1st Law of Performance, Eotional Inteligence, Issues in Managing teams - Assignment Example

Team Management TEAM MANAGEMENT Zaffron and Logan (2009) d that the first law of performance was that individual performance was correlated to the manner situations happened to them. In this case, an individual should ask how their membership of a team project occurs to other members of the team. This could result in some people feeling that others are more respected within the group setting. As a project manager or member, individuals have little control over what occurs during the project but have an influence on what happens.

This law contends that performance of team members is related to their relationships. Individuals’ gut reactions are the drivers of their decision making, which means that how they perceive other members of the group will dictate their performance. At my current workplace, this law was put into practice during the execution of a project plan. The team manager immediately set about managing commitment networks between members of the project team, even before the project began. He was obviously trying to control how the project occurred to members of the team by introducing us to one another and asking us for the parts of the project that excited us most (Zaffron & Logan, 2009).

After discussing the project, most of the members began to respect one another’s expertise as we realized we had been chosen for specific tasks. One important aspect of this first law is the team members’ emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence can be generally defined as an individual’s ability to perceive their emotions and those of their team members, as well as ability to control their own emotions and evaluate them (Hicks & Bone, 2010). While some contend that EI can be strengthened and even learned, there is also a belief that it is inborn.

Emotionally intelligence can also be more specifically defined as a social intelligence subset that involves an individual’s ability to monitor their own, as well as their fellow teammate’s, emotions and feelings. It is also a measure of how they are able to discriminate among these feelings, and to use the results as a guide to their decision-making. There are four principle factors that determine an individual’s EI, including emotional perception, reasoning ability using the perceived emotions, ability to understand these emotions, and ability to manage them.

In the contemporary organization, emotional intelligence is important during meetings (Hicks & Bone, 2010). Emotional intelligence of meeting’s participants enhances the careful planning and skilful execution of the meetings to improve the probability of positive outcomes. For managers entrusted with managing teams, there are various contemporary issues that they have to navigate. One of them is total quality management through teams, which are an essential part of the process. Because TQM has process improvement as its central concept, involvement of team members is important (Hayes, 2012).

Team management will be required to allow members to share ideas and be seen to act on their proposals. TQM techniques and processes begin to catch on in work teams, requiring high levels of contact and communication, response, coordination, and adaptation. Only superior project teams will be able to deliver this environment. Another contemporary issue is diversity in the workforce, which has become a balancing act for team managers. While diversity will provide alternative perspectives on problematic issues, it makes unification of the team and decision making more difficult.

Therefore, creating a unified and fully functional diverse team is a challenge in an increasingly global market. Finally, team managers in the 21st century will also have to deal with the reinvigoration of mature teams. Mature teams are prone to groupthink and reluctance to challenge one another (Hayes, 2012). In addition, they also develop entrenched routines and processes, which make it more difficult to change systems and processes as part of adaptation to changing business processes due to globalization.

ReferencesHayes, N. (2012). Managing teams: A strategy for success. London: Thomson Learning. Hicks, R., & Bone, D. (2010). Self managing teams: A guide for creating and maintaining self-managed work groups. Los Altos, Calif: Crisp Publications. Zaffron, S., & Logan, D. (2009). The three laws of performance: Rewriting the future of your organization and your life. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.