular task. On his studies on time management, Secunda (1999) argues that a team should be able to plan its work. A team that starts its activities without a solid plan will in most cases accomplish nothing. As a leader of the team, one should take fifteen to twenty minutes before the team starts its work. The few minutes that are allocated to planning significantly contribute to the productivity of the team members as well as avoidance of delays in achieving the goals. Le Blanc (2008) advocates for multitasking as one of the concepts of time management. Even though it is not all people are able to multitask, multitasking greatly helps in helping the team members to cover more areas within a limited time. However, Secunda, A. (1999) argues that if a member of a team is not able to multitask, he or she should not try it since this would lead to multiple tasks being left halfway or sloppy work. Individual within a team or the team leaders should know when to multitask. This implies that individual should be aware of tasks that require high level of concentration any case of multitasking would lead to poor quality of work. Reduction of interruptions is another concept that team leaders should emulate. As indicated by Le Blanc (2008) individuals should come up with strategies on how deal with the things that interrupt them during their duties. For example, if a member of a team comes up with a question or a suggestion that can be dealt with at a later time, the team leaders should take care of such issues once they are trough with the tasks they are handling. However, team members should notice that in most cases the interruptions of their leaders are valuable and should be prioritized. This is abased on the fact that in most cases leaders can make adjustment in their process in order to bring about improvements. As a team leader, I was able to uphold the concepts of time management an aspect that made our group to achieve the objectives in a timely manner. Learning One of the major lessons that I learned from the team work experiences is how to be a good leader. Most notably, I was able to acquire good communication skills that included involving my team members in the communication process. In this way, all individuals were engaged in the decision making process. Additionally, I learnt on how to deal with the personal problems that affected the commitment of my team members. In future, I plan to create an effective communication system that entails timely correspondence thus making the attainment of goals easy. It is imperative to note that despite the efforts by team leaders to accomplish the goals of their teams, any communication obstacle can jeopardize their responsibilities. I believe that leaders should be personally engaged in helping their members on how to deal with personal and family matters that can affects their commitment towards achieving their objectives. Thus in future, I will still assist my team members to address their personal issues that though they may seem to be unrelated to the objectives of the team, they are paramount in ensuring continuity of my team. Another lesson that I learnt is how to motivate my team mates. Based on the wide range of duties that my team members were exposed to, it was imperative to keep them motivated. My focus was to create conducive atmosphere that allowed my members to grow. I future, I am focused at motivating my team members by increasing their responsibilities, giving them more time to rest, giving them gifts at the end of a major task and visiting their families in cases of sickness or social events such as birthdays. My attitudes towards my team members have not changed. This implies that in future, I will still engage my members in undertaking various tasks including evaluation of other members of the team. In this way, individuals will acquire adequate evaluation skills. Summary Team work improved my leadership skills. Through the regular meetings that we held with my team members, my communication skills were greatly improved. Based on the need to attain the goals of the team I divided the entire task into smaller tasks. Thus I acquired the experience of division of labor. In my efforts to ensure continuity of the team, I acquired the skill of dealing with absenteeism. Additionally, I gained an experience of motivating my team mates by assisting them to address social issues that affects their productivity. Notable lessons that I learnt from my experiences is how to be a good leader, how to motivate individuals during a team work and how to deal with obstacles of team productivity. References Belbin, R. 2010. Team roles at work. Routledge: Taylor & Francis Group. Le Blanc, R. 2008. Achieving Objectives Made Easy! Practical goal setting tools & proven time management techniques. Maarheeze: Cranendonck Coaching. Secunda, A. 1999. The 15 second principle: short, simple steps to achieving long-term goals. New York: New York: Berkley Books. Read More